- Publisher: DotEmu
- Release Date: Oct 9, 2025
- Also On: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Switch, Xbox Series X
- Critic score
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- Unscored
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Oct 10, 2025Absolum blew me away with its mastery of the side-scrolling beat-’em-up and roguelike genres, seamlessly combining the two in a game that is exceptional on a technical level and a blast to play. Paired with the excellent combat and roguelike loop are phenomenal characters, great worldbuilding, and gorgeous art, making for a game that is an absolute steal at just $25.
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Oct 10, 2025Absolum is a game that convinces you of its quality right from the start, only to reveal new strengths with every run and every new ability. Do yourselves a favor.
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Oct 9, 2025Absolum blends the best of 2D beat ’em ups and roguelike design into a loop that’s challenging, unpredictable, and downright addictive. It doesn’t reinvent either genre, but its tight combat, branching paths, and stunning presentation make it a must-play for fans of both. Despite being Dotemu’s first original IP, you’d never know it. This is a masterclass in design that kept me hooked, even as it repeatedly kicked my teeth in.
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Oct 17, 2025In a 2025 marked by the excellence of independent games, Absolum arrives to set a new standard of quality for the beat 'em up genre. The game takes the best of the roguelike genre to give a new face to modern beat 'em ups. With extremely varied gameplay and a combat system that encourages a high-risk, high-reward approach to overcoming enemies from common foes to bosses, Absolum presents a progression that requires a strategic approach to each fight, but always offers the player all the tools necessary to overcome these challenges. If beat 'em ups, even in their best recent games, have always been characterized by subtle innovations, Absolum emerges as a true beacon of creativity for the genre.
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Oct 9, 2025Absolum is a game that will be remembered not only for its incredible scenery but also for its fantastic gameplay. From the very first moments, it's clear that Absolum is something special and unique. A mix of powerful mechanics and expert game design will make players leave every session wanting more. Absolum will undoubtedly make a name for itself as one of the greatest games of the year. Whether it's with a friend or solo, beating up hordes of enemies has never been so much fun.
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Oct 9, 2025Absolum is a standout melding of genres and one of the best roguelikes of the year, making it a multiplayer must-play.
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Oct 9, 2025I can't stop playing this game! Great as a beat’em up, great as a roguelite, Absolum is just wonderful as a combination of the two genres. The cherry on top – but maybe is the foundation below – is a glorious lore and a brilliant narration that will keep you wanting more.
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Dec 28, 2025The talented French indie creators at DotEmu and Guard Crush have gifted us once again with Absolum, an excellent game that skillfully blends old-school and modern gameplay. In this instance, we're treated to a truly magical and ingenious blend of beat 'em up and roguelite, all set in a vibrant world that delights the eyes and ears thanks to its stunning art direction and soundtrack. A true gem of late 2025, unfortunately somewhat lost in a sea of other excellent games released throughout the year, due in part to a rather timid marketing campaign and a fairly steep difficulty curve that might deter newcomers.
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Oct 23, 2025Absolum is a fantastic fusion of a 90s-style beat 'em up and roguelite mechanics. The story drags a bit, but the gameplay loop will keep you hooked for dozens of hours before you even notice. A wide roster of playable characters and the option to tackle the run in co-op make the whole experience downright irresistible, and the soundtrack easily rivals the best of the year. Another hidden gem of 2025.
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Oct 22, 2025What Absolum truly does well with its take on a roguelite is offering plenty of opportunities to get invested in its world and characters, which is such an excellent quality to have for a roguelite, which tasks players with getting used to repeated excursions. Absolum is my favorite roguelite of 2025, and it's also one of the most satisfying genre mash-ups I've seen in some time. With time, I hope that Absolum will evolve even further and take Guard Crush Games' take on a roguelite beat-em-up to the next level.
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Oct 17, 2025An addictive and meticulously crafted beat 'em up/roguelite that keeps you hooked.
