Bud Spencer & Terence Hill - Slaps And Beans

I came into Slaps and Beans the way I come into most things that aren't competitive shooters: mildly skeptical, controller already in hand, ready to give it exactly one hour before calling it. What I got was a cheerful, pixel-art side-scrolling brawler with a surprisingly catchy soundtrack and a tolerance for its own repetition that is, honestly, higher than it should be. The setup is simple. You pick either Bud Spencer, a slow tank of a brawler whose overhead chop hits like a freight train, or Terence Hill, a nimble and quick character whose iconic rapid-slap special keeps enemies stunned long enough to feel properly satisfying. In single-player you can swap between them on the fly, with the AI handling whoever is sitting out. The combat toolkit is light and heavy attacks, a block and parry system that reviewers have called overpowered (fair), stamina managed by eating beans or drinking beer between waves, and the genuinely fun option to pick up a downed enemy and use them as a projectile at their friends. That last bit never gets old. Beyond that, the moveset runs dry quickly. There are very few combos per character, and the parry system trivializes most of the threat in the room once you clock it. Enemy variety is thin - roughly three minion archetypes repeated across all stages, with only cosmetic changes as the settings shift. The settings themselves are a genuine highlight if you know the source material. The game hops from a Wild West saloon to Miami street fights to a tropical island, all drawn from the duo's 1970s and 1980s film catalogue. The pixel art is sharp and detailed, one of the stronger visual packages in the indie beat-em-up space, and the soundtrack leans into the spaghetti western comedy tone in a way that makes the whole thing feel more coherent than it has any right to. The story glues it together with slapstick dialogue and set-piece jokes that land better if you grew up watching these films, but the gags are broad enough that complete newcomers can follow along. Mini-games break up the brawling at regular intervals - pot-throwing sequences, eating contests, fairground-style reflex challenges - and they do meaningful work padding out the pacing. Without them, the base combat loop goes stale around the ninety-minute mark. With them, the full run lands at roughly three to four hours, which is about the right amount of time before the enemy repetition becomes genuinely annoying. Critical reception sits around a 63 on Metacritic, and that feels honest. Steam players rate it significantly higher at 91 percent positive, which tells you the audience finding this game is already bought into the vibe. The honest call on who this is for: two people on a couch who want something low-pressure and funny for an evening. The local co-op is where the game breathes properly, with both characters covering each other's weaknesses and the competitive score element giving you something to argue about between stages. Solo is playable but thin. There is no online multiplayer, which in 2025 is a real limitation - the entire experience is local-only. If you are expecting a Streets of Rage 4 level of mechanical depth, go play Streets of Rage 4. This one trades depth for charm, and it makes that trade knowingly.

Fred · Scout Team

Shooters

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