It may seem uncharitable to begin a review this way, but Mayhem Brawler is a terrible title for a game. It may as well be 'Fast Driver' or 'High Jumper'. It honestly makes it sound like the laziest, perpetually 89p-in-an-eShop-sale shovelware rubbish. It also does the game a vast disservice, because Mayhem Brawler is a shockingly accomplished beat-‘em-up with much more to offer than its keep-on-scrolling moniker suggests.
This little belt-scroller is inspired by Streets of Rage 4 in the same way The Great Giana Sisters was “inspired by” Super Mario Bros. — that is to say the game bites its style big-time, but if you’re going to steal, you might as well steal from the best. So here’s Mayhem Brawler, with its vivid comic book-style graphics, hard-hitting moves and urban environment where the only activity that exists is PASTING.
Thankfully, then, the pasting is pretty darn good. Impacts are nice and crunchy, weapons and special moves are all present and correct, and the enemy designs show care and forethought. Besides being chunky and memorable, there’s a rather novel system at work where your opponent’s status is represented by an icon over their head – this way, you’ll always know if a knocked-down enemy will be executing a wake-up attack. Arguably this makes proceedings a little easier than they could be, but enemies have enough health, aggression and variety to remain a threat at all times. They’re pretty neat in general, a mixture of the usual sort of gangland heavies but with a frisson of supernatural monstrosity – lycanthropes (read: werewolves) and sorcerers are a common sight in this world.
And it’s a surprisingly interesting world to boot. Cutscenes are presented as a voiced comic book, with a running Twitter-esque feed to the right of the screen fleshing out the characters in an unobtrusive and clever manner. It’s very obvious that a lot of love and attention has gone into Mayhem Brawler’s writing and world, with the main characters’ chemistry coming across well and their banter playing out during each stage in an entertaining and breezy manner.
Speaking of main characters, all three are sufficiently enjoyable to play as, here. Trouble (grizzled all-rounder), Star (speedy superstar) and Dolphin (big ol' bruiser) are each equipped with distinct move-sets. It's more full-featured than you'd expect given the (presumably!) lower budget than the likes of Streets of Rage 4, with plentiful strategies and tech moves like the classic "landing on your feet" trick. Special Moves don't cost health, here, instead being replenished by successfully attacking and damaging your foes, which means you'll be less reticent to actually use them. You'll need to, as well, because this game really isn't easy — it's not impossible, of course, but it is more challenging than you might expect. Helpfully (and unlike in SOR4), every character is able to run with a double-tap, but you may find some of the enemies a little too "tanky" with their large health bars.
Branching paths through the game lead to one of three different endings, and being able to choose which level you play next keeps things varied for multiple playthroughs. With only seven stages per game it won't last you forever, but that's a good thing with games like this where the fighting necessarily becomes more repetitive with time.
Mayhem Brawler is way, way better than it has any right to be. It looks good, plays nicely and only really suffers by comparison to its bigger brothers such as Fight'N Rage and Double Dragon Neon. The animation is lacking compared to these titles, but it's still perfectly acceptable, and the slightly generic environments are too busy to really pay much attention to. With a world this interesting, we'd love to see another game take place in Mayhem Brawler's universe.
Maybe give it a better name next time, though, eh?
Comments 16
I'm not too sure about the art style and the overall character design....
❗This has been on my WishList📝 for sometime now.
Yeah, I've been digging this game. They nailed that cheesy 90s comic book aesthetic. It plays well, and has a fun variety of enemies, werewolves, Nosferatus and the like. I don't think it reaches quite the same heights as SoR4, but I would definitely recommend it to anyone who considers themselves a fan of the genre.
The game is conceptually strong, but I agree that the character designs are a bit bland. Still, it sounds like fun, and I like the idea of branching paths and multiple endings--Peace Keepers did the same thing back on SNES and it made the game a lot more fun and replayable than expected. Guardian Heroes was another one that had the feature.
I want to love this game so much, but it looks soooo bad. I'm sure it plays great. Maybe a 90% sale...
Looks like they choose to spend time making a decent game I stead of a fancy title, I approve.
I love beat em ups, I'm wanting to get Scott pilgrim and now this one
Glad you brought Fight'N Rage up! That game is amazing. Anyway, I've been keeping an eye on this title for a while as it does look good.
@Whitestrider Totally agree. Looks like a great game mechanically but the design choices for the characters (and enemies) really turn me away. Oh well.
I'm on a brawler binge lately. This game has a bunch of nice moves,great graphics. It's not quite streets of rage 4 but what is. I highly recommend trying this game if you enjoy beat um ups. I give it 7.5 out of 10
I'm old enough to have seen n64 and gamecube graphics when they were new; the way this one looks is chef's kissable compared to the eldritch polygon horror of the late nineties/early 2000s. That, and at least this 2d looking art has black line borders, unlike a lot of western animation from the 2000s onwards.
At the same time though, since they were going for the American comic book aesthetic, they could at least have had art that was better drawn and better colored, like the old reputation American comics had when it comes to art. This looks more like a better drawn version of an early-90s cartoon rather than something that Marc Silvestri, Mark TEX Texeira or Jim Lee would draw, and then some 2000s era coloring studio would give rich colors and gradient shading to. As it is, it feels like a cel-shaded game trying to ape the nineties comic aesthetic, getting halfway there and then failing, because the characters aren't drawn with enough realism and detail, and the colors and shading are rudimentary, Jet Set Radio levels of cheap-looking rendering.
Then again, it's eons ahead of the post-comicsgate garbage that modern-day marvel tries to pawn off on its (now nonexistant) customers.
As for the game outside of its graphics, I grew up with the Double Dragon series, Ninja Gaiden (both NES and arcade versions) and the TMNT arcade game, and Final Fight is one of my best memories playing on an emulator, and I'm always down for another beat em up. I'd definitely prefer one over yet another roguelike metroidvania or moba game. Speaking of Double Dragon, the Swiitch needs a remastered DD trilogy done in comic book-styled graphics like this game. You know except better, because this game's graphics are basic entry-level as hell.
I really dislike the character art/design, but the game animates well and it looks fun to play. Wishlisted.
I like the comic book episodes, I dislike the characters and art style. Fight n Rage is the best modern beat-em-up I've played.
"Mayhem Brawler is way, way better than it has any right to be." I can't stand this phrase - for the dev. it's patronising in the extreme.
The youtube footage in gameplay doesn't make the animation models look as bad as the stills perhaps do. I'll wishlist this for a discount purchase. The revw has me a little convinced. Thanks for the revw.
It's a great game. Now they have an additional fourth player co-op and a new character too.
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