Jitsu Squad

I have a soft spot for the kind of game that feels like it was built inside someone's head for years before a single pixel hit the screen, and Jitsu Squad carries that energy. Tanuki Creative Studio, a one-team outfit from the Netherlands, spent the better part of seven years on this thing, ran two Kickstarter campaigns, and the result lands somewhere between the controlled chaos of a Capcom arcade cabinet and the modern polish of Streets of Rage 4. That genealogy is earned, not borrowed. The four playable characters are the heart of it. Hero Yamagiwa, the raccoon shinobi, is the accessible starting point, a well-rounded katana fighter described by the developers themselves as the Ryu of the squad. Baby O'Hara is the speed-and-projectile specialist, a cyber ninja bunny whose attacks literally change her outfit mid-combo. Jazz Amun, the kung-fu frog with a golden pipe and a huge afro, is built for air combos and rewards players willing to put in the lab time. Aros Helgason rounds things out as the muscle, a Viking warthog with wrestling grabs, a metal arm, and a machine gun for when subtlety runs dry. Each character earns scrolls through fights to unlock new moves, and character-specific secondary weapons like Jazz's spear, Baby's bombs, and Hero's flaming sword open up new combo routes as stages progress. Bosses even get their own Fury Mode mid-fight, transforming into a second phase before snapping back, which keeps even the late-game from feeling rote. The visual presentation is genuinely something. Every frame is hand-drawn, backgrounds are packed with winking references to Marvel vs. Capcom, Guilty Gear, Samurai Shodown, and Kill Bill, and the neon-hued motion blurs that fire off on every hit make the screen feel alive even when nothing particularly meaningful is happening. The soundtrack, composed by co-developer Sebastien Romero, swings from jazz to heavy metal depending on the planet, and the vocalized tracks are outright unhinged in the best way. Crush 40's Johnny Gioeli lending his voice to the intro screen is exactly the flavor of swing-for-the-fences creative decision that makes small studios memorable. That said, the honesty corner: the campaign clocks in at roughly two hours per character, and several real complaints follow from that brevity. Tag Team Mode, arguably the most interesting way to play, unlocks only after completing the campaign once, and the single save slot means swapping between co-op runs and solo playthroughs requires a full restart. There is no online co-op at all, so the four-player ceiling is strictly a couch proposition. The progression system, where characters max out just before the final stage, means late-unlocked moves barely see action on a first run, and no New Game Plus means replaying strips you back to zero. Post-launch updates have addressed bugs and balance, and a Kickstarter-funded road map promises a Boss Rush mode, speed run timer, and New Game Plus, but as of writing those remain pending. Steam players carry a notably strong reception rating, and the consensus across critics lands the combat as genuinely excellent, with the content depth as the honest caveat. For solo players who love the genre, this is a focused, beautifully crafted two-hour sprint with strong replay hooks if you want to see all four characters through. For groups with a couch and three free controllers, the chaos ceiling is high and the referential humor lands more often than it misses. The game knows what it is, and within those bounds, it absolutely delivers.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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