Super Comboman is a 2D brawler platformer, downloadable for PC from Adult Swim Games.  And since my friend Leroy and PC games are a great combo themselves, he gets to write this review!  Check it out!

Super Comboman is a character action game developed by Interabang Entertainment and published by Adult Swim Games and is available for PC via Steam and Humble Store.

Super Comboman is a beat ’em up that has bigger expectations than simply being a beat ’em up. The game even warns players when you launch “Don’t Mash Buttons,” enticing players with dreams of a deep combat system. Sadly, Super Comboman is simply a beat ’em up mysteriously taking place in a 2D platformer with some fighting game mechanics clumsily added to the formula.

The biggest problem the game has is just the overall feel of the physics and the controls, everything feels slightly off, which is the death knell for what the game wants to be. And while the game tells you not to mash the buttons, the combat is not really that deep. You can get through most of the game with basic, light, light, heavy combos. Throwing enemies into the air for air combos and an occasional parry, plus fighting game style special moves you can buy (like fireballs and dragon punches) can be mixed in to make things more fun. That said, while there is more to the combat than the old arcade games where the genre got its start, it tends to distract from what made those game fun, namely plowing through mobs of weak enemies. Here, even the most basic enemy requires an allotment of time to get rid of and when there’s dozens of them per stage, it starts to drag things down. The game also has fairly floaty and clunky jumping and platforming mechanics. Wall jumping in particular is especially horrendous. Thankfully, the platforming is not really a focus.

On the other hand, the game looks great and has a great style. Cut-scenes are presented as animated comic book pages and the entire game looks like a bright, colorful, moving sticker book.

It’s not a broken game; it just trips over its own ambition. Who is it for? The platforming is poor, as a beat ’em up it drags on and on where it should and the fighting game mechanics are wasted on dummy mobs that don’t do much to fight back.

Kid Factor:

Animated fighting violence in comic book style, no blood though.  –Leroy Capasso

Tags: Reader Reviews!