Much like we did with Prince of Prussia last year, I wanted to give a quick shoutout to another hidden gem you can find on itch.io. This will be more a video game recommendation than a proper review, as I wanted to highlight a cool game you can play in your browser for free.

Backstreet Warriors is a new 8-bit beat’em up from SebaGamesDev. This is the solo developer, Sebastian Garcia, who previously created Fight’N Rage, a great beat’em up we covered back in 2021. Since Backstreet Warriors was created with PICO-8, it is obviously going to be a smaller project in its scope. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t also a ton of fun.

The premise of Backstreet Warriors is pretty straightforward, you have to “defeat 99 warriors in a non-stop street fight”. Ideally you would beat all 99 opponents in one go, without needing to continue. The game’s description calls it a “short, intense, minimalist score-based beat'em up”, which is rather spot on. It also mentions that the game is “focused on basic fighting and parry mechanics”. And that bit about parries really got my attention.

One of the coolest inclusions in Fight’N Rage was a parry mechanic. In fact, that game’s parry functioned almost the same way it does in SFIII: simply press forward into an oncoming strike with perfect timing and you nullify the attack. With this game, Garcia has again implemented a SF-like parry and—perhaps due to the smaller scope of the project—it plays an even bigger role in the moment-to-moment gameplay.

Backstreet Warriors basically takes play on a single screen, with enemies entering from the sides. There is some scrolling left or right, but only because the playfield is wider than your view. You don’t walk down a city street, encountering more enemies along the way; you basically stay put and the enemies come to you. There are two buttons, one to attack and one to jump.

Your fighter protagonist—who sports a sweet headband, by the way—has a three-hit combo that he uses to dish out punishment. The final hit is one huge punch that drives forward quite a distance, plowing into and knocking down any opponent in its path. This combo finisher feels very much like a punch from Balrog (Boxer) in Street Fighter, and it has a very satisfying hitstop to communicate its weighty impact. So sweet.

Now even with your big ol’ Balrog-style gigaton punch, your attacks can still be interrupted if your opponent can land a hit at the right time. Enemies will throw punches at you from short range, but can also whip out jump kicks from long range. The enemy’s varying attacks mean you’ll need to deploy defensive tactics from time to time; not just simply throw haymakers all day long.

And that is where the parry comes in. Tap the direction of an incoming attack with precise timing and you’ll take no damage, allowing you to immediately carry on with more attacks of your own.

As more enemies join in the fight, you will find yourself needing to fend off attackers from both sides, and the combative dance of Backstreet Warriors really gets cooking. There’s a wonderful rhythm to the action. Two punches here, a parry there, the full three-hit combo to knock down a whole group, a single input that ends up parrying two (or three) attacks, a quick counter-hit, etc., etc.… The resulting beat’em up experience is genuinely satisfying.

With this being a PICO-8 game, you might expect primitive visuals and limited sound, but Backstreet Warriors actually looks and sounds amazing. The sprite work for your player character and all the enemies is just absolutely fantastic. The stage also looks much more impressive than I was expecting, and the game’s color palette perfectly suits the retro arcade tone. There is basically only one background track for the whole game, but that’s really all you need. That one tune is appropriately rocking, with a hard-edge percussive beat.

If you enjoy beat’em ups at all, I highly recommend giving Backstreet Warriors a look. Even playing this game with my laptop keyboard—something I am generally not fond of doing—I found myself immediately hooked. This is, without a doubt, my new favorite PICO-8 game.

And…wait…I’m just now noticing a second character in the title screen… During gameplay, text flashes on the right side of the top of the screen saying “Press X to join in.” Oh my god…is this game two-player?!