There is unrest in the city as gangs and crooked corporations continue to proliferate and bully out the competition. Sidney Flintlock and Justine Jacobs have had enough and team up to defend their favorite video store from the local gang attempting to burn it to the ground. After their altercation, a fight for control of the city ensues.

“Breakneck City” is a fun throwback to old fighting games, but has a few persistent issues that may drive away some players.
The first thing I was greeted with after starting the game for the first time was the chunky and bright graphics. This is hands down the most charming aspect of the game, featuring “low poly” (lower polygon count on the models which makes for a blocky appearance) characters and environments that bring out the nostalgia of old fighting games. Every level felt reminiscent of the late ‘90s fighting games, whether that was battling thugs in the low light streets or battling crooks in strobe light nightclubs. It may not be everyone’s preference to play a game that intentionally uses lower quality graphics, but I can appreciate the dedication to the style. Something I didn’t find as enjoyable, however, was the flow of combat.

Engaging in combat is basic and lacks impact or complexity. There aren’t any combos to string together or any special abilities to spice up fights. There are weapons that can be picked up and used, but they don’t provide anything interesting besides extra damage against foes to warrant using them. And that’s if they even work in the first place. Weapons like the pistol are clunky, hard to aim and sometimes don’t fire at all. After I fired all the rounds in the magazine, the empty gun just floated in the environment.

I encountered a few more bugs that were of minor annoyance, and some even barred my progress completely. When hitting multiple enemies, the game can lag, causing the screen to freeze for a few seconds every time I landed a blow. Other times I would dodge away from an enemy only to clip through a wall and fall out of the level. The most irritating bug I experienced was an issue with enemies not entering the zone properly. When fighting at certain points in the level, the game puts up barriers that will only go away after you defeat everyone in the zone. However, if I pushed an enemy outside of this boundary, they would sometimes not come back, effectively locking me out from progressing. Resetting a checkpoint always fixed the issue, but it still made the already dull combat a bit more frustrating.

There was one aspect of fighting that I found quite interesting and thought definitely carried the experience, which was the focus on environmental combat. There were a lot of interactable elements in the game world that I had at my disposal to kick and throw enemies into. It was satisfying to send an enemy flying through a stack of boxes for huge damage, or to take out a large enemy in one hit by sending them crashing through a skyscraper window.

Containing only six levels, “Breakneck City” didn’t take me long to beat, but it was still an amusing experience. I also played a few levels in the two player cooperative mode, which worked well for the most part. While I don’t think the game is perfect, I’m willing to look past the flaws for two main reasons. The first is the bargain friendly price point, sitting comfortably at $15.

For such a low price, I still think there is some fun to be had fighting baddies in this nostalgic beat-em-up, especially if you have a friend to play with. The other reason is that the game is developed by Renegade Sector Games, an independent development studio staffed by one person: Alec Stamos. This studio builds pulpy, low poly games, and I really respect the aspirations of the developer. I think that “Breakneck City” is a great jumping-in point for those interested in indie games, as well as those looking for a nostalgic fighting game experience, even if there are a few rough edges.