The first game that sprang to mind is Final Fight. I haven't seen it yet, but Streets of Fire is said to have likely been a significant inspiration for Final Fight. Apparently the protagonist's last name is Cody, he's fighting street thugs to get a kidnapped girl back, and he's good with knives. That's about all I know so far.
Also, some of the Final Fight characters bear a passing resemblance to some figures from some Tom of Finland paintings, an artist known for his masculine homoerotic work. Most likely a coincidence, but I stumbled across this YouTube video years ago that pointed it out. Kind of a lighthearted take on the series, and I found the video kind of funny:
Also, it seems like a lot of things in the Souls games were inspired by Berserk. I think this is pretty common knowledge for Souls fans, but I always found it to be a really cool aspect of the games.