As any responsible adult will tell you, first impressions count. I finished this side-scrolling brawler on my first attempt in around 45 minutes and found it scrappy and overly chaotic, with the screen constantly panning and shaking and often littered with explosions that obscure the action – partly because one playable character carries petrol bombs that hinder more than they help. It wasn’t until my second playthrough that some of the more nuanced features came to light, revealing what is essentially a score-chasing beat ’em up.
Tinkering with the options to remove screen shake and camera zoom greatly improved the experience, although it’s easy to see why they’re enabled by default – Fallen City Brawl definitely fancies itself as a lost Neo Geo game, aiming to replicate the graphical trickery usually associated with that system.
While it may resemble a Neo Geo brawler, with numerous large sprites on screen at once, it plays like a combination of Streets of Rage and Final Fight. Four playable characters feature (three male, one female), and each has a ranged weapon requiring ammunition, such as a shotgun or pistol, that has a good chance of ‘stun-locking’ enemies. There’s also a ‘special attack/summon’ gauge to fill by collecting crystals, making it possible to call in an armed police cruiser or conjure a ring of fire that’ll harm any enemies within reach. Characters have the usual assortment of ‘forward, forward, punch’ special moves and a throw manoeuvre, while weapons include katanas, baseball bats and throwable boxes. Bikers are common adversaries, and after dismounting one with a flying kick, you can lob their bike back at them, sending it spinning through the air via a fancy sprite-rotation effect.
The seven stages are set in locations such as a rundown city, a beach beside an industrial complex, a torched gym and a snowy wasteland with deformable snow. Bosses put up a reasonable fight. In fact, it’s here that most spare lives will be lost, as each has long-range attacks such as homing missiles and explosive rounds. Two continues are provided, and while this doesn’t sound like much, after being thrown back to the main menu it’s possible to resume from where you left off. In truth, then, it grants infinite continues. The main menu is also where the tutorial and online leaderboards can be accessed, along with the options screen, which offers a choice of two difficulty settings.
After blitzing through Fallen City Brawl, while noting some jarring inconsistencies in the quality of the pixel art, I discovered additional hidden depths. What we have here is essentially a score chaser intended to spark friendly competition through its online leaderboards. Not only is there a combo system that rewards rebounding enemies off the side of the screen and juggling them in the air, but the ‘special attack/summon’ gauge can also be maxed out, causing enemies to drop score-boosting coins instead. Boost it further and a ‘chaos ninja’ can be summoned. They aren’t there to assist; rather, they act as a mini-boss of sorts. If you’re able to summon and defeat all seven, practically refusing to use screen-clearing specials, you’ll be awarded a huge score boost. Special areas also feature, including a hostage rescue – where hostages are, somehow, hidden within bar stools – and an elevator stage with breakable walls.
But while there are hidden depths here, the fact remains that this is quite a scrappy, almost amateurish brawler – unmistakably a passion project. The artwork is a mishmash of characters who appear as though they’ve come from two different games, goofy walk cycles, indistinct backdrops and attack animations that seem either too fast or too slow. Combined with all manner of effects that obscure the action and dozens of spinning or pulsating objects to collect, it creates information overload. While you could argue that the game is merely keen to put on a good show, the action is often very hard to follow. All of this is accompanied by surprisingly good music that remains upbeat throughout. You may even find yourself returning for this feature alone.
Fallen City Brawl is an odd proposition. It’s a brawler that you can button-bash your way through in well under an hour, even on the harder difficulty setting. Do this and you’ll likely feel quite unsatisfied and a bit underwhelmed, despite the chaos. Take the time to learn its systems, though – perhaps by focusing on performing combos of more than 200 hits and aiming for leaderboard dominance – and you’ll gain a better understanding of what the developers were trying to achieve. It’s still hard to shake the feeling that they bit off more than they could chew (try Final Vendetta for a more streamlined experience), and anyone curious would be advised to keep that in mind.
So, while first impressions do count, there’s also a lot to be said for putting your best foot forward and trying as hard as you can. That sums up Fallen City Brawl perfectly – it’s a try-hard.
Fallen City Studio’s Fallen City Brawl is out 28th Oct on all formats, including last-gen systems. Published by eastasiasoft. A PC version launched in 2025.