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Oct 10, 2025Absolum’s moment-to-moment action is very good, accessible for newcomers, and with plenty of complexity to appeal to side-scrolling combat fans. The heroes play very differently, and their unlockable powers introduce even more variety. They all look great in action, with fluid and powerful moves, and I love the design of both normal enemies and bosses. The fantasy story is decent but not on par with the combat mechanics, and the rogue-like elements are not as inventive as they could be. But, especially when playing with a friend, Absolum creates exciting and fun battles.
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Oct 10, 2025It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the team of veteran beat ‘em up developers made another great beat ‘em up game. Absolum evolves the best parts of classic beat ‘em up action and weaves it with an original story, a compelling world, and roguelike elements. This doesn’t seem like a game that should work as well as it does, but it’s some of the most fun I’ve had with a co-op game this year.
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Oct 9, 2025Absolum delivers a magical adventure featuring precise, constructible mechanics, dynamically enhanced by the route options and enemies whose subtle variations can completely alter the course of battle. The game provides fluid encounters within shadowed environments, naturally illuminated and enhanced by intense lighting.
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Oct 9, 2025Absolum is absolutely recommended for beat 'em up fans thanks to the pedigree of its developers. It's also a surprisingly deep rogue-lite with a well-developed world, bolstered all the more by its incredible presentation.
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Oct 9, 2025Dotemu, Guard Crush, and Supamonks have knocked it out of the park with Absolum. Its combat is satisfyingly stylish, encapsulating traditional side-scrolling beat ‘em up combat with the variability of endlessly fun roguelike gameplay. Punishing difficulty aside, it’s worth taking the time to explore the depths of its world and creatively defeat enemies in more ways than one. Absolum pushes the envelope of beat ‘em up game design to new heights, worthy of your consideration as we enter this holiday season.
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Oct 9, 2025Absolum combines beat 'em up with roguelite elements to create an immersive and nuanced experience. The game offers deep combat, consistent progression systems, and a visually striking world, despite stumbling upon some structural repetition and limited variations in areas and powers. Its strength lies in the balance between technical precision and tactical variety, rewarding mastery and pattern recognition without sacrificing the fast-paced rhythm typical of beat 'em ups. Even without reinventing the genre, Absolum demonstrates its own identity.
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Oct 9, 2025A fast-paced blend of beat 'em up and rogue-like mechanics, Absolum starts off simple but evolves to reveal surprising depth and experience that will keep you come back for just one more run.
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Oct 9, 2025Dotemu and Guard Crush Games have not pulled any punches with Absolum. Its fluid, hard-hitting combat system is a blast to play, and piecing together the best build to crush foes with 100-hit combos never gets old. Every runthrough in the fantasy world of Talamn is challenging but fair and replete with new paths to discover. Despite a few minor flaws, Absolum takes a bold step toward modernizing the beat-’em-up genre with an original story and technical prowess.
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Oct 9, 2025It has it all: it's beautiful, captivating, exhilarating, addictive, and fun. The only flaw in this title could be its lifespan, or the fact that the challenge isn't quite enough for the most determined players. But aren't we always wanting more?
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Oct 9, 2025Absolum is a remarkable beat’em-up experience in which perfectly crafted combos and 2D visual delight drive a compelling journey through the fantasy land. While the experience can get repetitive early, this is a minor slight in what is otherwise an impressive, compelling experience throughout its entire run. The game is easily recommended for any fans of 2D action games and does what it sets out to do strikingly well.
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Oct 9, 2025Absolum is pretty much everything you could want in a roguelike beat-'em-up. It's engaging, constantly varied, fun to play, gorgeous to look at, and it's pretty much a nonstop good time. The only way I can see a fan of the beat-'em-up genre not liking Absolum is if they don't like roguelikes. Even then, I could see it melting some hearts. It's a delight from start to finish, and the game is nearly impossible to put down.
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Oct 9, 2025Absolum delivers a truly special roguelite experience. By reining in some of the random elements, it’s able to create a smooth-running story that allows those with less than infinite time an experience they can enjoy.
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Oct 9, 2025Absolum is one of those rare roguelikes that feels like it knows exactly what it wants to be, even if it's not ashamed to imitate games like Hades in many ways. Its world is intriguing with its characters and lore, its combat is punishing but rewards patience and persistence, and every run feels like a whole new experience. Even after dozens of hours, the mix of beat-em-up mechanics and roguelike structure still surprises. It's challenging, fulfilling, and full of personality, and the more time players spend with it, the more they will realize that Absolum's magic extends beyond the wizards themselves.
