more agile beat em ups

Random topic but I'm a fan of beat em ups like final fight and streets of rage but the movement can be too sluggish and stiff, they just walk nonchalantly..

are there any where you can run, jump higher, be more acrobatic etc

@pikachewbacca: Some of the old Capcom side scrollers allowed you to select your character and often had at least one (usually female) character who had less attack power in exchange for magic/ranged attacks, increased mobility, and a "bounce" arial attack. Lynn Kurosawa from the Capcom arcade version of Aliens Vs. Predator had several arial moves that the other characters did not. The elf character from the old Dungeons and Dragons arcade games (Legends of Mysteria and Tower of Doom) had something similar, plus all the characters in that game could run with a joystick doubletap. The D&D games have since been reworked and released on Steam as a single game.

One might argue that the original arcade Ninja Gaiden had "agile" characters, but that's only because you could do flip, a flip grapple attack, and a wall flip. However, everyone in that game moved very slowly overall.

-Byshop

Try Viewtiful Joe

Muramasa the Demon Blade was pretty quick, and really good, think it came out on the Wii originally, I've only played the Vita version though

Guacamelee ?

Shank ?

Castle Crushers ?

You might want to check out God Hand. It was a terrific beat 'em up that came out on the PS2 and can be downloaded on the PS3. For something more recent you can try Dragon's Crown for the PS3.

Wow, Muramasa and Dragons Crown look beautiful!

@pikachewbacca: Dragon's Crown has a very distinct (and contraversial) art style. It's a neat game, but I don't remember the characters being particularly agile or fast. Viewtiful Joe had a time warping mechanic that kicked in with a successful dodge, but it's more like a single plane platformer where you beat up opponents rather than something like Double Dragon.

-Byshop

Thanks to your suggestions I have discovered a few more, especially newer ones with beautiful artwork. Most of them were made by Vanillaware. (When I say beat em up I'm also including hack n slash)

Dust: An Elysian Tail

Trine 2

Odin Sphere

Ragnarok Battle Offline

Dust and Odin Sphere are both particularly good.

-Byshop