Mayhem Brawler II: Best of Both Worlds

[O Ilusionista]

"A perfect fuse of '90s arcade vibe and modern rogue-lite / RPG mechanics in a time transition-themed beat 'em up. Play solo or online with friends and shape the story through your choices. Be amazed by the hand-drawn comics-inspired art, frame-by-frame animated characters, and kick-ass soundtracks.

BEST OF BOTH WORLDS
Witness the unfolding of parallel events in two time periods 20 years apart! On one side is the legendary Stronghold officer Stellar, while on the other is She Wolf, as fiery as ever, who is running a mayoral campaign. The two teams embark on an adventure to uncover one of Mayhem City's darkest secrets."

I gave it a go. Not a perfect game (dunno if this even exists) but way better than some recent stuff I saw, like that horrendous Night Slashers remake

Download demo at steam Mayhem Brawler II: Best of Both Worlds on Steam

 

[Hanzo]

The less said about the night slashers remake the better lol but Im definitely looking forward to this one. I play the first one and it is has a good foundation and I did like that the multiple endings and branches which adds some replayability.

 

[Aerisetta]

i feel it looks sooooo slow, do people like it like that?

the animations look nice, but i feel they are purposely having a ton of frames to show off the animation instead of making it feel good to play

 

[O Ilusionista]

i feel it looks sooooo slow, do people like it like that?

I don't think its too slow. Its could be faster? yes.

 

[danno]

This actually looks pretty good.

 

[Borkjh]

I know recently, this game full version will appear at 2026.

 

[DCurrent]

i feel it looks sooooo slow, do people like it like that?

the animations look nice, but i feel they are purposely having a ton of frames to show off the animation instead of making it feel good to play

I sort of feel like it looks choppy. Maybe not animation, but movement. Like, the same sort of stutter scrolling I see in way too many Unity beat em' ups. Not saying this Unity, but it just has that sort of feel.

Doesn't look bad or anything, other than being too dark. I always like dynamic scaling and personally don't mind a slower pace if it gives you more technical fighting and impact. There's just something kind of off about this one.

DC

 

[crimefighters3]

Still haven't finished the first one. Game just seems a little too vanilla needs something to give it that umf. Anyways, hope the new one proves me wrong?

 

[Borkjh]

There's bad news. This project seems to have been postponed indefinitely.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/heroconcept/mayhem-brawler-ii-best-of-both-worlds/posts/4582270

 

[O Ilusionista]

Yeah, I saw this few days ago and the way they handled it wasn't good.

Many people understood that they used the Kickstarter money from this project to fund their other project. They even responded explaining that this wasn't the case and that the other project had already been paid for by the publisher.

But the general consensus is that they should have disclosed their financial situation from the beginning when they launched the campaign, as this would have been more transparent.

And their argument that "the campaign fell short of their expectations" is, at the very least, dubious. They raised almost 3 times more than they asked for: £35,811 pledged out of a £12,000 goal.

 

[BrawlMan]

There's bad news. This project seems to have been postponed indefinitely.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/heroconcept/mayhem-brawler-ii-best-of-both-worlds/posts/4582270

I've found out about this a few weeks ago. Though it was from somebody on youtube. I actually never got around to the first game as there was some design decisions I heard about and I didn't like. I kept waiting on a sale but there are so many other brawlers out there that have my interests.

 

[O Ilusionista]

I actually never got around to the first game as there was some design decisions I heard about and I didn't like.

I liked the first game, it has some qualities here and there (like the status icons idea).
But my problem with it is a flaw that some games have: We all know that beat 'em ups are more fun when played in co-op, but when the game becomes "playable" only if you play in co-op, there's a design flaw for me.

I got the impression that the devs did the development backwards: instead of focusing on polishing the game for 1 player and having a co-op that slightly unbalances the game in favor of the player (like most games), they seem to have designed the entire game for co-op – which even works well – but when you play with only one player the game becomes unbalanced, but in favor of the enemies.

 

[BrawlMan]

We all know that beat 'em ups are more fun when played in co-op, but when the game becomes "playable" only if you play in co-op, there's a design flaw for me.

I got the impression that the devs did the development backwards: instead of focusing on polishing the game for 1 player and having a co-op that slightly unbalances the game in favor of the player (like most games), they seem to have designed the entire game for co-op – which even works well – but when you play with only one player the game becomes unbalanced, but in favor of the enemies.

Now I remember why. Mayhem would only work for me if I co-op with my brother. Last I checked, he wasn't interested in the game either.

 

[O Ilusionista]

Now I remember why. Mayhem would only work for me if I I co-op with my brother.

Yep, I had the same impression when I was playing with my son. When I tried to play it solo, it wasn't a good experience