Arts

Video Games: BroForce Combines Old School Action With Twist of Insanity

What do you get when you combine 80s/90s style action and old school side scrolling shoot ‘em up?  You get without a doubt one of the most insane and enjoyable video games ever conceived by mankind. 

BroForce comes to us from the developers of Free Lives Games and published by Devolver Digital.  In it, you take on various “bros” as you go through gunning down bad guys in this most hyper masculine, tongue-in-cheek game.  

The “bros” you play are tributes to notable characters of 80s/90s/00s action characters, such as Rambo (Rambro), The Terminator (The Brominator), and so forth.  You unlock more characters through the game by rescuing prisoners held by the bad guys, and when you do that you get an extra life in the process. 

The characters range from machine gun blasting commandos to samurai sword wielding assassins.  Obviously each has his own strengths and weaknesses.  Some do better facing a large crowd of ground troops, and some do better when facing the bigger bosses.  It’s all just a matter of luck with what characters you get. 

As I stated earlier, this game is very tongue-in-cheek.  The creators of the game are fully aware that the game they are creating is mindless schlock with characters based on other characters who are mainly known for blowing and shooting stuff up.  It’s in the same tone as something like Team America: World Police, to the point every check point is marked with an American flag and a voice going, “Yeah” in an overly macho tone. 

One of my favorite aspects of the game is that, when the game starts up or when you lose all your lives, you hear this overly macho voice scream stuff like “Let’s go!” and if you fail the level a certain number of times in a row, he even yells an overly dramatic “No!”

There aren’t that many problems with the game that I noticed. The game is still technically in production, but you can still download or “preorder” it on Stream for $14.99.  Or you play the “Brototype” at their website, Broforcegames.com. 

It’s a great tribute to classic gaming with a fun over-the-top tone that anyone should enjoy.  So give it a try, Bro!