Know any games like Robotron but melee based?

Does anyone know of any games that are 'melee' based instead of 'ranged' style combat that are somewhat similar to Robotron / SmashTV.

I'm looking for something that takes place in a single 'arena' (fits on one screen) with lots of enemies and which involves melee combat rather than shooting.

Alternatively if anyone can think of how a game like one of the aforementioned would play if it were melee combat based instead then that would be good too. The main difficulty I see is that 'shooting' enemies is much faster than 'hitting' enemies and so the sense of 'Total Carnage' is missing.

Reason for asking - I'm thinking of, as a side project to what I am currently doing, putting together a very simple (read: as simple as Space Invaders/Asteroids) game but am a little stuck as to how the gameplay should be. I've got a bunch of nice 3d models that I'd like to use (to be rendered as sprites), and an engine which works fine for something like this, but am a little stuck on the actual gameplay. The simpler the game the better - easier to put together in a short space of time, ie like a couple of weekends..

My game Do Yooh Lo has this feature.

Do you want to tell me a bit more about it Jeremy?

It was a simple codesketch for a full game I planned to do going back 2 - 3 years. Basically though it's like Geometry Wars/Robotron/Mutant Storm only you're a samurai who can use you sword up close or shurikens from a distance all depending on how far you place the reticule from the character. I recently began development on a full game with RPG elements based on the original play mechanic.

Jeremy: We may just be working on the same game.

Damn day job. You'll probably beat me to the finish :)