Which beat 'em up do I go with?

Yakuza 0 for sure.

I never had any problems with Yakuza's controls honestly, Dan's frustration was most likely based on not really getting a grasp it and not really tying to understand how it worked.

Get Sleeping Dogs instead if you haven't played it.

Tempted to vote 'other' and nominate Senran Kagura, but Yakuza 0 is a safe bet.

I bought Yakuza 0, also saw that I had Sleeping Dogs thanks to Humble Bundle and never played it so I installed both.

Yakuza 0 is great but I dont know if it's worth getting for the fighting mechanics alone which are fine, but not great.

Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise is out in a few weeks and that is probably the closest you can get to God Hand and it's made by the same team as Yakuza. (theres a demo out atm, but again, the combat isnt as good as God Hand)

EDIT: Didnt realise the new FOTNS was a PS4 exclusive, my bad.

Been loving that Yakuza 0. It’s meldodramatic, whacky, and brutal all at once.

Are you interested strictly for the beat em up mechanics? Then God Hand is definitely the deeper and more versatile game just for fighting. It's also much harder and has a steeper learning curve by country mile, but if that's what you want, then it's the way to go.

Yakuza is a much better overall package, but the combat is only a small part of it. And it gets repetitive after a while since you have pretty limited options. But it's easier to get into and very flashy from second one, so you avoid the stumbling around and being a failure in God Hand for the first few hours. :P

Though the real answer here is to go play Bayonetta or DMC 3/4. :DD

(If you emulate God Hand you can play it in widescreen).
God Hand is the deeper beat em up, Yakuza is a fantastic story based experience.
If you want a 2D beat em up, play Fight'N Rage, don't hesitate.

@tobbrobb: Better yet Bayonetta or DmC ;^)

+1 for Sleepy Dawgs, if you are in the mood for genre of 'beating', this one delivers in spades.

If you are interested in beat em ups, I would recommend games like Bayonetta or Devil May Cry (or DMC). Yakuza is a great game, but its fighting mechanics are, at best, functional.

@humanity: You could do a lot worse than that! I thought about replaying it but was then immediately reminded that PC never got the definitive version. :(