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Oct 9, 2025I played Hades 2 and Absolum back-to-back, and Absolum feels like the perfect chaser.
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Oct 9, 2025It's a joy every time. I didn't want to put Absolum down, and I slightly resented when life would make me. By tapping into a primordial part of gaming history, Absolum has created something that feels revelatory. The beat-'em-up genre feels changed, now, and I don't know if there's any going back.
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Oct 9, 2025Absolum blends nostalgic, arcade beat 'em up gameplay with addictive progression, a charming Saturday morning cartoon-like aesthetic, and a cool storyline and setting to create the latest and greatest triumphant evolution of the roguelike genre.
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Oct 9, 2025In an already crowded 2025, Absolum still manages to climb onto the podium as an obvious standout. Guard Crush Games, Dotemu, and Supamonks deliver a masterful experience where missteps are few and far between. From the sublime soundtrack to the perfectly handled visuals, from the finely tuned roguelite loop to the premium quality of the combat mechanics, only the narrative feels somewhat left aside — which, in the end, is hardly an issue in a beat ’em up. Suffice to say, we really had to struggle to find flaws worth mentioning. After Streets of Rage 4, Dotemu raises the bar even higher, pulling off with rare brilliance the launch of its very first in-house franchise. Will this spark a new resurgence for the genre? If so, the next five years are going to be absolutely wild — in the best possible way.
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Oct 9, 2025Absolum does a fantastic job of expanding what we would usually expect of a beat ‘em up, keeping it fresh and interesting to play over dozens of runs. It looks, sounds, and runs great, and it plays phenomenally. It may not quite have the kinetic impact of my very favorite brawlers, but this is a game that dares to push beyond what fans expect from its genre and succeeds on all counts.
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Oct 9, 2025Whether it’s using Karl’s harpoon gun to pin a screenful of goblins to a wall, performing an eight billion hit aerial combo with Cider, unleashing laser blasts with Brome, or hitting people with Galandra’s big, big sword, these scraps are gratifying, intuitive, and free-form. Not many games can claim to be truly best-in-class at something, but Absolum’s beat ‘em up action makes a convincing argument.
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Dec 4, 2025Absolum is one of those roguelikes that tells not so much the story it contains, but the one it evokes through its beautiful aesthetic style. A story made of difficult choices, of ambitions that challenge caution, of an authentic desire to leave a mark, however small, however fragile. And in a world where everything seems to rush forward without ever looking back, a side-scrolling beat ’em up that chooses to slow down and force you to think is a small miracle.
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Nov 18, 2025Absolum combines the style and impact of a modern beat ’em up with the structure and replayability of a roguelite, delivering a fast, fluid and addictive experience. Its hand-crafted visual style stands out with detailed environments and expressive animations, while the combat is weighty, technical and satisfying in every run. The four playable characters offer distinct pacing and depth, and the progression system strikes a strong balance between permanent upgrades and volatile abilities that reshape each attempt, even if the temporary upgrades could appear more frequently. With branching paths, optional missions and a world that naturally pushes experimentation, Absolum succeeds as one of the most creative and engaging action games of the year. Despite a few small shortcomings, it remains a standout release.
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Nov 4, 2025With its brilliant blend of beat ’em up and roguelite mechanics, a carefully crafted atmosphere that clearly comes from skilled hands, a well-thought-out progression system, and satisfying combat, this is one of the year’s biggest surprises. If not for a few minor issues, it could’ve been a Game of the Year contender. Definitely worth checking out.
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Oct 24, 2025Our hope is that Absolum represents the first in a long series of hybridizations that could breathe new life into a genre that shaped the history of arcades and the '90s, refreshing the formula and significantly increasing its longevity. We also believe that this promising title hasn't yet exhausted its resources: an expansion with new playable characters and a refinement of an already enjoyable gameplay formula could raise the bar for a game that absolutely deserves the attention of both arcade-style beat 'em up lovers and roguelite fans. It's a shame that its longevity and lack of additional difficulty prevent it from achieving excellence.
