Excessm approach towards the beat 'em up genre is fascinatingly well-done. One x Shota ACT: Smash Boy is a beat 'em up with very interesting gameplay and some nice events and extra contents for many type of players to enjoy.
Art: Excessm's classic artstyle. Can't say I hate them, their artstyle is very noticeable and beautifully made. For this game specifically, the fighting part isn't animated a lot, each individual frames is string together in a very simple manner, so you're not seeing a lot of peak fighting beat 'em up animation. Instead, Excessm does what they do best, use a bunch of RPG stock effects to combine with the frames they drawn to make the illusions and impact of the fighting. Is it good? Hell yeah it is, even though I can closely see the lack of actual animations and a lot of reused frames, Excessm did well selling that feeling of fighting. Also, some of the frames and animations I really love are references to actual fighting game attacks, shoutout to Trample drawn to look like GGML Potemkin's c.S, I had a good laugh with it.
Sounds: all of the sounds in here are very satisfying and informative to your gameplay. That feeling when you land a counter, perform a super move, or getting that big charge attack are all amazing thanks to the sounds chosen. What about music? Well, it's fine I guess... when I did hear them. Because for the entire duration of the game, I didn't hear the normal songs, I pulled out my awesome custom music that the game allows you to put in yourself. You can customize the BGM via a setting in the options menu, and the sheer fact you can use any songs as the theme of beating up women deserves an applause of its own (also, I used Guilty Gear's music, and it's pretty funny that there's a Guilty Gear reference in this game which I mentioned in the last section). This is easily one of my favourite aspect of the game, the amount of customization you can do in... basically anywhere. More on that later in the review.
Gameplay: an interesting spin on the beat 'em up formula.
-Unlike your standard beat 'em ups, Smash Boy allows you to only move between 3 lanes, instead of freely moving up and down. This lane-based movement is what differentiate the game from the other beat 'em ups as well as one of the core mechanics of fighting in this game. There's some interesting thing this mechanic has created: advanced movement, new defensive options, lane switching attacks and attacks that hits other lanes as well. Speaking of attacks-
-Attacks and defense: a very unique approach towards the battling part, too. Instead of the same old 5 hits combo from mashing your normal attack button, special attack button, kick button, etc. etc. or something down the line of that, Smash Boy restricts you to the same 4 hits combo, a charge move by holding down the attack button, a dodge attack by dodging and attack, and a super attack. BUT, you can customize it. Before or during the battle, you can customize your combo sequence, your charge, dodge and super attack and create a setup of attacks. This makes the game's combat system very diverse and allows for a lot of creativity into making different combos, replicating a character you like from other games, or just being plain funny. There's a lot of attacks to pick from, so you better go hit the lab. Unlike Parade Buster (one of Excessm other games that I've played), mechanics in this game don't actually make the game extremely lame, and the combat is much more fleshed out and interesting, so I think this game's combat and mechanics are much more solid.
-Enemies: much like standard beat 'em ups, enemies aren't something crazy to go about. They can fight back and fight really well, with some flashy attacks and decent synergies. You just have to approach with some simple strategies in mind. Aside from that, each enemies, even the bosses aren't that interesting, challenging or test that much of your game knowledge.
-Difficulty: in fact, overall the game feels very easy for a beat 'em up. You get an enormous amount of SP (basically your currency to upgrade and buy things). Even at the start of the game, your SP is so much, you can buy everything available in shop because it's just too damn cheap. Upgrading is also not a problem at all, by the time upgrades seems expensive, one game is all that it takes to upgrade a few setups easily. You basically have no problem with currency management. Plus, subquests in here are also a joke, none of them are hard or challenge you to big brain of some way to beat them, unlike Parade Buster where you need some brainstorming to get a setup to work. The game is also fast (if you didn't take your time exploring the combo setups), and the main story isn't even that hard (even though I'm playing on Hard mode). Enemies also drops a variety of helpful items which ranges anywhere from heal to 10 seconds of invincibilty. It makes the game accessible, but damn does it not itch my crave for some hardcore fighting.
