Technical Information

Developer: Almighty Games
Publisher: Almighty Games
Release Date: November 16, 2018

A beat’em up game filled with stereotypes of American high schools.
You control a chubby guy named “Fat Guy” who’s had enough of being bullied at school, so he decides to muster the courage to take on the world and invite the “Skool Girl” to the school dance.

Final Thoughts – Analyzing the Game as a Whole

Graphics and UI

The characters are cute, well-drawn, and very expressive.

I don’t particularly like cut-out animations. I think it’s rare for this type of animation to feel natural, and in the case of Bully Beatdown, it’s no different. The character movements feel a bit stiff.

I didn’t like the backgrounds. They’re all made up of straight lines, which creates a visual mismatch when compared to the other game elements, which have more organic shapes.

The menus and tutorial are straightforward and easy to understand.

Soundtrack and Sound Effects

I really liked the music! It’s lively rock that keeps you energized and eager to play and take on the world.

The sound effects aren’t anything special, but they do their job well.
Between levels, there are transitions that present the story in a comic-strip style. I think these moments would have benefited from voiced dialogue between the characters.

Gameplay

The first major obstacle for me was getting through the tutorial. Some commands are quite tricky to execute, and I had to take my time figuring them out.

The gameplay doesn’t offer anything particularly unique compared to a typical beat’em up. You punch enemies and progress through the levels. I admit that, at first, I found the game mediocre, but as I kept playing, I realized it’s actually quite fun. The background music, environments, and enemies work well together and kept me entertained.

You can upgrade your attacks as you use them, and each one deals a specific type of damage to enemies.

The hitboxes are a bit wonky, and for me, this is the game’s biggest flaw. It doesn’t ruin the experience, but it definitely could have been improved with more polish.

I beat the game on normal difficulty, but strangely, during gameplay, the game indicated that I was playing on easy (despite there being no such option).
In practice, the game isn’t very difficult, the challenge only really becomes noticeable during boss fights, especially the final one.

When you die, you can be revived by spending a certain number of coins, which are collected during the levels.

Replayability and Game Retention

Despite the game being fun, it didn’t really spark my interest in replaying it on another difficulty level or hunting for achievements.
Of course, this may vary from player to player. Overall, it’s a fairly mediocre game, you can feel that it’s amateurish — but it’s also genuinely fun.