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Oct 15, 2025Absolum combines the immediacy of beat 'em ups with the depth of roguelites, and does it surprisingly well.
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Oct 9, 2025Absolum is a side-scrolling beat 'em up of exquisite craftsmanship, almost perfect, one might say, enhanced by a roguelite structure that still has some balancing issues, likely due to Guard Crush’s lack of experience with the genre. Most of the time, however, it manages to find its footing, also because in terms of scale and content it's not overwhelming, in fact, it can be completed in around fifteen hours. It must be said: when it comes to throwing punches, nothing else compares. The satisfying way power-ups synergize with one another, along with the impact and thrill of juggling enemies, makes progressing through the levels a sublime experience. Even after reaching the end, you’ll want to keep brawling, stacking upgrades just to feel increasingly powerful. A little gem to play and replay, after cracking your knuckles, of course.
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Oct 9, 2025Absolum is a confident side-scroller with satisfying, punchy combat and a good spread of characters and skills.
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Oct 9, 2025Absolum is ultimately a beat 'em up with a bit more depth and progression than we've seen before in this style of game that has been so resistant to change since it was born in the arcades. Absolum lacks the extensive variance of a true roguelike, but delivers enough intricacy to push the genre into a more interesting space than it's ever occupied.
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Oct 9, 2025Absolum enters the crowded roguelike space with a refreshing and appealing art style and classic-feeling beat-em-up mechanics. Playable solo or in 2-person co-op, each of Absolum’s characters caters to a very specific playstyle, and it’s fun to switch between them. Although character progression is a little slow, and the movement mechanics occasionally frustrate, Absolum should appeal to fans of engaging action adventures, roguelikes, and brawlers. Absolum has something for almost everyone.
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Oct 9, 2025Absolum is what’s on the tin: a beat ‘em up with level progression, equipment, and spells. Runs can get samey, but Dotemu have done a commendable job of not overwhelming players, while adding just enough to runs to keep us from getting bored. Though not revolutionary, Absolum is worth any fan of the genre’s time.
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Nov 30, 2025Absolum is an interesting roguelike that can be completed in a couple of hours on the lowest difficulty setting. However, even after the finale, the developers encourage players to keep exploring the world to try out new builds and characters.
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Oct 23, 2025Minor quibbles aside, Absolum is an excellent beat-’em-up full of cool combos, neat build variations, random events and enjoyable roguelike power evolution spearheaded by a team that Absolumetely knows what they’re doing when it comes to crafting quality content. For fans of roguelikes or side-scrollers, this is one to check out.
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Oct 22, 2025Absolum is a delicately crafted beautiful game, with amazing artwork, an interesting story and characters, along with highly addictive combat.
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Oct 16, 2025Absolum fuses the frenetic energy of beat 'em ups with deep roguelite systems to deliver a stylish and addictive experience. While its narrative struggles to match the grandeur of its worldbuilding, the moment-to-moment gameplay and audiovisual design shine. Dotemu’s bold take on the genre blend pays off in gameplay variety and mechanical depth, even if its progression balance and storytelling lack polish.
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Oct 9, 2025Without leaning towards one genre or the other, Absolum shines with its perfect balance between fast combat coming from Beat Em’ Up games, and the complexity and difficulty from the roguelite genre. With an amazing artwork and a solid story, the game it’s a culmination of years of work from Dotemu, and it pays off with their first original IP.
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Oct 9, 2025Absolum is a game that I welcome with open arms. It’s further proof that there’s still room for fun and original experiences in gaming, and is a lovely example of showing what you can do when you let your experience speak for itself. The level of polish and reverence for what Guard Crush and the gang have here is well worth a look. Which also maintains an iron grip on what makes a roguelike and a beat ’em up compelling in the first place. If you’re looking for a good time at a reasonable price, you can’t really beat what’s cooked up here. I can’t wait to see what they do next.
