Espectro The Fighters Focus

You love to see amateur games like this. It's not flashy but everything is done well from the classic 16-bit looking art to the controls to the music. There's also a decent amount of enemy variety, more than in some "big" AA-level beat 'em ups of recent (*cough* Marvel Cosmic Invasion). There are a lot of moves at your disposal including punch, jump, jump kick, grapple and punch, speed dash, speed dash kick, and a special three-tier powerup, which is basically described as lightning fists. About an hour to complete 10 levels all with nicely varied backgrounds including a driving level. Though they're all single plane, no elevation is present but there is an elevator level because there has to be an elevator level in a beat 'em up. It's the law. A really solid beat 'em up that plays fast and controls well, I'd just love to see achievements and button config. There's a listing for button config in the options menu but it doesn't do anything.

Right from the get go, this game feels like a love letter to classic beat ’em ups, and you can see it immediately in the premise. The story takes place in a metropolis where criminal gangs are starting to rule the streets thanks to a mysterious new weapon that either kills people outright or leaves them in a coma. One of the victims happens to be the brother of a vigilante, who decides to fight back and clean up the city with the help of his powerful super suit. Besides the titular hero, you can also pick two of his friends. One is a towering musclebound brawler, while the other is a swift samurai girl who favors speed over brute force. In practice, though, the differences between characters are fairly small. They mainly come down to their attack combos and special moves, while the stages and overall progression stay the same no matter who you choose. The controls are easy to pick up. You move around, use the main attack to chain together simple combos by mashing the button, jump for aerial attacks, and block incoming hits. Blocking can be a bit tricky to pull off consistently because the game moves at a pretty fast pace. There is also a super attack that becomes available once you fill the meter at the top of the screen. That meter slowly fills up on its own, but its effect depends on how many of the three segments are filled when you activate it. Trigger it with all three segments and you will unleash the strongest combo attack, dealing serious damage. On top of that, you can run, perform a running attack, and grab enemies when you get close enough, giving you a few more options in the middle of a fight. Progression through the stages follows the classic beat ’em up formula. You clear out a group of enemies, wait for the familiar “Go” sign, move forward a little, and then fight the next wave. This repeats until you eventually reach the stage boss. Along the way, you can smash crates and other breakable objects to find health pickups, batteries that refill your special meter, or the occasional power up that temporarily makes you stronger and invincible. The stages themselves stick to familiar territory. You start out on the city streets, then move through places like warehouses, a highway bike chase, the docks, an elevator ride, and several other locations before the game wraps up after ten stages. Enemy variety is decent enough and follows the usual template. There are basic thugs, large enemies who try to roll into you, fast fighters with annoying flying kicks, and a few other types. The first time you hit an enemy, their health bar appears along with a number next to it. That number shows how many health bars they actually have, since most enemies take two rounds to fully take down. Things stay manageable until the boss fights. Most bosses come with a group of regular enemies as backup, and the tricky part is that every enemy you defeat is quickly replaced by another one. Because of that, it is very easy to lose a life or two simply because avoiding damage becomes almost impossible. The best approach is often to dodge as much as you can while waiting for your special meter to fill up. Still, the stages are fairly short and the game gives you enough lives that you can usually power through even the tougher bosses. There are no achievements or secrets for beating a game, except a new character.