Wishmere

Wishmere is a hybrid beat-em-up/fighter that tends more toward the fighter half. On the scale of the simple yet effective Fight N Rage to the technical Streets of Fury EX, it stands a few steps beyond Streets of Fury, probably even more technically minded than Guardian Heroes. To construct your combos you need to figure out which of your moves link together through study of the exhaustive move-list of various normal command moves with various chaining properties. The movesets of singular command moves end up feeling like DMC or Smash Bros on some level. Combos do not usually run long, usually three hits, reset, three hits, ult, but those three hits are all different moves. It was only late in development they added just an XXXX combo. That tells you how much they want you exploring the movesets rather than mashing X. I have seen a lot of KoF comparison but I have never played KoF so I cannot speak to them. And these movesets deserve exploration. A half dozen characters each with wildly different fighting styles: A dash happy flame attack brawler. A mage with counters and options that can attack independent of his current state. A dark lord whose main gimmick is area control... This is a great roster, and every one is designed and balanced differently and smartly. I cannot speak to high level play but all the gimmicks are so different and interesting that I am interested in most of the cast. There is a versus mode that is, unfortunately, local play only and with no AI. That is a shame as it looks like an absolute blast if you can get a fighting minded friend at the screen with you. I can not, sadly. So, for most of us the value is in the beat-em-up portion, and everyone still shines there even if you can't round someone up for versus play. The enemy variety is not much to write home about, but the levels are appropriately quick and the encounters will typically involve you exploring your character's moveset more than the enemies. To support this, there is a scripted story mode that takes you through all of the characters (Sadly without much chance to explore each character so you may have to practice a bit as you change.), as well as a Free Mode that plays the story as any character you like. Most of the content comes from Base of Darkness, which is a sizeable assortment of wave battle levels without context; just pick a level and throw down. In each of these modes you collect upgrades for your characters that you can cash in for various perks on the skill trees. Make certain moves charge faster, add a stock for your Edge move, or even add a new mechanic for some of your ability moves, the skill trees are unique for each character and always interesting and add a bit of replayability as you can try slightly different builds. The flashy character can spec for damage bonuses for stylish combo-heavy play or to boost his fire effects, for instance. The bosses are a bit of a let down: Big, slow moving hyper-armored jerks who just walk up, stare at you for a second, and then swing a power attack. You pound them a bit, block their attack, and go back to pounding. Repeat until dead. Clearing mooks in a combat system that rewards combos only to then get this big fat anti-combo thing blocking your path is a bit of a paradigm shift but like most awkward things in Wishmere it's still perfectly manageable. I gotta give a shout out to the story. Wishmere's story is perfectly genre-standard and I love it. A LOT of heart went into this; probably too much. In a 3 hour story mode that you could probably run through in 40 minutes tops, it is unbelieveably dense without running long in terms of cutscenes. You go from high school students to a superhero team, with betrayals, rivalries, inner turmoil, multiple crises of confidence... It just rolls through story beat after story beat with lightning speed. Three seasons of anime or comic book storytelling and thrills are all crammed in here. There's even a Deadpool-esque character cracking wise all game (Thankfully the game ends right when she's getting close to getting annoying.). It's all way, way too much for a short beat-em-up but the energy and heart the authors put into it shines through without feeling indulgent at all. I imagine 90% of you reading will think I'm nuts for liking a "generic" story so much and I can't hope to convince you otherwise. But I liked it a lot, dammit. In the end, the core of Wishmere is a combat system that really demands some elbow grease to learn it. You will start playing it and see none of your attacks flow except for the XXXX combo, you will have to experiment to try to figure out what you can chain together. It is really tightly engineered, probably over-engineered, but it works if you are willing to learn it. I don't think the combat system is for everyone; trying to piece together a combo to find out Up+Y, Forward+X, Neutral+B (With maybe a time stop extension after that followed by an aerial combo.) is what you're meant to do may not jive with you. I'm still not all that good with it, but I enjoy what they have put together. Wishmere is something different, and that may not be for everyone, but I find it really compelling and worth exploring. And the sheer amount of quick-playing content makes it easy to pick up, play, and explore.

