We recently brought you the news that Fallen City Brawl was being released on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. We’ve now been lucky enough to try this retro-inspired brawler for ourselves and give our thoughts on the Steam version. Fallen City Brawl has been developed by Fallen City Studio and published by retro specialists EastAsiaSoft. It’s out now on Steam and GOG, priced at $14.99, with more news to follow on the console port releases.
Fallen City Brawl is a straight-up classic arcade beat ‘em-up that follows the tropes of the majority of titles in this beloved genre. Pick a hero, beat a bunch of bad guys, fight a boss at the end of each level, and save the world. As you would expect, the roster of playable characters is filled with young, cool, and feisty types that put their own lives on the line for justice. And, as you would expect, each one has its range of moves, strengths, and weaknesses that will suit different preferences and strategies.
The game starts out with a few introductory fights against weak opposition that give you a moment to get used to attacking. The standard jump, basic attack, and projectile are at your fingertips, and once these are learned, there are a few more advanced techniques to learn that require a little more input. A great maneuver is pounding down on enemies who are on the ground. There is also a rush attack for each character that requires you to tap forward twice before going into the move.
One of the aspects that stood out when we first started playing Fallen City Brawl was some minor issues around hit detection. It was frustrating when you knew you had dodged an enemy attack but still took damage. There were also moments when enemies seemed not to attack, but we received damage. While not a major concern, brawlers of the highest quality tend to have excellent hit boxes which help players get better at the game over time as they learn the range of attacks and when to strike. Sadly, this is sometimes a bit difficult to judge in Fallen City Brawl.
Despite this, the actual gameplay is very fun. During our playthrough, it was exciting to see how each of the four characters fought and to discover the best ways to use their unique moves. This was true of the enemies as well. Although a few of the lesser ones attacked in similar ways, the mini bosses are brilliant, and each has a tactic that must be learned to defeat them. It’s also great how the enemy types are slowly introduced with each passing stage until the screen is filled with tough enemies towards the end of the seven stages.
On that note, Fallen City Brawl is a short game. To put this into context, we completed the game on our very first playthrough with a few credits to spare, then got to the final boss and only just run out of lives on our second playthrough set to hard mode. In all honesty, this is Fallen City Brawl’s biggest letdown. For all the brilliant fighting and cool enemies, the game is far too easy, even for casual players and especially for anyone who is seasoned in this genre. This is a shame, as the game is fun and has some great ideas around special moves and secrets.
That being said, this does fall in the budget range, costing only £14.99, so we wouldn’t expect huge amounts of content. But if the developer revisited Fallen City Brawl, maybe adding a survival mode, or some higher difficulty settings, may give it some much-needed longevity. It would also be great to beef the bosses up as well, as most of them can be air juggled into oblivion, especially if you nail the excellent combo system that the game has. We managed to pick off the first couple of bosses without taking any damage several times, and it just felt like they were a little undercooked.
To get back to the positives, Fallen City Brawl has some excellent gameplay mechanics that are accessed once you start to fill up your special meter by collecting gems from fallen enemies. Fill it up with a small amount, and you can access a special move that does some big damage to enemies. Fill it up some more, and one of your comrades will join the fight for a short while and help you out, similar to the cop cars in Streets of Rage. However, fill the meter, and something impressive happens.
Not only do you gain more powerful attacks, but mystical ninjas appear, and you have to try and take them out without dying. Taking out these ninjas rewards some excessive points while adding some extra challenge. This is probably the best part of Fallen City Brawl, and where the casuals and veterans will be separated. To get enough gems to access this special mode does require staying alive long enough, considering you lose your special meter on death. Then once it’s activated, you need to survive the chaos of the situation to beat the ninjas.
The presentation in Fallen City Brawl is also great, and the large, colorful sprites wouldn’t look out of place in a late Neo Geo game. There are a few issues around animations, ones we suspect created the hit detection problems we had, but nothing that spoils the immersion. Some of the enemies look fantastic and stand out from the usual brawler bad guys. A couple of the bosses shine, although the final boss was a little disappointing looking in the main. But overall, this looks great and has a distinct style throughout the seven stages.
The music and sound effects are fine, if not outstanding. There weren’t any particular tunes that stood out, but what is here suits the gameplay and retro style. The same can be applied to the control responsiveness; they do the job, and there were only a couple of instances when they dropped off. The other aspect to mention is the cool intro sequence that could be from any 90s brawler. The nostalgia is great, and you can tell the developers are real fans of the genre.
Fallen City Brawl is a tough game to review. All the components are here to make a classic brawler that oozes nostalgia and classic arcade gameplay. However, the game is very short and easy to finish, which directly impacts the longevity and replayability. Genre veterans may wish to tread carefully and know that this will be a short-lived experience; casual players will probably find it a better experience, given its ease in difficulty. Overall, a well-made game that has lots of good points but a few bad ones that stop it from being an outright classic.
