#2 – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
91 Points, 5 Lists, Top Vote: #1 Cole Stratton Production Date: 1989
Manufacturer: Konami
Make that three Konami beat em ups in the top 5.
You could certainly make the case that Turtles in Time is the better game, but there's no denying that TMNT was a landmark in gaming history. Double Dragon had come out just two years prior, and there were lots of mediocre brawlers released around that time, trying to ride on DD's coattails. From that time period, and the years that followed, two companies came to dominate the "brawler" market: Capcom & Konami.
Capcom favored a style similar to Double Dragon, where specific button presses and/or joystick motions had predictable and reliable results. This school of thought led to games like Final Fight, Shadow over Mystara and Alien vs Predator. Konami OTOH favored faster game play, flashier style, and a lot of wailing on the buttons. And before you get the idea that I mean that in a derogatory sense, keep in mind that we're talking about arcade games, games that derive much, if not most, of their appeal from presentation. I remember the first time I saw TMNT. It was awesome. The characters didn't move as if drudging through a quagmire, and just hitting the attack button repeatedly resulted in a whole slew of cool attacks. This school of thought led to games like The Simpsons, Turtles in Time and X-Men.
While I personally favor the Capcom style (and Shadow over Mystara in particular, which no one else voted for

), there's no denying that the Konami games were a hell of a lot of fun to play.
Fun speculation: Someone at Konami really liked Donatello. He was easily the best character in Konami's first TMNT game on the NES, and unless someone knows something I don't, he's the best character in this game as well.
Did you know TMNT was renamed Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles in Europe? Apparently the term "Ninja" was deemed too violent for a children's program in the UK. Oh, you did know that.. Well, did you know Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters* is a thing that actually exists. I thought not.
https://www.youtube.com/v/pjZ0OHIcJpcUp next, the game that single-handedly revived the arcade scene, yet also heralded its demise.
*Seriously, that is an actual comic book.