What?? no review?? Oh well here goes. For a first run picking the fighter, i must say that i'm pretty impressed!! The story (which you don't have to pay attention to really (sorry devs, not hating :) ) i find it rather cool for now. I for a long time have been waiting for some type of beatemup/rpg skill building that is actually worth it and with the team up skills and all, wow keep it up please! Do put online co-op please please please pretty please!!!!! If you have a controller and want to play a type of river city ransom meets rpg kind of game and have 10$ to spare, do yourself a favor or send it as a gift to someone you know who would love it :) Happy Holidays y'all Cheers!

Eh you're better off playing one of the classics like Streets of Rage or Final Fight. The game's inputs are crazy imprecise, and the bindings for attack keys don't really have any forsight and trip over eachother leading to failed hits / inputs. I'd leave this one on the shelf, it's just not polished enough.

One of the Early Access games I supported since day one. A gem of a brawler, totally recommended for anyone who loves the genre. There's a good choice of characters that each has their own sweet abilities/moves/combos which adds some freshness to the game. It also has replay value as well.

I'm only reviewing the versus part of the game since I have not got to the single player yet> its a really fun fighting game. Its simple and easy to pick up, but theres some hard to execute combos if you really want to put the work in. Pros: -Fairly Easy -Things for both fighting game beginners and veterans -every character is very different fun to play around with -a unique and satisfying combo system -familiar fighting game mechanics -A great training mode -up to 4 players if you want. not common in fighting games Cons: -Controls are a bit strange. theres not really a super comfortable way to set up the buttons on a arcade stick. having jump bound to a button instead of up takes getting used to. sometimes the buttons seem unresponsive -Not a huge roster -taking a life or round feels a little unsatisfying sometimes because the lack of effects at the end. -Soundtrack is lackluster for a fighting game (seems it would work better in the beat em up part of the game) overall score: 7/10 I'll be pracitcing combos in this game for a long time to come. lots of fun

A brawler with a heart and brains. The combat that rewards you the more you put into it. I feel like you can really express your own style in this game. Pros: - characters with very different movesets - open-ended combat and combo system - good lore/story driven: if story is your kind of thing, there's character building in quotes and interactions when they win or lose, story mode is really fun. A lot of heart went into character lore - many types of modes to play with some stuff to unlock Cons: - controller recommended - going through the tutorial is a must: you can play out straight out the gate, but I'd recommend tutorial mode as it really teaches you what sort of game this is - some bosses are difficult (maybe too difficult) At first I played this game casually, but then when I brought this out to hang with friends this game became a competitive blast. This makes for a great party game and a versus game due to its versatility and drop-in-and-play factor.

Did not enjoy. Lack of polish. Controls not precise for what it is trying to be.

Wishmere is a fiesty little beat ’em up gem that’s stitched up beautifully. Effortlessly humorous, it succeeds in creating a challenging fighting game experience that can be enjoyed by all, and balances wonderful button-mashing quests atop a story that rises to the same level. Read more here: http://gameranx.com/updates/id/129087/article/wishmere-impressions-wholesome-button-mashing/

Tons of ways to play it. That’s probably the first thing I noticed when playing it. You’ve got a Story Mode and a Free Mode (without story like Dynasty Warriors) which plays like a sidescrolling beat’em up. There’s also a Versus Mode, where you can face your friends and an “Arena” like mode where you fight waves of enemies, which can keep you busy for a while. Really like the Skill Trees (like Borderlands) which are unqiue per character and something I didn’t really expect out of a beat’em up. You can do some crazy stuff like execute bosses in one hit or give your character lifesteal at the expense of your health. A lot of the skills do pretty complicated things so there’s some learning involved in what your skills do, but I can definitely see myself messing around with Skill builds to become unstoppable. Overall the game’s a lot of fun, I dig it.

Fun game. Pep seal of approval. FeelsGoodMan