Guardian Heroes  is a mix between RPG and beat'em up developed by Treasure and published by Sega. It was released in North America, Europe, Japan and Australia. The game was later re-released for Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

The game takes place in a typical fantasy world. Four warriors - Han, Randy, Nicole and Ginjirou - find a mysterious old sword. Before they have a chance to examine it, an unknown warrior appears, urging them not to use it, followed by royal troops attacking both the group and the stranger. During a fight in the graveyard, the sword suddenly flashes with magic, and an undead warrior rises from the grave, takes the sword and fights along with them, and not before long, the group get drawn into a conflict much bigger.

The game is a beat'em up with RPG elements. You choose one of the four characters to play. Each has a different class and hence difference strengths and weaknesses. Characters have attributes like in an RPG, and hitting fighting enemies will give you experience points which will give you points to increase your stats. You have a block, a magic attack, a weak attack, a jump and a heavy attack, and you can perform combos like in a one-and-one fighting game. Similar to Fatal fury, the game has several planes to switch between, in case of Guardian Heroes, three, and you can only move left and right on a plane.
During the game, the undead warrior or another character will accompany you, and you can give them commands.
The game has a branching storyline. After certain stages, you can choose what to do next, choosing the next stage, and your choices have influence on the ending.