Brawlers are a unique genre to take on. They are the scrolling shooters of the fighting genre. The last high-profile brawler I can remember being released was Streets of Rage 4 by Sega in 2020, half a decade ago as of this writing. That is a long time. In that time, I think we have seen tons of high-profile one-on-one fighting games released. Couple a not so popular genre with a computer that is past its heyday, and you have a recipe for flying under the radar. I don’t plan on letting that happen, at least best I can anyhow, with Metro Siege for the Commodore Amiga by BitbeamCannon.
Currently Light on Story
Currently, over a year since Metro Siege was announced, there is literally no story available for it. I am not knocking the developers for this; I honestly never cared about the story with a brawling game as it was secondary to the action to me. I didn’t need to know why I was beating up hordes of similarly dressed people running at me, I just wanted it to feel good, have oomph, and sound good.
According to Time Extension the demo showcases three levels and two out of three playable characters. In my video below, I play through the first level to give you an idea of what to expect.
It Feels Right
Something most brawlers get wrong is the feel. Characters don’t seem to have weight to them. Metro Siege gets this right.
Such a simple thing that so many brawlers miss.
If you are a big fan of Streets of Rage or Final Fight then you know what I am talking about. It is that little thing that gives the characters a realness that is hard to put into words. It appears to be an extra frame or two of animation, a slight pause in the right place, etc. Brawlers either do it right or they miss it completely.
Metro Siege hits it nearly perfectly.
Check out BitBeamCannon on YouTube. Grab the latest version of Metro Siege’s demo on the Metro Siege website.
Metro Siege proves that good gameplay and the right feel can deliver a great experience even on older platforms. Thank you for such a great analysis.
My pleasure. I hope they are able to continue building off of what they have created so far.