Mediatonic's side-scrolling brawler puts a sweet twist on the beat-em-up genre.
The real genius, however, lies in the concept. Dashforth and Scampwick don't use life meters. Instead, the audience is the motivator. The more you chain together satisfying combos without getting hit, the more enthralled they become, and the wilder they get in the seats. By the same token, the more poorly you perform, the more likely the audience will become annoyed, and the show will shut down. It's an excellent move, and a real treat to see them performing the wave and throwing stuff around when you're on a roll.
As you proceed, you can also complete challenges in each stage, such as perfect parries on incoming objects (done with the touch of a button at the right time, nice) or beating up a certain number of enemies. By doing this, you get an even better score performance, and eventually gain access to new moves, like body slams and pulverizing co-op moves, that make the combat even more ridiculously good.
Though the game is still somewhat beaten, the sheer potential of going back in and beating up "thugs" in new ways is really something great. Plus, the co-op works moderately well, even though I would've preferred a few more "actors" joining Dashforth in his quest. Just a minor request.
