Knights of the Round ARCADE

Knights of the Round is Capcom’s 1991 beat-’em-up, loosely adapting the King Arthur legend across three playable knights — Arthur, Lancelot, and Perceval — each with an experience-based leveling system that grows their attack range and combo options as the game progresses, an unusual addition to the genre’s usually static movesets.

Built on Capcom’s CPS-1 hardware alongside Final Fight, its sword-and-shield combat and medieval setting distinguish it from the urban-crime-city backdrop common to most brawlers of the period, and its RPG-adjacent leveling mechanic gave repeat playthroughs a persistent-growth hook that most beat-’em-ups of the era didn’t attempt.