Mr. sickVisionz on 16 May 2010
I always thought hack and slash was stuff like Gauntlet or Diablo where you can level up abilities and you have like magic attacks and there's light RPG elements. You might have to solve puzzles or collect items to get to new levels.
Beat-em-ups to me are games where you beat up groups of AI opponents at a time and that's pretty much the only gameplay mechanic. There's no real exploration and all progression is tied to just killing everyone on the current screen/arena and moving on to the next one.
