Beatdown City Survivors

Genuinely a delightful bullet heaven. The relaxing and laid back hiphop soundtrack is also A+

I love this different take on the survivor genre. The music is a great vibe to this. There is a crazy amount of synergies available in the game to the point that I can still discover new ones while playing. There are unlocks that are both character specific and available to everyone. I've enjoyed my time with this game and I will come back from time to time to vibe and unlock everything.

A truly original bullet heaven w/ deep build crafting, genuine difficulty, & a killer soundtrack.

getting upgrades in this game is hard as hell

There's something special about this game. On paper, yep, the gameplay checks some boxes: typical melee survivor, seen it before. But the attention to detail in the enemies, environment, weapons, weapon combinations, art, sound and soundtrack gives it a gritty, streetwise feel like R. Crumb. I can't explain a lot of what's going on, but whatever it is, it's consistent with its own funky, stanky groove. (And seriously, the soundtrack is great.) It's not perfect. The problem with the game being a >melee< survivors continues here, where repeated contact with the enemies need downright surgical timing and collision detection from the game--and then the player needs to be able to fully capitalize on both in order to really get anywhere. But at the $10 price point...I mean, I even got it in a bundle! This is absurdly worth picking up in a bundle; it's comfortably worth full price. Anyone who dug Final Fight back in the arcades, welp, here's your next-gen Final Fight.

Yes, the soundtrack is great! It's refreshing to hear good rap in a game and in BCS the music not only sets the tone thematically but also syncs up with the rhythm of moving around the environments and kicking butt. This game feels a lot more frantic to me than other survivorlikes, which I appreciate, and a big part of that are the "living" stages filled with destructible objects and interactive elements, like oil that can catch fire from exploding cars, etc. The enemy mobs are also more dynamic and complex than usual and have personalities more akin to beat 'em up foes. They even fight each other and it's not uncommon to find yourself in situations where you're caught in the middle, trying to work around their behaviors as well as the stage hazards. If you feel like the survivor genre would benefit from some arcade energy, with big sprites, big freaks to fight, and fast, chaotic pacing right from the outset... then I think you should give Beatdown City Survivors a shot! It's the only game I know of where you can listen to rap music while you demolish giant rat men in a subway with a shiba inu and an army of pigeons carrying chanclas.