The Warriors: Street Brawl
The Warriors: Street Brawl is a beat 'em up scroller video game created by Latvian studio CXTM. It was released on the Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, and Xbox 360 in September 2009. It is based on the 1979 film The Warriors, which in turn is based on the 1965 novel of the same name written by Sol Yurick. The plot of the game is like the film. The player controls a street gang named the Warriors, leading them back to their home turf on Coney Island, after being unfairly blamed for the assassination of rival gang leader Cyrus in Van Cortlandt Park.
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| Developer(s) | CXTM |
|---|---|
| Publisher(s) | Paramount Digital Entertainment |
| Platform(s) | Xbox 360, Windows, macOS |
| Release |
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| Genre(s) | Beat 'em up |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Gameplay
The Warriors: Street Brawl is a beat 'em up scroller video game with the theme, characters, and setting of The Warriors. There are a several of play modes, including arena boss battles and multiplayer versus fights with other Warriors. Players control members of the gang The Warriors, with a total of six playable characters: Swan, Cochise, Vermin and Rembrandt, as well as the unlockable characters Mercy and Ajax. Players are encouraged to use weapons as they battle other gangs, with weapons such as knives, bats and crowbars available for use. The Warriors: Street Brawl features seven levels with three stages, for a total of 21 missions. In the single player mode of the game, players are supported by A.I.-controlled allies. The game is also available for multiplayer, with players able to either work together in co-operative play, or battle against each other.
Plot
Reception
The Warriors: Street Brawl received generally unfavourable reviews. Brett Todd of GameSpot stated in his review that while "Fans of the movie will appreciate the settings and enemy gangs," ultimately "You can't dig it." Todd says that "Ridiculously protracted levels, repetitive punch-ups, and murky graphics make it just about impossible to stick with the game long enough to see Luther clinking beer bottles on Coney Island." Todd closed his review stating that "...to get a real dose of Swan, Ajax, and the boys, you'd be better off popping the movie into your DVD player than spending 800 Microsoft points on this," giving the game only a 4.5/10.
IGN rated the game 3.3/10, classifying it as "Awful"; the review called The Warriors: Street Brawl a "poorly executed side-scrolling beat-'em up", criticising the game for its "sloppy controls, sluggish character movement, and far too little variety". GameSpot gave The Warriors: Street Brawl a 4.5/10 rating, criticising the game for its "long and dreary" campaign, "repetitive punch-ups" and "murky graphics"; however, the review also noted that fans of The Warriors film will "appreciate the settings and enemy gangs". On Metacritic, The Warriors: Street Brawl holds a rating of 40/100 based on 13 critics, which suggests reviews for the game are "Generally unfavourable".
Cyril Lachel of Gaming Nexus said of the game that it is "one of the most disappointing games of the year." Lachel claims that "instead of being a fun extra, it's a full laborious product that sucks all of the fun out of the property." He also says that "The problem with The Warriors is that it doesn't play fair. From the very get-go you are swarmed with more enemies than you can fight at any one time. And just to make things harder (and increase the size of the level) you are forced to deal with reinforcements." Lachel scored the game a "C." The game has a current score of 40% at Metacritic.