Side scrolling melee combat sucks! What is a good example?

[Tober]

The first time I actually felt I was in a real swordfight was Zelda2 Adventure of Link. I loved it, but ok that's a long time ago.

I still love 2D action games. Because there is no camera to worry about, I would argue action can be more frentic and precise at the same time.

Smups, Beat-em-ups, Metroid vania's, Run and Gun's, there is a long list of fantastic action games including recent ones like Cuphead or Metroid Dread.