Each has a gritty, punk-style vibe, but they feel cheap and are sometimes only barely functional. In one instance, as I fought zombies on a pirate ship, I discovered a fat, glasses-wearing mini-boss sitting behind a computer surrounded by posters reading, "Targeting Charlie Murder mp3s." I see what you did there, Charlie Murder! And then there’s the overall humor of the plot, wherein Charlie Murder takes off on the music charts, but the guy they booted out of the group seeks demonic revenge like an angry punk Pete Best.Ĭharlie Murder is best experienced through co-op.įrequent mini-games, though, fall flat. That isn’t funny, but Charlie Murder’s jokes are, and often on a subtle level. Prepare to fight a lot of the same challenging minibosses over and over, too – often buffed up with extra health bars, and many difficult to distinguish from the regular enemies on screen during intense brawls with lots of enemies. As mentioned repeatedly (the irony is not lost) combat isn’t deep enough to sustain that for long, and the slog wears out its welcome fairly quickly. When I had difficulty with enemies in the later areas, Charlie Murder borrows an undesirable solution from its RPG inspiration, namely replaying previously visited zones to grind for better equipment and experience. No ninja is safe from Charlie and the gang. The lack of simple inventory auto-sorting can easily lead to untimely deaths, so pay attention to what you have equipped in the replenishing slot at all times.
If you quickly consume the first item in your inventory, you might end up with the weakest available item, and a forced cooldown period means you’re stuck waiting for another chance to replenish health. For example, say you’re fighting high-level mobs and need a quick heal. These RPG infused ideas are useful, but some of them don’t hold up so well in the heat of combat. Each piece of gear has some fun real-world context tossed in – spells and buffs come from tattoos, and you have a smartphone on which you can check your follower count on (think Twitter, but with a squid), which is Charlie Murder’s equivalent of experience, or purchase useful special abilities.
The World, it incorporates RPG-styled leveling systems, equipment, and unlockable abilities. Similar to Castle Crashers or Scott Pilgrim vs. To its credit, Charlie Murder does provide more rewards for beating up on bad guys than the typical brawler. You can experiment and use other attacks, but why bother if they’re not as reliable and offer no reward? Just mashing X generally leads to a slow-paced success.
Some enemies (especially minibosses) will block and counter, but the patterns remained fairly obvious. Like most brawlers, these bozos slide back and forth and give little incentive to get creative in combat. It may be a lot to ask from a side-scrolling brawler like this, but I found myself wishing Charlie Murder’s enemies displayed some more intelligent behavior than the most basic kind we’ve come to expect – something to match their diverse looks. The resulting transformation puts one person in charge of movement while the other spams powerful rapid fire attacks, similar to the classic Simpsons arcade brawler. Co-op adds not just conversation, but much-needed variety of unlockable team-up moves. To really get the most out of Charlie Murder, though, it’s recommended that you play with friends, especially since the repetitive act of pounding on enemies can get old fairly quickly as a solo act. Those can be upgraded within subclasses like Mage, Shaman, Beserker, and it gives you a diverse selection of playstyles. Their combat abilities reflect their roles: lead vocalist Charlie screams attack and buff spells on the mic Lester, the lead guitarist, shreds spells on his axe The Rexicutioner fires projectiles from his drum set.
The members of this five-piece punk band are a fearsome bunch, and each protagonist sports a distinctive dark and twisted look reminiscent of Jhonen Vasquez’s Johnny the Homicidal Maniac comics.