Lovingly styled with a look falling somewhere between Atari 2600 and the NES, Broforce parodies classic action films and TV shows of the 80s and 90s while pleasantly assaulting players with bro puns and silly humor. Controlling characters with obvious likenesses to the stars of these films (Rambro, Brommando, B.A. Broacus, MacBrover, Bro Hard, etc), the game requires players to pretty much kill everything in sight while rescuing their fellow bros.
With the retro visuals, action flick homages, and bro puns, I really, really want to like Broforce. Unfortunately, underneath all the things I just mentioned, there isn’t a whole lot of to it. With all the chaotic action on screen, the retro graphics kind of work against the game, making it difficult to see what is actually happening on screen. I found myself dying several times without ever actually seeing what caused my death. Plus, when I did die, I seemingly respawned as a completely random bro character, offering no option to choose my next bro. With 2D shooters, the option to play with a friend is always one of the biggest draws, however with Broforce, it seemed to make the action doubly confusing, especially when the players wandered apart and the camera wouldn’t pan out, leaving one character to flail haplessly off screen.
Broforce was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed the self-aware bro humor, but sadly, much like actual bro culture, there doesn’t seem to be much below the surface. Getting together with a bro of your own and killing an with Broforce would be totally worth a bargain price of $5 or $10, but once the jokes get old, there won’t be much else to keep you playing. To see more, check out the embedded gameplay video below from PAX East.
Broforce is available now via Steam Early Access and will be coming to consoles this summer.