Overall I say the gameplay is fun, it's different and it's good, but it's kind of easy and although I have little problems with that, they could've just make the game Hard mode actually hard and make more easier difficulties.
H-scenes: classic Excessm. There's a few events that you can go through in the story mode as well as some hidden ones. For the H-scenes themselves, there's certainly a decent amount of them. They're great for you Oneshota enthusiasts out there. The only problem is that there's still not a proper gallery mode, closest to that are Records, which you can only see brief animation loops of the enemies doing H-attacks on you. For how the game interacts with the H-part, there are a few ways to decrease your climax damage and there's also a risk-reward waiting game. You gain Tension (I swear, this whole game is a Guilty Gear reference, can you blame me for not using its music?), which is the meter you use to perform supers by dealing and taking hits and also during H-scenes. You can opt to wait out for some meter gain and maybe lose some health, either way you'll get it back in no time. Enemies can also kick your balls (ouch) and you'll lose all of the meter. Uh... win? (I am not masochistic enough for this).
Misc.: I mentioned how customizable the game is. Well the settings are wonderful, it helps you customize things like controls, SFW mode (really? do you really think you'd turn that on?), screen effects, etc. The story is also meh, it's the same as always, but I like the aesthetics so, still a win. Post-game content here is the Dark Alley, and much like classic Excessm, this one is a miss with randomize battles and even random rewards, almost a nothing-burger. Also, I like some of the minigames in the story mode, it breaks away from the fighting so if you feel like you're kind of bored from the fighting, nothing gets the job done by controlling the girl you're trying to save and shoots cannon balls toward your BF's enemies.
Conclusion: Smash Boy breaks the mold of beat 'em ups and also offer you various of different ways to enjoy the game. I'd say you'll have a lot of fun messing around with what the game offers you, though I can't say for sure how (and how much) you will enjoy the game. Personally, I think it deserves a high rating. 9/10.
Art: Excessm's classic artstyle. Can't say I hate them, their artstyle is very noticeable and beautifully made. For this game specifically, the fighting part isn't animated a lot, each individual frames is string together in a very simple manner, so you're not seeing a lot of peak fighting beat 'em up animation. Instead, Excessm does what they do best, use a bunch of RPG stock effects to combine with the frames they drawn to make the illusions and impact of the fighting. Is it good? Hell yeah it is, even though I can closely see the lack of actual animations and a lot of reused frames, Excessm did well selling that feeling of fighting. Also, some of the frames and animations I really love are references to actual fighting game attacks, shoutout to Trample drawn to look like GGML Potemkin's c.S, I had a good laugh with it.
Sounds: all of the sounds in here are very satisfying and informative to your gameplay. That feeling when you land a counter, perform a super move, or getting that big charge attack are all amazing thanks to the sounds chosen. What about music? Well, it's fine I guess... when I did hear them. Because for the entire duration of the game, I didn't hear the normal songs, I pulled out my awesome custom music that the game allows you to put in yourself. You can customize the BGM via a setting in the options menu, and the sheer fact you can use any songs as the theme of beating up women deserves an applause of its own (also, I used Guilty Gear's music, and it's pretty funny that there's a Guilty Gear reference in this game which I mentioned in the last section). This is easily one of my favourite aspect of the game, the amount of customization you can do in... basically anywhere. More on that later in the review.
Gameplay: an interesting spin on the beat 'em up formula.
