Have Game, Will Play: Charlie Murder
Explaining the deep and emotional back-stories of Charlie and his literal band of misfits would take time away from more pressing matters. Apparently Gore Quaffer and some legion of evil is up to no good and are threatening the world or something. Charlie Murder and company will express their dislike of these actions by punching, kicking, slicing and mutilating hordes of enemies in this side scrolling beat ’em up from SkaStudios. Mr. Murder along with his cohorts represent the 5 classes that the game offers. Charlie is a Berzerker. A mage, a tank, a mesmer(?) and a shaman are the other choices. While traversing through the levels you will gather money, weapons, weaponized appendages, power-ups, clothing and even yeast. More on that later. There are shops to spend money on clothing, accessories and drinks. The duds you select have an effect on your offensive, defensive and resistive capabilities. Charlie or any character you pick, unlike most people, have windows phones and can receive emails with tips and useful notifications throughout the game. In addition to emails you can enjoy leveling your character up via the Squid mascoted twitter parody app on your phone as well. You can even take picture of barcodes within the game to unlock new items. I was quite surprised that the game had so items and systems. I did wish that the menus and phone interfaces were a bit larger but their size is likely due to the potential for four players on screen to be making changes in real-time. Each class also comes with a set of super moves bestowed upon them via tattoos that come in handy for crowd control and better defense. Gathering up the proper ingredients permits you to to microbrew your own character beneficial beverages. Charlie Murder at its core is a beat ’em up with a ton of customization and violent charm. It was very enjoyable solo and I’d imagine it’s even better with up to 3 friends either in the room or online. I didn’t even mention the vehicle levels. If you like beat ’em ups, take a stab at Charlie Murder.
Platform: XBLA
Price: $10, Buy for $10
Genre(s): Beat ’em up with RPG elements
Developer: SkaStudios