Tonight We Riot (2020)

I smell what it's steppin in. it's a beat-em-up where you play the crowd, moving left to right as a single member of a riotous mass, simply replaced with another should you die, influencing a crowd. your extra lives are your comrades; they are also your buffs. stronger together. solidarity for factory town. witness me bloodbag.

it's just not, like... that fun? the presentation is great, but the feel is jank. might be a little too aware of what a DSA meeting feels like - if we are stronger together, why am I the only one with any self-preservation? why are my comrades liabilities? why do they always aim just to the side of where the trouble is? this is coming off the heels of playing broforce, a game that INFURIATED me to no end, but that I finished cuz it was also fun. its core moment-to-moment loop was good.

playing tonight we riot felt like homework. (it literally was, I gave it to myself as an assignment.) homework is not always miserable - I was good at math! - but an obligation. my leftist duty. and the role of the artist is not to make the revolution a reasonable chore.

bummerpants.

Is not a surprise that I like a game about a violent leftist revolution against captialism. And this is not my interpretation, Tonight We Riot is very, VERY open about what is trying to say. So, yes. This game directly caters to my wildest leftist fantasies and I love it for it.

Besides that, this is actually a very fun little indie brawler with a few Pikmin mechanics for good measure. Music is great, the retro aesthetic works fine and some action moments can be very intense and chaotic. The way we unlock weapons and how the difficulte is managed is great. Sadly, not all weapons are well balanced and it has a lot of technical issues. I'm playing the game in spanish. Why are the texts suddenly on french or russian?

Some people will never forgive Tonight we Riot because it 'promotes' violent protests, even when it makes clear that this is only because the world didn't left other choice.

Anyway, here's my full review in spanish.

PD: I also love that Pixel Pushers Union 512, the devs, are actually putting their money where their mouth is. They're a worker cooperative. No bosses. All their voices carry the same weight and earn the same amount of money. Other studios, like KO_OP Mode and Motion Twin are similar. I hope more follow example.

¡Viva la revolución!