A city is overrun with criminals and gangs, so you know what that means!  It’s time for four heroes to get out there and beat up all the bad guys on the city streets.  Fallen City Brawl is a side scrolling beat ‘em up that takes heavy inspiration from titles like Final Fight.  It’s available on all current consoles and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.

You can choose from four characters, my favorite is the buff mechanic lady who carries around a big wrench to fight with.  Two can play at the same time, too.  You’ll travel through seven stages with a boss at the end of each.  One button attacks and one jumps.  You can also do special attacks with another button, like throwing the wrench like a boomerang.  Use button combos for different attacks, too.  Defeated enemies will either drop money for points or gems that act like the magic system from Golden Axe.  When you have enough, press the R1 button to do super attacks and sometimes even summon a white wolf to help you fight.

Graphics are about on par with the NEO GEO, but I wish it wasn’t so zoomed in as it’s pretty blocky and pixelly.  Normally that doesn’t bother me so you know it must be bad here. But my main problem with the game is that it’s too darn hard.  On normal mode I couldn’t get past the second stage.  I got to stage 6 on Easy, but I hate that you have limited continues.  I think games like this shouldn’t have that.  Otherwise the game sets out what it says to do, but I think the games that it’s trying imitate are better.

Kid Factor:

Fallen City Brawl is rated T for Teen with an ESRB descriptor of Violence.  You punch and kick thugs who fall over and disappear with a muffled ‘argh’ when defeated.  I grew up playing games like this and I turned out OK, so I’d be all right with kids younger than teens playing this.  Reading skill is helpful for the text but not necessary to play, but younger gamers may still find it too difficult.

Tags: Game Reviews