Brawl Street

Brawl Street is a side-scrolling beat 'em up drawn like a nineties Saturday-morning cartoon, all thick outlines, squashy poses and big comic POW bursts. Six stages cross the city: Sunset Avenue, a Line 9 subway platform, the rooftops by moonlight, Pier 21 at dawn, the Pixel Palace arcade and Viper Tower. Each one is two to four fight scenes where the street locks, the gang walks in from both sides and a GO arrow sends you on, and a boss waits at the end: Big Moe the wrestler, the twins Lefty and Righty, Rollo the skate king, Hook the crane operator, a Mega-Mech robot suit and Vex, the gang leader.

You walk up and down the street as well as along it, so lining up with a goon is half the fight. Three punches make a combo that ends in an uppercut, a kick knocks back everyone in front of you and leaves them dizzy, and walking into a dizzy goon grabs him: knee him, or throw him into his friends. Jump for a flying kick, pick up bats, pipes and crates, and smash bins for apples, burgers and roast chicken. When you are surrounded, the special move clears the space around you for a little health. Punks, bruisers, skaters, shield goons who stop punches and bomb throwers all get knocked out cold, see stars and flash away.

Kit is quick, Jax is balanced and Brick hits like a truck. Normal starts gentle, Hard brings tougher gangs, and a stage takes a quick couple of minutes. The combo counter multiplies your score up to five times, you have three lives and continues, the stage select remembers what you have cleared, and every stage ends on a results card with your score, time, max combo and best. Beat Vex to unlock the endless brawl, with waves that never stop and a boss every fifth wave, and chase a high score. Keyboard or touch, and everything is saved in your browser.