Beatdown City Survivors takes the bullet-hell survivor genre and adds smart layers and interactivity to the mix to make something that feels fresh and exciting.
I’m a sucker for the genre, I admit. I love to have a new ability carrot dangled in front of me as I wipe out hundreds of enemies on a screen at once. It’s a satisfying feeling, though generally not a deep one. I don’t think Beatdown City Survivors is aiming to upend the genre, but it is taking what we know and adding some aspects that make it way more interesting, as well as layering in the thematic depths of the Beatdown universe.
The PAX West demo I played focused on a subway themed level, with all the accoutrements that go along with a New York train in the 80s. That’s a part of what makes the Beatdown games so interesting; the focus on the era, with all the forced stereotypes that the cultural media made a point to ram down our throats. Like in Treachery, it’s done here with a lot of tongue-in-cheek and leaning in, and meant to say, “Hey, you guys accepted so here it is exploding in your faces.” It takes the subway and makes it a death train, it takes the rat king and makes a GIANT RAT QUEEN, it takes bodega cats and makes them heroic.
And it’s also really fucking fun. The waves of enemies, the constant addition of weapons and abilities, the punchy visuals — Nuchallenger have taken the Beatdown brawler aesthetic and proportions and adapted them here, including some of the movesets that the characters have in Treachery. The game has shops and secrets in the levels (for example if we stop the subway car from coming through we then have to deal with the Rat Queen instead), so each playthrough can have us discovering and interacting with different things each time. There’s a sense of just something a little more than an expansive map, as the levels each feel more guided and intentional.
Having a solid brawler backbone in the bullet-hell survivor genre is a good choice. Beatdown City Survivors could make each play session a bit more meaningful, even if we’re just playing it to kill time on the train to work in the morning.
More info can be found at BeatdownCity.com
Team SideQuesting gives Beatdown City Survivors a PAX WEST 2025 TEAM CHOICE AWARD for excellence!
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