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Any game where an average encounter will pit you against dozens or hundreds, maybe even thousands of enemies and expect you to win. Most of the time, it's really not that bad and makes you feel spectacularly badass.

Keep it to games where this is normal most of the time, where fights against fewer enemies is unusual. Try to avoid games that only have one or two zerg rushes or "war sequences" as TV Tropes calls them.

Koei Warriors franchises

Probably the quintessential "one versus one thousand" games. You take a historical figure (or an anime or Zelda character), you kill implausible numbers of rank and file soldiers, often with equally implausible choices of weapons such as giant paint brushes, kendamas, or nunchaku, and feel like an immense badass doing it. These games are power fantasies incarnate, and few things feel quite as satisfying as unleashing a rage attack in a crowded area and killing hundreds of unfortunate bastards whose greatest flaw was wearing the wrong color uniform.

Dead Rising series

If you prefer your hordes to be more the shambling, undead type, this is your deal. Whether you're trying to score the big scoop as Frank motherfuckin' West, get your daughter to safety as Chuck Greene or…doing whatever you do in the third game I haven't played, you can expect hundreds of rotting stereotypical 'murcans to be in your way. Being able to beat/carve up brain munchers with anything you can get your hands on is half the fun, and it's precisely because of Off The Record's time limitless sandbox mode that I consider it the strongest game in the series thus far.

Serious Sam

Hearkening back to a time when cover was just in the way, Serious Sam throws you into hordes of aliens and monsters that will start attacking your place en masse. From alien skeleton horse-things to rocket launching biomechs, chaingun-wielding scorpion people to the iconic screaming kamikazes, you'll be thrown mindless mook after mindless mook to mow down with bullet, rocket, laser, or cannonball. Hope you've practiced circle-strafing and dropped some cash on a good sound system!

EDIT: I can't, in good faith, post about the glory of Serious Sam and not include the wonderful dulcet tones of the Headless Kamikaze. I have rectified that.

One major stain on a great spin-off franchise.

Left 4 Dead 2

Muh graphics this, muh graphics dat. Check dat cutscene dud, so cool. Zombie games nowadays can't compare to the bloodbath that is Left 4 Dead. The weapons, the infected, the whole world falling apart as you go through waves and waves of frigging zombies, the music and, personally, the AI which made you shit in your parts.
What I love about this game is that every match is unique on its own way thanks to the Director, the AI that controls the game and spawns the NPCs. if he feels merciful, he may spawn healthkits but boy, he can go nuts and put a tank shortly followed by a witch becouse FUCK YOU THATS WHY.

Okay, real talk? I loved the gore system in L4D2. Every shot and swing just felt satisfying and meaty when it landed. I wish Dead Rising has gore like that, but I understand that with as many zamboes as it throws at it at once, it'd probably chug a decent computer/console pretty fast.

Both Halo 3: ODST and Halo Reach have a mode in them called Firefight. In them, you fight waves of various Covenant forces. In Reach's case (since it's the game I'm more familiar with that has this game mode), you'll have access to the stronger, more explosive toys from preset loadouts that you can switch between at any time and weapons will show up in between rounds. You can also toggle the difficulty by setting one of the four difficulty settings the game offers or by toggling certain skulls to give more of a challenge, such as dropped weapons have half the ammo they would normally have; no radar; enemies having double health or always being the high-ranking versions; and the more skulls you toggle, the more of a score multiplier you get.

Agreed

All i remember right now would be Dynasty Warriors.

also very nice list of Beat em ups

The Earth Defense force series is pretty great in this regard. I played the "Crimson" level at least a dozen times and the giant robot normandy level even more. I really hate the damned spiders, however.

One of my favorite weapons is the splash grenade alpha which fires 20 very powerful grenades at once that bounce around in an often unpredictable manner. The grenades have often led to my friends getting pissed off about friendly fire being a thing.

Devil may cry 4 legendary dark knight mode

currently the mode is only on PC but its coming to PS4 and xbox one with Devil may cry 4 special edition

Probably one of my favorite fight a bunch of dudes fights plus its great in that it gives you atleast 1-2 level ups when you do it

It's really a damn shame this is pretty much a Japan-exclusive series. It looks incredible, and I think it could at least be a niche hit. Just don't spring for a dub to save time and money, get a few Youtube celebrities to give it the "Colbert bump" and I figure it'd do pretty well just based on its sheer holy shit quotient.

That said, I've never played a game in the series. But I really want to.

Killing Floor

Kill zeds, get money dosh, buy more guns, repeat. Jolly good fun.

Shadow Warrior (and the 2013 remake).

Classic hack'n'slash and shoot'em up against hordes of demons.