-Unlike your standard beat 'em ups, Smash Boy allows you to only move between 3 lanes, instead of freely moving up and down. This lane-based movement is what differentiate the game from the other beat 'em ups as well as one of the core mechanics of fighting in this game. There's some interesting thing this mechanic has created: advanced movement, new defensive options, lane switching attacks and attacks that hits other lanes as well. Speaking of attacks-
-Attacks and defense: a very unique approach towards the battling part, too. Instead of the same old 5 hits combo from mashing your normal attack button, special attack button, kick button, etc. etc. or something down the line of that, Smash Boy restricts you to the same 4 hits combo, a charge move by holding down the attack button, a dodge attack by dodging and attack, and a super attack. BUT, you can customize it. Before or during the battle, you can customize your combo sequence, your charge, dodge and super attack and create a setup of attacks. This makes the game's combat system very diverse and allows for a lot of creativity into making different combos, replicating a character you like from other games, or just being plain funny. There's a lot of attacks to pick from, so you better go hit the lab. Unlike Parade Buster (one of Excessm other games that I've played), mechanics in this game don't actually make the game extremely lame, and the combat is much more fleshed out and interesting, so I think this game's combat and mechanics are much more solid.
-Enemies: much like standard beat 'em ups, enemies aren't something crazy to go about. They can fight back and fight really well, with some flashy attacks and decent synergies. You just have to approach with some simple strategies in mind. Aside from that, each enemies, even the bosses aren't that interesting, challenging or test that much of your game knowledge.
-Difficulty: in fact, overall the game feels very easy for a beat 'em up. You get an enormous amount of SP (basically your currency to upgrade and buy things). Even at the start of the game, your SP is so much, you can buy everything available in shop because it's just too damn cheap. Upgrading is also not a problem at all, by the time upgrades seems expensive, one game is all that it takes to upgrade a few setups easily. You basically have no problem with currency management. Plus, subquests in here are also a joke, none of them are hard or challenge you to big brain of some way to beat them, unlike Parade Buster where you need some brainstorming to get a setup to work. The game is also fast (if you didn't take your time exploring the combo setups), and the main story isn't even that hard (even though I'm playing on Hard mode). Enemies also drops a variety of helpful items which ranges anywhere from heal to 10 seconds of invincibilty. It makes the game accessible, but damn does it not itch my crave for some hardcore fighting.
Overall I say the gameplay is fun, it's different and it's good, but it's kind of easy and although I have little problems with that, they could've just make the game Hard mode actually hard and make more easier difficulties.
H-scenes: classic Excessm. There's a few events that you can go through in the story mode as well as some hidden ones. For the H-scenes themselves, there's certainly a decent amount of them. They're great for you Oneshota enthusiasts out there. The only problem is that there's still not a proper gallery mode, closest to that are Records, which you can only see brief animation loops of the enemies doing H-attacks on you. For how the game interacts with the H-part, there are a few ways to decrease your climax damage and there's also a risk-reward waiting game. You gain Tension (I swear, this whole game is a Guilty Gear reference, can you blame me for not using its music?), which is the meter you use to perform supers by dealing and taking hits and also during H-scenes. You can opt to wait out for some meter gain and maybe lose some health, either way you'll get it back in no time. Enemies can also kick your balls (ouch) and you'll lose all of the meter. Uh... win? (I am not masochistic enough for this).
Misc.: I mentioned how customizable the game is. Well the settings are wonderful, it helps you customize things like controls, SFW mode (really? do you really think you'd turn that on?), screen effects, etc. The story is also meh, it's the same as always, but I like the aesthetics so, still a win. Post-game content here is the Dark Alley, and much like classic Excessm, this one is a miss with randomize battles and even random rewards, almost a nothing-burger. Also, I like some of the minigames in the story mode, it breaks away from the fighting so if you feel like you're kind of bored from the fighting, nothing gets the job done by controlling the girl you're trying to save and shoots cannon balls toward your BF's enemies.
Conclusion: Smash Boy breaks the mold of beat 'em ups and also offer you various of different ways to enjoy the game. I'd say you'll have a lot of fun messing around with what the game offers you, though I can't say for sure how (and how much) you will enjoy the game. Personally, I think it deserves a high rating. 9/10.