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Oct 9, 2025Regardless of little annoyances, I did thoroughly enjoy Absolum, and feel kind of bummed it has the misfortune of releasing so close to Hades II as a competitor action-roguelite. There’s room for both, but it is hard - having reviewed both games in close proximity - not to compare the both of them. For people who played Streets of Rage 4’s roguelite DLC and wanted more, Absolum scratches that itch and then some. For traditionalists, it might not be your cup of tea because of the structure, but it makes a valiant effort to get there and endear itself to all. Just be sure you know exactly what you're biting off.
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Oct 9, 2025With Absolum, Guard Crush's returned pairing with Dotemu and new collaboration with Supamonks has yielded meaningfully rich results. If Hades has completely spoiled you for aesthetically beautiful roguelites, there's very little else in Absolum's class to compare.
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Oct 9, 2025Not just a thrilling throwback, but a thoroughly modern spin on a classic genre, Absolum proves the arcade beat 'em up and the run-based game are a perfect pairing. Combat is fast, fun, and deliciously flexible, and with new discoveries on almost every run, there's more than enough to keep you playing.
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Oct 9, 2025As a beat ’em up, Absolum comes quite close to a perfect 10; the enemies are responsive, the characters are incredibly fun to master, the bosses are unapologetically brutal, and the gorgeous 2D art brings everything together perfectly, creating a game that is beautiful to see in motion. Sadly, some of Absolum’s roguelike mechanics feel alienated from the rest of the game, failing to connect properly in a satisfying way. Modern roguelikes follow an unfortunate trend of only providing players with the most boring, safe tools possible, and it feels like the genre as a whole is now used as a crutch by developers to enforce repetition...Regardless of its issues, Absolum is still a fantastic beat ‘em up developed by some of the most talented people to have touched the genre. Roguelike veterans might find Absolum’s early progression a little grating, but the solid foundation laid out by Guard Crush and Dotemu manages to hold the game together until it hits its stride.
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Oct 9, 2025Absolum aims for immortality with its roguelike systems and progression systems. While its attempts at eternal life shine in its world map and strong combat design, its attempts to force you to keep coming back fall flat.
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Oct 9, 2025Absolum is an excellent beat ‘em up let down by a roguelite structure that doesn’t serve it. I hate being limited by numbers instead of skill in action games, and in the early hours here, it feels like you’re a slave to them. Once you get to the point where each run has you making substantial progress and the story picks up, Absolum is very compelling. But it took me a long time to get there. Gorgeous artwork, an excellent soundtrack, and smart combat spread out among several distinct characters do a lot to carry it, but they can’t fix the feeling of dread when I died, again, and realized that I would have to do some variation of the same exact thing once more. I’m not against failure; I just wish there was more variety to it, and Absolum doesn’t find that until a good way into its runtime. That it manages to emerge as an exciting beat ‘em up in spite of that is a testament to the skill and work of its developers. But it would be a lot better if it just got on with it. Unlike Absolum’s heroes, I’ve only got one life to live.
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| This publication has not posted a final review score yet. | |
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Oct 14, 2025There are games you shouldn't miss, games that strive so hard to evolve ideas and genres that, to understand everything that comes after, you have to go back to them. Absolum is one of them. [Recommended]
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Oct 9, 2025I’m still chipping away at runs and cracking the foundations of Absolum’s world, but my short few hours or so with it have been more than enough to keep me banging my head against its stone gates. It is one of the most rewarding spins on both the beat-em-up and roguelike genres I’ve played all year. [Impressions]
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Oct 9, 2025The tiresome progression doesn’t wipe away the core thrill of Absolum. I eventually tuned all the shiny bits out as I hyper-focused on becoming a beast with Brome. I learned every combo, figuring out how to most efficiently chain together my tongue lashes and staff hits. Some of my proudest moments weren’t late in runs where I was loaded with powerful upgrades, but in the early moments where I had almost nothing. It was just me stitching together 100-hit combos or melting down a boss’ health bar by confidently pressing my attack. That skill could only bring me so far as I waited for more perks to unlock, a small betrayal of the genre, but I know that I would have kept playing with or without them. It’s not like I beat any of my favorite arcade brawlers as a kid either. Sometimes defeating a game isn’t the ultimate goal; there’s just as much pleasure in the sparring sessions.
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