2.5/5 because it still has Spikeout's gameplay and the SEGA vibes, new characters are cool, music has some bangers, but..

From the 5th stage onwards, you are going to absolutely get dogpiled by AI. You're essentially always fighting 1v3 against other players, but from there its where things get nasty: Try to focus on one guy and you'll get tackled by one or two more.

I spent too much time in Stage 6 and 7 just to complete those because of how common it was to get jumped, and even with the strat I saw in some videos that relied in using Lv2 Charge Attack > Throw [which is actually a strat in Spikeout too...except at least there you can stun enemies and bosses occasionally for a bit of time- here since its all player-like enemies, they quickly shake off it], it still takes a while.

Haven't beat Stage 8 yet, and I probably won't touch this in a while again due to that. Left on Shelved because I'm stupid and might come back to it but only because I saved a state at that stage to return whenever I feel like it.

they took spikeout's combat, added a bunch more weapons, improved the combat, and added some more characters. it's a lot of fun! but then you hit the last few stages

every fight being a 1vs3 works for a while, but the latter fights have overly aggressive and strong enemies that WILL work together to combo you to death. at that point, weapons are also only for your enemies too, because picking one up will almost guarantee that you get hit and comboed the fuck out of. most weapons suck too, but the bat, flamethrower, and hammer are all godsends IF the enemies let you pick them up

however, the enemies will make damn good use of the weapons themselves. they will pick them up and throw them at you from off screen, which is easy for them because the camera fucking sucks ASS. ultimately, it just feels like you don't really have the tools to REALLY play the game in the later stages, so the best strat is to throws since that's the only thing that gives you a moment of invincibility.

the final boss is an absolute cockguzzler because his second round requires you to beat his two allies first and then beat him, all before the timer runs out because he bullshitted his own fight score to high heavens so you can't win by time out yourself. this game is short as shit but it took me literal hours to beat that guy.

though it doesnt help that i was using hikaru, because she's cool. but she feels weak and useless compared to the likes of GORN, who also has the chaddest name i've ever seen.

still tho, huge improvement over spikeout's combat. even though the game is still bullshit, it feels like bullshit that's actually beatable. spikeout felt like bullshit that was only beatable by spamming continues. the enemies not spamming highly damaging attacks that give them iframes honestly makes all the difference.

the soundtrack is a banger btw, hidenori shoji and his gang go hard