Good Beat em up/Hack and Slash games for a newcomer to the genre.

[scorptatious]

Definitely the God of War series and Bayonetta.

If you're also interested in multiplayer hack and slash games, I also recommend Castle Crashers.

 

[Casual Shinji]

The first God of War is a very simple hack and slash, and the story goes to shit afterwards. Plus, they nerfed juggling in the sequels and that was half the fun of the first game.

Yeah, but the juggling made like 70% of the enemies easy to dispatch. And the other 30% you could juggle with the Blade of Artemis.

It's probably a good thing they got rid of it for the sake of variety.

 

[hazabaza1]

Get the new DmC on PC I'd say. It's dumb as all hell and has terrible writing but the combat's pretty decent if not as polished as the old games, and every difficulty mode excluding the later ones you can unlock are basically 'baby mode' so it's not too harsh.

 

[Glongpre]

A friend recently lent me the Deadpool game, I'm enjoying the melee combat, but the reviews I read say the combat is simplistic. So anyway I was wondering which games have more sophisticated combat, that a newcomer to the genre can enjoy.

Ninja Gaiden Black for the original xbox. Might be difficult to find but it is amazing. Don't play Ninja Gaiden 2. Yuck.
God of War for the ps2 is fun.
Also, Shinobi for the ps2 is pretty fun, although quite challenging.

For the PC, get Streets of Rage Remake, it is freaking unbelievable. Just be aware that you can't download it from bombergames because Sega? did not allow them to host the download. But it is around...

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

The first God of War is a very simple hack and slash, and the story goes to shit afterwards. Plus, they nerfed juggling in the sequels and that was half the fun of the first game.

Yeah, but the juggling made like 70% of the enemies easy to dispatch. And the other 30% you could juggle with the Blade of Artemis.

It's probably a good thing they got rid of it for the sake of variety.

There's no challenge in dispatching any of the enemies in the sequels either nor is there variety (you can just use square all game if you want), this is GOW we're talking about. At least GOW1 made killing enemies fun. Heavenly Sword in comparison at least forced you to use different combos on different enemies.

 

[hermes]

DMC (the new one), Bayonetta or God of War are your best choices right now.

If you are new to the genre, stay away from the older Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden or God Hand games. Even on easier difficulty settings, they are going to chew you up, beat you up and force you to like it (which you probably won't). Only get to them after you are more familiar with the genre...

Besides that, there are other games that are nice if you find them in the bargain bin: Dante's Inferno, Castlevania: Lord of Shadows, Star Wars Unleashed, Heavenly Sword, Anarchy Reigns, Enslaved, etc. They are decent games, but not at the same level as the ones mentioned before.

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

Muramasa: The Demon Blade is a great Hack-and-Slash title made by Vanillaware (who also made Odin Sphere and will release Dragon's Crown), available for the Wii and the PS Vita.

It is a great title, full of combat, an interesting sword switch/damage mechanic, various swords with special abilities, as well as some item crafting and RPG elements tossed in the mix. The game is also beautiful to look at and the boss fights are some of the most challenging you'd come across in a Hack-and-Slash.

The only word of caution that I would have is that everything in the game is English Subtitled, meaning every one in the game speaks Japanese and you'll need to read the text to get a grasp of what they're saying.

Other than that, it's a great and fun game takes elements from Vanillaware's previous title and makes it more action oriented.

 

[Pink Gregory]

Though it might be a little out of the way for you, the vidyagaem adaptation of The Warriors - made by Rockstar - for the previous console generation (though I've never seen a PS2 copy of it...huh) was a nice and visceral beat 'em up; for single player and local co-op.

More of a murky, thickset street brawl than an explosive romp a la DMC, not exactly complex or tricky in the way the latter tends to be; probably most reminiscent of Streets of Rage/Double Dragon; but still a delight.

 

[Remus]

X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The combat is just visceral and satisfying from the very start and never gets boring.

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

I'd start with God Of War or Dante's Inferno
The combat in those are really easy to learn.
Once your done with that, only then move on to DMC or Bayonetta, because the combat in those can be a little tricky if your not playing on automatic mode. Which I do; sue me, fanboys.
If you're going to play on automatic, then just mash to your heart's content, those games become very easy to play.

 

[EnglishBlues]

Do you have a Playstation 2? Get The Bouncer. It's a pseudo-rpg brawler by Squaresoft. Controls are incredibly simplistic. Since the PS2 controller is pressure sensitive, just press any of these 4 lightly for a quick attack, and harder for a strong attack.

Triangle - high attacks
Square - mid attacks
X - low attacks
Circle - jump attacks

R1 is used to block.
R2 is taunt.
L1 activates moves that you learn by unlocking with Bouncer points from each level.

The challenge is that you don't find health in the game. What you start each stage with is all you get until you reach the next section. Cinematics also play out differently depending which character you choose. There's also a new game plus mode.

 

[Cilisien]

I really enjoyed playing Dantes Inferno although it doesn't actually seem very popular in the gaming community

 

[ThePenguinKnight]

If you don't mind older games I'd suggest picking up Sonics Ultimate Genesis Collection for Streets Of Rage 1-3, Golden Axe 1-3, and Alien Storm.