Art of the Beat 'em Up Part 1: Undercover Cops (Arcade, 1992)

So this is the first in an on-going series I've been meaning to start for a while.

I was going through some rom sets and clearing out multiple dumps, and I found this game for SNES. It was pretty amazing, so I wanted to look up more about it, found the arcade version which is even better. Also there's probably going to be A LOT of SNES beat 'em ups in the series, so might as well go arcade when possible.

Here's the description from Wikipedia:

"Players control "city sweepers", a police agent-like group who fight crime by destroying thugs in New York City of the year 2043."

That's it. I mean it's a beat 'em up, but that's all it is. It goes on to describe the game's style and such, but that's the ENTIRE plot. The characters have pretty standard back stories:

"Zan Takahara  - a scruffy Japanese former karate master, banned from formal tournaments after killing a man in self-defense. 
Matt Gables - an American ex-gridiron player turned city sweeper after a false accusation of murder.
Rosa Felmonde - a tough British blonde female vigilante whose lover was murdered by thugs."

Also: just fucking LOOK at this

Dude is wielding an almost-screen-length concrete pillar, which gets shorter as you smash people in the face with it. The music is pretty amazing too, which is why I wanted the Japanese version (the US one has lamer music, from what I read).

I mean, it's a beat 'em up. It's pretty great, but also there's only so much you can do with a beat 'em up. But this is highly recommended. Grab that shit, son!