Treachery in Beatdown City

GameSpotFunké Joseph

8/10

Treachery in Beatdown City makes sure to punch up and stay fresh with its tactical street fights.

Nintendo World ReportDonald Theriault

7.5/10

If you’re down with all sorts of in-jokes and spent way too much time online in the late 2000s, you probably already picked up Treachery in Beatdown City. If you’re still on the fence, it’s a brisk experience with a unique style of gameplay, and the dialogue is as skippable as you need it to be. It’s a good debut game from a studio I’ll be keeping an eye on going forward.

RPGSiteElizabeth Henges

7/10

While this beat-em-up and RPG mix is solid, a few things hold it back from being truly great.

Gamer EscapeEliot Lefebvre

7/10

It’s got fun characters, great presentation, and a system that has some stumbles but is ultimately a neat idea. And let’s face it, if you’ve ever been in a city, bodyslamming people who won’t stop taking up the whole damn sidewalk feels like an appropriate response.

Capsule ComputersJamie Laike Tsui

7/10

A solid new take on the classic side scrolling beat ‘em up

Game InformerMatt Miller

6.25/10

Treachery in Beatdown City is a runner that starts strong, but loses steam with each leg of the race. The innovative twist on beat-em-ups had me intrigued and exited. In pixelated city stages, you maneuver your hero into place in front of a combatant before pausing and selecting from a variety of moves like you might in an RPG, and then unpausing the action to see how it all plays out – similar in some respects to modern Fallout games and their V.A.T.S. system. And in those early minutes, the narrative suggests an incisive and satirical snipe at societal ills. But narrative and gameplay fail t...

DestructoidCaitlin Cooke

6/10

I enjoyed my time with Treachery in Beatdown City, and despite a lack of overall polish, it does a good job of emulating beloved 8-bit fighters while maintaining its own ground as a modern brawler. I’m still left thinking about some of the unique strategic fighting elements, and as the fake PSA in the beginning of the game advises, winners don’t always have to mash buttons to have a good time.

Pure NintendoJames Colozzi

5/10

President Orama’s been kidnapped by ninjas. The cops are shut down by a corrupt mayor. Who do you call? Treachery in Beatdown City is a unique brawler with s

ShackNewsOzzie Mejia

4/10

Unfortunately, because the pace feels so plodding and this beat 'em up formula doesn't mix particularly well with RPG-style combat, it's hard to recommend coming back for more. I like Treachery in Beatdown City's concept, but it's not something that really worked for me in practice. You can't always mix peanut butter with chocolate and end up with something good.