Maximus 2: Street Gladiators

I was expecting a cheaply made mobile game with stat grinding in place of real gameplay, but I couldn't have been more wrong! Maximus 2 is a super impressive beat 'em up with excellent pacing from beginning to end, and an astonishing amount of variety. There are tons of different enemy types, lots of great memorable boss fights, and enough stage gimmicks to make every level feel distinct. It's a constant roller coaster going from one cool set piece to another, and there's a million little scenes in between fights that introduce bosses, transition between levels and just generally contribute to an awesome narrative flow throughout the game. This game legitimately has some of the most exciting presentation of any beat 'em up I can think of, with countless memorable moments, no real downtime or boring stretches, and surprises more or less around every corner. It calls to mind games like Denjin Makai 2, Undercover Cops and Zero Team - which is no small praise! The combat is arguably a little basic but it's very functional and controls great. The developers definitely achieved their goal of satisfying-feeling combat, and aside from the characters feeling good to control I was especially impressed with all the boss fights being both fun and mechanically very distinct. I've only done one playthrough on Normal difficulty - and I can tell from the trailers on this store page that there's a ton of content I haven't even seen yet - and I'm already blown away by the huge amount of cool stuff in this game. I'm definitely eager to play the game more, try out all the characters, and discover more of what the game has to offer. I would strongly recommend any fan of arcade beat 'em ups to check this game out!