I had this game on my radar for a bit cause it was brought to my attention from SchmupJunkie if I can remember, great channel btw. Despite being a fan of beat em ups, seeing this game in motion didn't entirely sell me on wishlisting it. It wasn't until EGS gave it away as a freebie recently and I played it with a friend and...Man I feel bad getting it for free on EGS this is one of the most enjoyable beatem ups I played in recent years and it might be among my favorites now.
The trailers don't really do it justice at all. Actually playing the game and feeling the movement and control, it felt soooo damn good. There's alot of depth to the game's combat and i love how each character has a varied moveset alongside unlocking more moves for them as the game progresses. You basically have fighting game controls too with parries, supers, cancels, its all here. The music is top notch (they got Johnny Gioeli on the fucking OST) and the visuals are badass. Some of the game's humor (visual & dialoguewise) doesn't land for me but its not enough to harken the experience. The game is fun as hell and I looooved causing so much carnage onscreen. Hell, they even have a mode where you can tag in another character MvC style, that's something I never seen any beat em up do.
My only issue with the game is how deaths work. If you die, there's a lot of waiting inbetween for the other player to hop back-in. Can't sacrifice one of your extra lives to resurrect a pal, or anything. You do come back on the next screen you go to, but you're stuck withe 0 lives and the character you selected. You only get your 2 designated lives back if everyone dies on a level. It feels like a weirdly archaic design choice when alot of beat em ups back then allowed for character switching and a lives reset upon a death with the penalty being a loss of score.
Overall though, Jitsu Squad is a VERY fun beat em up. I implore anyone to check it out if you love the genre, you won't be disappointed.
The trailers don't really do it justice at all. Actually playing the game and feeling the movement and control, it felt soooo damn good. There's alot of depth to the game's combat and i love how each character has a varied moveset alongside unlocking more moves for them as the game progresses. You basically have fighting game controls too with parries, supers, cancels, its all here. The music is top notch (they got Johnny Gioeli on the fucking OST) and the visuals are badass. Some of the game's humor (visual & dialoguewise) doesn't land for me but its not enough to harken the experience. The game is fun as hell and I looooved causing so much carnage onscreen. Hell, they even have a mode where you can tag in another character MvC style, that's something I never seen any beat em up do.
My only issue with the game is how deaths work. If you die, there's a lot of waiting inbetween for the other player to hop back-in. Can't sacrifice one of your extra lives to resurrect a pal, or anything. You do come back on the next screen you go to, but you're stuck withe 0 lives and the character you selected. You only get your 2 designated lives back if everyone dies on a level. It feels like a weirdly archaic design choice when alot of beat em ups back then allowed for character switching and a lives reset upon a death with the penalty being a loss of score.
Overall though, Jitsu Squad is a VERY fun beat em up. I implore anyone to check it out if you love the genre, you won't be disappointed.