We Could Be Heroes

tl;dr - it's rough, but has a lot of heart, and I recommend you try the demo at the very least. long version below. It's janky, it's glitchy, it's not even finished - but for a first game from a solo developer, this is a massively impressive first showing. I also played about four hours of the demo, so i'm fairly familiar with the playable characters and the first three stages, so I was pleasantly surprised to see the rest of the chapter was a much longer, more varied showing. I must confess I was only able to get past level 4 after the patch that let you continue from the start of the stage if you die (yes, that was patched in. thank you, Jon) I won't spoil anything here, but the last level definitely had me wondering how the hell anyone was supposed to beat it by playing through every prior stage back-to-back on every failed attempt - maybe it's just a skill issue, but even as a half-decent Streets of Rage player I was struggling with the tide of brawlers. So, positives - it's a neat mechanical twist on the aforementioned Streets of Rage formula of 2.5d side-scrolling beat 'em up, since the game is actually in 3d but with that classic SoR-style perspective and movement. this means depending on the directional input you make during a combo, you can send your enemies flying into the background or the foreground of the stage - right through windows, doors, into obstacles and other enemies. Conceptually, it's a pretty simple extra layer, but it adds so much more depth to the combat when you're actually taking not of your environment and the hazards you can make out of it instead of juggling six guys in sweatpants with repeated Grand-Uppers against the side of the screen. Naturally, the fact you can pick up anything that's not nailed down and swing it around as a weapon is another delicious layer of the Bare Knuckle Sandwich, especially once you [spoiler] rip an engine block right out of a car[/spoiler] and proceed to One-Hit K.O. everyone else for the rest of the level with it. The four playable characters don't seem to have much variety in their movesets at first, but once you start learning the mechanics and techniques of the game you begin to see what each of their strengths and weaknesses are. On a visual level, their designs are simple enough to be believable yet unique enough to be easy enough to pick out and keep track of in the crowd of furious pugilists swinging shelves and furniture around. A lot of my criticisms with the game can either be dismissed as nitpicks (the artstyle isn't for everyone, the story is practically nonexistent, the music gets a little repetitive after a while) due to personal taste, or excused because - as previously mentioned - this is a solo gamedev clearly working on a passion project, and I'd much rather talk about the triumphs than the pitfalls. Having said that, there are a few rather glaring issues - the "no continues" thing that got patched aside, It would be nice to get a level select in order to replay favourite levels without having to go through all the other stages preceding it (my favourite so far has got be stage 5. iykyk.) and the score system doesn't really seem to do anything at present. it might be more work, but perhaps the scores (or even achievements from meeting certain criteria in-game) could be used to unlock character outfits or palette swaps to encourage further replayability? I'm almost definitely going to be playing more of this anyway, but the extra zest of unlockables couldn't hurt - especially in a game like this. As it stands, this is a bit of a diamond in the rough, but it's a hidden gem all the same. If you're unsure, there's always a demo you can try out for free, but I'm personally invested and excited to see Chapter 2 in December - as well as whatever lies beyond for CebCode.

I really don't wanna be harsh over this funny beat'em up game, but this is terrible and unfinished, even it supposed to be finished, what i mean is the control is so buggy like there no point me just sprinting my way to the finish as i spamming Dodge button like is much faster, or using the moveset correctly i've keep on playing to see if anything make the game less boring, turns out is getting more unfair and slow to beat each stage, problem is that there so much group of enemies to beat with some large health bar and just so tiresome getting knocked down while AI enemies just circling around to get behind while while doing combos on 1 or more, regardless of learning to strategist against the enemies and combos, felt like is no point to beating on each stage or game without dying, even if your playing on easy mode and made it to Stage 4, is not just getting harder, is just unfair and even more annoying when enemies getting smarter and annoying it was fun at first but then is gets worst than before, devs better get this fix right now by, not rushed making every level to finished the game so i can give it can change my mind and positive comment or else the price is not worth playing for this mediocore game >:(

Absolutely awesome. It's a bit hard but simply fun and being able to use everything to fight is so much fun. *Edit* I still love this game please keep adding content!!!!

This is an amazing game. It scratches that itch from 90's Arcade as well as it brings new interesting ideas giving the game it's own spin on beat 'em up genre. The gameplay is something hard to describe until you play it yourself. The mix of heavy controls, destruction and weapons makes it a very unique, easy to pick , but hard to master experience. There is a right mix of serious action and intended and unintended humor(due to over the top ragdoll physics). If you liked games like Final Fight, Vendetta you'll be enjoying this...a lot.

follemente geniale!

Pas si mal, un peu cher, faut aimer le style ..

I usually don't write game reviews, but this one deserves it. The controls takes some getting used to and character doesn't turn fast enough. BUT, this is a minor issue, doesn't spoil the fun. The mechanics are so fun where almost everything could break and/or be a weapon. One less commented aspect for me is the improvised voice acting: It is phenomenal - being that janky it just adds to the game's chaotic energy. I'm still trying to figure out what "Oh, gee wizz" means. I really wished this game had an online mode, would be awesome. play it.

Great idea just executed poorly, gets stale quick. Feels unfinished and lacking in mechanical variety and enemy fight styles. Needs special AOE attacks like golden axe and more health pickups.

This game is made me laugh quite a bit. It'll have you throwing enemies through a fence, then continuing to beat them with the fence post you broke, to which you continue to beat them with the same fence post until there is no more wood left for you to break. You'll be sending someone through a wall and then before they can get up, you're hitting them with the drywall you put them through! The environment destruction and interactivity never got old. Every stage had me searching for anything and everything I could destroy or use as a weapon. You'll need to do that because this game does not pull any punches. Enemies don't hesitate to swarm you and beat you down if you don't have some kind of edge in combat. It definitely doesn't take itself seriously and while it's not much of a looker, I'd say it's worth a playthrough.

Je ne sais même pas par où commencer...Ce jeu est tout simplement mauvais : moche, injouable, gestion du masque de collision inexistant, et musiques pénibles. A cela on ajoute une répartition douteuse des boutons, une gestion de la physique aléatoire et pas réaliste du tout, impossible de quitter le jeu sans faire ctrl+f4. Enfin, les sauts avec attaques sont inutiles et dangereux car ça se retourne souvent contre soi. Il y a aussi des bruitages de menus qui ont été volés à Streets Of Rage et les vieux jeux Capcom. (article remboursé !)