No. 60: Guardian Heroes – 100 Greatest Games Ever
All hail the Sega Saturn! Treasure's sidescroller is one of the best beat 'em ups ever made. You're given a cast of characters to choose from, each of which can level up and learn new moves.
The best feature is that you can fight along three planes of battle. (Jumping back and forth between them is a great way to dodge attacks and attack people from behind.) After certain levels during the game you're also given chances to choose a path that offers you different levels with different bosses, and multiple endings.
An Xbox Live Arcade re-release includes new HD graphics and online play, including a massive competitive mode that allows 12 players to fight at once, rather than the original six. The script's been rewritten to contain less "Engrish" and has changes to the dialogue and character names, almost always in the positive.
Our final words -- buy it.