【4K】Mayhem Brawler - Legend 1CC (Trouble)

Channel:

iconoclast

Subscribers:

38,800

Published on August 22, 2021 10:39:08 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EQQnUnqbqs

Game:

Mayhem Brawler (2021)

Duration: 1:29:02

19,422 views

322

Mayhem Brawler is a new indie beat 'em up from Hero Concept, released a few a days ago on PS4, Xbox One, Steam, and Switch. It has some good things going for it, but ultimately I'm not a big fan of it.

0:00 Intro
1:11 Level 1
8:37 Level 2
17:17 Level 3
27:05 Level 4
38:27 Level 5
53:33 Level 6
1:07:53 Level 7
1:25:45 Ending & Credits

First things first, this was clearly inspired by Streets of Rage 4, but it does do a few things differently. For starters, it has branching paths - each time you complete a stage, you choose between two different options that affect the story. Some of these lead to completely different stages, and some of them seem pretty much the same, so while it's not as cool as it could have been, it's still a pretty good idea. The special attacks also work differently than SOR4; you just build up a super meter like a fighting game, but I'm not a fan of this. Your attacks build meter too slowly, so I don't use these attacks as much as I'd like.

This game has some good things going for it - the art and graphics are really nice, the music is decent, the branching paths are cool, and everything plays *fine*, it just has some big problems that drag it down. The combat is very simple, the strategies are simple, most of the enemies are damage sponges, and a lot of them have invincible attacks on wakeup that you have to bait before you can go back to repeating the same basic combo on them, over and over. And the bosses... they're basically all the same, and they suck. Two enemies spawn once they get to their 2nd and 3rd phases, and they gain some new attack. Most of the bosses also gain the ability to instantly perform an invincible attack if you hit them more than once. There are a few ways to counter that - hit them with a weapon, which does relatively good damage and lets you juggle them a little; hit them with a jump attack, which knocks them back and lets you get a few extra punches in on the way down; or punch them once and walk in for a grab. Repeat for the rest of their life bar, and hope this ability doesn't carry over into the next phase (if there is one). This might be the most tedious, unfun design I've seen in a beat 'em up - and it applies to damn near every boss! I can't stand it.

I will say that Legend difficulty seems to exacerbate all of this game's flaws, thanks to the health and damage boosts the enemies receive. I enjoyed the game more on the difficulty below this. Now, I'd rather not play it again.

Thanks to Hero Concept for providing me with a review key.

https://heroconcept.com/mayhem-brawler/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1306720/Mayhem_Brawler/
https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/mayhem-brawler-switch/
https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP4493-CUSA27616_00-MAYHEMBRAWLER001/
https://www.microsoft.com/store/productid/9ppjfkl9w1c3

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Beat 'em Ups (e.g. Final Fight): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfI6IYca_kvMhpG1GR9sk8OYiWQMZZTgl
2D Action (e.g. Metal Slug): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfI6IYca_kvNFjpnJ59Th6N0IU1PSpD3d
STG/Shmups (e.g. Dodonpachi): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFE6B3779BE759F71

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