River City Melee Mach!!

If parachuting onto an island with 99 other people (or, alternatively, staring at a black hole for hours) is your exclusive definition of Battle Royal(e), we can be fairly certain that you weren't around at a time when Kunio’s 8-bit, 4-player multitap-enabled Famicom rumbles coined the expression.

Kunio and his crew of troublemakers unleash adolescent violence in this new multi-player brawler. Featuring numerous combatants, weapons, and special moves, River City Melee Mach!! may scratch the battle royale itch for people who don't fancy Fortnite or PUBG.

Here, you have a great four-player battle mode with plenty of options, and a fun endless mode, but that’s basically it in terms of meaningful content, and for $14 I honestly can only recommend this game for a very specific niche. The basic controls may be simple enough that anyone can join in and mess around, but when there’s also not much to the game as a result, then it doesn’t really bode well for being a lengthy investment of your time.

At times, River City Melee Mach!! struggles under the weight of its own ambition. Attempting to balance a competitive brawler that features over 180 playable characters is a herculean task.