Street Brawlers: Tower Defense Review

Down on the Streets

Street Brawlers: Tower Defense is the latest game from European publisher and developer MY.GAMES. Founded in 2019, the studio has brought us such titles as War Robots, Rush Royale and Left to Survive. Now, it’s introducing the newest spin on the tower defense genre entitled Street Brawlers. 

Street Brawlers isn’t MY.GAMES first tower defense game, and it shows. The game is a fun romp with all the usual expectations but enough of a twist to keep it feeling fresh. The primary concern is the amount of time it takes for leveling up to feel important. Unless you’re willing to dish out the dollars to progress more quickly, that is.

The Good

Street Brawlers is a must-play for anyone who fancies tower defense games. The game provides players with a series of character types with a variety of fighting styles. The sheer number of characters will scratch the “collect-them-all” itch of those who find the thrill in the chase. Progression is slow, however, so it is going to take quite a grind to complete your collection. 

The characters are cute, vary in appearance, and come in multiple classes. However, their mechanics are extremely similar. There is little significant difference between a sniper and a technologist, for example. This left me scratching my head as to the purpose of dividing them into classes. 

What sets Street Brawlers apart from many other tower defense games is that players can merge characters to increase their damage. When players have two characters of the same ilk, they can combine these characters to create a more powerful fighter. However, the twist comes in the random nature of this merging. If you merge two snipers, this does not mean you will receive a higher-level sniper. Instead, players may end up with a more powerful ninja or technologist.

For me, the most entertaining element of Street Brawlers was the PvP gameplay. The excitement of competition was able to stave off the feeling of repetition for longer than I expected. I anticipated each match, hoping for a greater challenge than the game prior. I also had no trouble finding someone to pair up against and loading times were quick.

Moreover, Street Brawlers has a co-op mode that adds a different element to gameplay. Instead of facing off against one another, players work together to take on large numbers of enemies for a certain number of rounds before a boss battle. It was reminiscent of Fire Fight in Halo 3: ODST. While not as intense as Halo, the co-op mode does a nice job of creating a new challenge for players to take on. The mode will keep you playing once the PvP grows stale.

The Not-so Good

Street Brawlers’ biggest issue is its slow progression rate. I’m pretty sure my one-year-old daughter will graduate high school before I collect every character. I might consider this a good thing if every PvP battle didn’t feel the same. It’s that Street Brawlers is trying to cash in on those who would rather avoid such a vicious grind.

Moreover, every battle takes place on the same map, with the same enemies and mostly the same heroes. Even if you do trade out heroes, you find they all play the same. The primary difference between each character is their appearance and what weapon they use to battle enemies. The animations for each character are identical. They either throw a knife or shoot a blaster weapon, but they all spin from side to side while doing so.

I did all I could to try and push myself as far into this game as possible to create a well-rounded review, but by the second hour, I was bored. I put a lot more hours in hoping things would get better as I upgraded characters, but that didn’t happen. The co-op was fun for a while due to the challenge. However, as soon as I beat the first level, I felt like I had done all there was to do.

The Final Word

I encourage all fans of tower defense games to try Street Brawlers. It may be the game you’ve been waiting for. However, for those who can take or leave the genre, I’d say do the latter on this one. It’s an extremely repetitive game with an abusive grind for progression to feel as though it matters. The characters are interesting at first but quickly lose their appeal when one realizes how similar they all are.