Fallen City Brawl Review

Fallen City Brawl tells the story of four strangers joining forces in order to bring order into Fallen City; who’s been at the mercy of the criminal underworld. It’s up to Sergeant Clay, Rico, Natasha and Iron Jackson to clean up the streets and bring back peace to the city.

Fallen City Brawl is a standard beat’em up where players go from point A to point B while beating up everyone in your path and reaching a boss. As you plow through waves of cronies, you’ll also be able to pick up a decent selection of weapons such as katanas, baseball bats, giant hammers, and even motorcycles.

All four characters can punch, jump, run, and grab enemies. You can also counter attacks, i.e. parry, by pressing forward and the X button. Thankfully, it’s not required for survival. Each protagonist also has a long range attack. Two of them have firearms, Iron Jackson throws molotov cocktails while Natasha has a giant wrench that works like a boomerang.

Like most beat’em ups, you can find health items to regain some vitality and also you’ll be able to pick up ammo boxes to refill your weapons; I just don’t understand why you’d need ammo to throw a wrench. As you beat up enemies and collect gems, you’ll also fill up a special attack meter called the Riot Gauge. It is multi-leveled so you can use it once it’s partially full or completely full for more damage.

The first section increases your attacks, the second level allows you to perform a screen clearing attack and the higher tier summons a Shadow Ninja for a special event. Completing the game allows you to unlock secret levels hidden in plain sight; arcade cabinets scattered through the game.

The game looks great in all its 16-bit pixelated glory. Each level has a unique theme, there’s a decent enemy variety. Both enemies and protagonists are designed with a high level of detail. The varying themes offer some colorful levels; such as a generic city streets seen in most games of the genre or a snow filled level. The soundtrack, composed by Daniel Lindholm, who’s work includes Street Fighter V and Resident Evil 6, is a banger.

The game is not without its faults. The first being the game’s length. It is surprisingly short; while I never expected a beat’em up to last 10 hours, I was expecting at least 3-4 hours of solid gameplay. According to the Xbox App, my playthrough took barely 2 hours. Each level is somewhat short. Also the bosses are incredibly cheap. While bosses in the genre are never really fair, they feel more cheap than other games; even moreso than Final Fight’s Abigail. Also: why do I need to pick up ammo to throw a freakin’ wrench..? Also when you die, unlike other similar games, you respawn with the same character instead of having the opportunity to select a different one.

Fallen City Brawl is a great beat’em up; easy to pick up and play, smooth controls, four distinct protagonists, but unfortunately, it feels incredibly short, leaving you wanting more. While seven levels might sound like lenghty, each level is surprisingly short. Also bosses are incredibly cheap. This is a definite must play for fans of the genre, otherwise, wait for a sale, due to its short-ness.