The only rough spot in SOR2 is that you can't run--something they remedied (while breaking lots of other things) in SOR3.
My fav beat 'em ups:
1. Streets of Rage 2 (Sega)
2. Final Fight CD (Sega/Capcom: I just can't get enough of the music which puts it above the arcade rev for me, even with the dialed-down graphics)
3. Bare Knuckle 3 (Sega: much better than SOR3 but not quite as magical as 2)
4. Battle Circuit (Capcom: didn't even come to the USA but Europe got it and it's on GameTap)
5. Sengoku 3 (SNK/Noise Factory: huge surprise for me and 3-4 other people that played it)
6. Alien vs. Predator (Capcom: is there a character in a beat 'em up more fun to play as than Linn Kurosawa? I don't think so...)
7. River City Ransom (Technos: better than any of the Double Dragon titles)
Honorable mention: God Hand
Guardian Heroes, Turtles, etc. were good--great, even--but I always though of those as second-tier titles in the genre (you could cheese your way through GH, unfortunately, and TMNT was awesome when it was new, but without three people to play with, the fun drops off dramatically).
