Berserker Barrage!
Jitsu Squad is as flashy as it is action-packed. It’s filled to the brim with numerous pop-culture references and recognizable quips, special moves, and a wide assortment of baddies to absolutely decimate. If you’re a fan of the side-scrolling brawlers of the 90’s and have a few friends over, then this title is certainly worth a look.
While Jitsu Squad can be a fairly quick adventure to see through, with my runtime clocking in at around 2 and half hours, there is a decent amount of variety here in leveling up each of the four heroes you can adventure with. And, upon completion, you’ll unlock Tag Team mode, which allows you to swap between each character at any time, which to be honest is a mode that I wish was standard right from the start.
Jitsu Squad has a fairly quick-to-explain and paper thin story; An evil force named Origami has procured a legendary artifact called the Kusanagi Stone and has used it to grant untold power to a collective of villains that seek to protect him and his precious stone. Master Ramen then summons forth four heroes of his own to stop this evil force once and for all.
While this sort of setup doesn’t require much more, It is a shame that there is little to no information regarding the heroes themselves or their Master. You catch glimpses of who they are during the story as they encounter old friends and rivals, but this only happens for two of the four characters.
The Jitsu Squad is composed of four heroes; Hero Yamagawa, Baby O’Hara, Jazz, and Aros Helgason. The game offers four-player co-op, but as the game is only local multiplayer, I was unable to test it, given the lack of online play and available IRL friends. You’ll then take your squad through eight levels each packed with unique enemies, setting, and a boss encounter. The animation and style this game contains is absolutely gorgeous and the glimpse of several behind-the-scenes pieces of artwork during the credits was a fun offering of how the game’s art design came to be.
As you take down baddie after baddie, you are going to earn scrolls. These act as your experience, granting new abilities and moves as you progress. This method does limit being able to swap back out to the main menu and try out new characters mid-way through the campaign as they will be at a huge disadvantage unless you grind away previous levels to get them up to fighting form. Regardless, you unlock a wide range of special attacks, summonable screen-clearing titans, and find guest summons littered about, including Twitch Steamer and fighting game enthusiast Maximilian Dood.
While these guest summons are interesting, I had no clue who the remaining guest stars were apart from a certain green and purple duo that was a treat to see show up here. While these attacks do considerable damage, they can only be used once you find them, limiting their effect to the there and now.
Combat is impressively fast and chaotic, with jump attacks, uppercuts, ranged slashes and more. I also appreciated that the hit detection and mobility always felt fair and enjoyable. I never felt like my attacks were simply hitting air or that the lane based combat had me wiffing all my attacks left and right. Throws felt great, but I will say that having the food item pickup and your throw on the same button to be a pretty big misstep as it often got in the way of trying to heal when surrounded by enemies.
Each of the four characters pack similar upgrades but their choice of weapons does stand out to offer enough variety in gameplay, at least to a certain extent. Baby O'Hara throws out daggers, and Aros the Warthog Viking uses his fists while saving his sword for a massive uppercut. Hero and Jazz each use their respective weapons as a standard melee attack in a sword and hammer-like club, respectively.
As you progress through each stage, you'll unlock secondary weapons that are unique to each character, from Jazz's spear, Baby’s bombs, Aros’s machine gun, to a flaming sword that Hero can use to set enemies ablaze. These use a yellow meter that builds up as you fight bad guys and also earn far quicker via pickups. A seperate red meter is then used to summon the previously mentioned screen-clearing titans that replenish should you fall in battle and spawn back with one of your saved-up lives.
One aspect of combat that I need to mention is how it felt a lot like Capcom fighting games with uppercuts and some other attacks having a tiny bit of slowdown to make their impact really mean something. In fact, it felt a lot like Marvel vs Capcom in how the game felt to play. It wasn't long into thinking that that one of the enemies, packing a set of three claws on each hand, shouted some variation of "Berserker Barrage!", making my comparison come full circle, it was quite a pleasant surprise.
One part of combat that I never took advantage of was the delayed attack. By pressing Y and then waiting until your character would have an electrical glow about them, you then press attack again. Given how fast the combat is, this method of a delayed attack never felt satisfying to wait for. You can also parry, and this helps out a lot during a few boss encounters as it gives you the ability to not only block their attacks but get in a few hits after their efforts have been deflected. Lastly is a Fury mode that grants you bonus damage for a short period of time while you are invincible.
All this action is peppered with a pretty high energy soundtrack by Crush 40’s Johnny Gioeli, famous for the iconic Sonic the Hedgehog music. There are plenty of songs that really work here, flowing nicely alongside the game’s fast and energetic combat. Characters have plenty of spoken dialogue as well during a few cutscenes mostly in the way of cliche lines and pop culture references, but I’ll honestly say that at least a few jokes did hit, just not that many of them.
Bosses are rather engaging, but the juggle attacks you can perform to off-screen enemies can often make them a bit too easy. I had to laugh at the Rhino boss, Balthazar, that has this awful Fat Bastard impersonation from Austin Powers that was so bad that it was actually hysterically great. From Viper the snake to a white tiger named Frost, there are a lot of really well-put-together fights here with plenty of unique attacks to watch out for. Each boss also comes with their own Fury mode, making them invulnerable for a short period of time during the battle, with each boss transforming into a whole new character as well, before transforming back once the Fury mode is over.
Jistu Squad for as long as it lasts is one of the better beat’em up brawlers I have played in years. It certainly doesn’t eclipse the fantastic TMNT fighters we’ve had recently, but for those who are wanting that sort of itch scratched, then I strongly suggest checking this game out. It’s flashy, packed with gorgeously hand-drawn characters and enemies, and its action is fun without being anywhere near frustrating as the genre can often be. Jitsu Squad certainly brings the goods and I cannot wait for its eventual sequel.
Developer - Tanuki Creative Studio!. Publisher - ININ Games. Released - December 9th, 2022. Available On - PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One/Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, Windows. Rated - (T) Blood and Gore, Crude Humor, Mild Language, Partial Nudity, Use of Tobacco, Violence. Platform Reviewed - Nintendo Switch. Review Access - A review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.