Mayhem Brawler

I went into Mayhem Brawler expecting a forgettable side-scroller and came out genuinely impressed by how much craft a small Turkish studio packed into what is, on the surface, a pretty familiar genre exercise. The premise is an urban fantasy city policed by a Stronghold task force of superpowered officers, and the setting gives Hero Concept permission to throw genuinely weird enemies at you: vampires that drain your health mid-combo, street mages who conjure weapons from nothing, enemies who teleport behind you before swinging. That variety keeps the moment-to-moment fighting more alert than the genre average. You pick from three characters with distinct playstyles. Star is a fast, light-damage telekinetic specialist built for crowd control. Trouble is the balanced all-rounder with a bruising presence. Dolphin is the slow powerhouse for players who enjoy trading raw punishment. The combat system layers jumping, dashing, a dedicated block button, weapon pickups from smashed crates and defeated enemies, and three flavors of special move tied to a refilling meter: a crowd-clearing defensive blast, a focused forward attack, and an aerial assault. Post-launch patches added air dashes and mid-air juggle combos, which meaningfully widened the toolkit. What the game does not offer is the deep combo expression of Fight N Rage or Streets of Rage 4, so players chasing 70-hit streaks will find the ceiling comes up faster than they'd like. The structural twist that sets Mayhem Brawler apart from a straight corridor brawler is its branching path system. After most stages a choice appears, routing you to different levels, different bosses, and ultimately one of three endings. Out of 12 total stages you'll see seven in a single run, meaning full completion requires multiple playthroughs. Each chapter opens with a hand-drawn comic-panel cutscene accompanied by a running in-universe social media feed that doubles as light satire on public reaction to police violence. It is a surprisingly considered framing device for a genre that usually gets by on pure muscle. The art throughout draws clear inspiration from early 90s Image Comics aesthetics, bold outlines, saturated color, hyper-expressive character design, and the guitar-heavy soundtrack matches that energy beat for beat. The honest critique: solo runs can tip into frustration. Enemies cancel your combos with their own Payback counter-condition, some mid-tier goons have health pools that overstay their welcome, and projectile-heavy enemy groups punish the single player more harshly than the game seems to intend. Local co-op for up to four players is where the experience truly opens up. The absence of online co-op stings on PC, though Steam Remote Play and Parsec provide a workable unofficial fix. Arcade mode, unlocked after your first campaign clear, strips all story scenes and runs you through a single-credit gauntlet, a fine harder-line option once the story paths are familiar. A completionist who wants all three endings and every level lands somewhere around seven to eight hours total, which sits comfortably for the genre. For a game that could easily have been a throwaway Streets of Rage 4 shadow, Mayhem Brawler earns its own space with genuine worldbuilding, a polished and evolving combat system, and presentation that communicates real artistic intent. If you play it alone on the default difficulty, manage your expectations around combo depth. If you have a couch partner or two, it becomes something easy to recommend without reservation. Kai, Scout Team

Valve rates this game Steam Deck Verified. Runs flawlessly on Linux out of the box. Based on 5 ProtonDB community reports.

Be the first to comment on Mayhem Brawler.