Ever Wondered If Your Favourite Arcade Brawler Was Secretly a Roguelike? The Streets of Rage 4 Devs Just Blew My Mind.
AI Gaming News Author · Polygon ·
The genius minds behind *Streets of Rage 4* are cooking up *Absolum*, a wild new game that's smashing classic beat-em-up action with roguelike replayability, proving some gaming genres were always meant to be soulmates.
Right, so you know that feeling when you're mucking about with a few game ideas, maybe trying to merge a couple of spells that definitely shouldn't go together, and suddenly – *poof!* – something genuinely magical happens? Well, it seems the wizards over at Dotemu and Guard Crush, the brilliant minds who breathed new life into *Streets of Rage 4*, have just had one of those moments. And fair warning: it’s about to change how you think about old-school arcade brawlers.
According to an absolutely cracking piece by Giovanni Colantonio over at Polygon (and seriously, go give it a read, it’s got all the juicy bits), these genre alchemists, joined by animation studio Supamonks, are cooking up something called *Absolum*. And hold onto your hats, mates, because this isn't just another beat-em-up. Oh no, it's a 2D side-scroller that's also, somehow, a modern roguelike. My brain, it tingles with curious delight!
Now, for a moment, picture this with me: You're in a game, right? Bashing baddies, clearing rooms, watching that precious health bar. You finally wallop a big boss, move to a new area, enemies get tougher, and then – WHAM! – you're flat on your face. Dead. But instead of a comforting checkpoint, you're back at square one. All you’ve got is the newfound wisdom of a thousand failed attempts and, hopefully, a bit more skill. What did you just picture? If you’re a modern gamer, you probably thought of *Rogue Legacy 2* or *Hades*. But if you're like me, a bit more vintage, you might have felt a phantom quarter in your hand, standing in a dim arcade, ready to pump it into an *X-Men* cabinet after getting trounced by Mojo. See? Two completely different eras, two seemingly distinct genres, yet there’s this weird, spiritual connection just bubbling beneath the surface. And it's this very connection that the *Absolum* team has seen as clear as day.
After hitting it out of the park with *Streets of Rage 4* – seriously, that game was a masterclass in retro revival – Dotemu and Guard Crush were itching to collaborate again. But this time, they weren't looking to resurrect another beloved corpse. They wanted something fresh, a whole new IP. And crucially, they wanted to snag some new players. As Gauthier Brunet, *Absolum*'s lead game designer, told Polygon in their interview, "We had to create a new IP and we thought, how can we expand the beat-em-up [audience]?" The answer? "Try and bring some rogue inside it." Genius, I tell you. Absolute wizardry!
This genre twist wasn't just some random roll of the dice, either. It stems from their own experiments with *Streets of Rage 4*'s *Mr. X Nightmare* DLC, which featured a survival mode where you'd clear arenas and pick power-ups. Turns out, that little bonus mode was a clandestine lab, testing the very hypothesis that a beat-em-up and a roguelike are cut from the same cloth. Brunet explains it perfectly: "In some ways, a roguelike is very similar to *Streets of Rage 4*. You have a very natural link between an arcade game and a roguelike. The structure, how when you die you have to start again from the beginning, the length of the overall experience, all this kind of stuff."
*Absolum* isn't just slapping a fresh coat of paint on things; it's genuinely mashing DNA. You'll get those classic 2D brawler vibes – punching, kicking, special moves – but with roguelike 'runs,' power-ups after combat, and that familiar hub world where death sends you to unlock new characters and passive powers. Suddenly, your raw skill isn't the only thing getting you through; you've got buildcrafting potential, which changes the game entirely. It adds that lovely 'exponential' growth to what was traditionally a 'linear' skill-based experience. You'll be chasing those game-breaking synergies, deciding which upgrade might make or break your run. It’s a delightful mess of possibilities!
When Polygon got their hands on an early build, they were genuinely surprised by how well it worked. And honestly, so am I! You'd think with how popular both genres are, we'd be swimming in beat-em-up roguelikes, but it's strangely rare to find one that feels this confident in its roots. It makes you wonder: is clearing a room of baddies in *Hades* really that different from pummelling goons on a *Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles* arcade screen? Maybe just what you get to keep when you pop in another quarter, eh?
Of course, it wasn't all smooth sailing. While the team drew inspiration from beat-em-up legends like *Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara* and *Golden Axe*, and roguelike darlings like *Dead Cells*, actually integrating the two required a whole new kind of expertise. "We had a lot to learn contrary to the beat-em-up," Brunet admitted. Suddenly, adding mounts wasn't just about a cool new attack; it was about how that mount could integrate into a player's build, contributing to those crucial synergies. It's the difference between mastering a move and discovering a game-changing combo of power-ups.
This whole thing highlights something fascinating about genre. We gamers, we love to nitpick, don't we? "Is it a Metroidvania or just a platformer with backtracking?" "Is it a soulslike or just a hard action game?" Sometimes, the lexicon can feel a bit… pedantic, if I'm honest. But for developers, these distinctions aren't just academic; they're the pillars upon which you build your game. They define the core experience, the 'why' of the mechanics.
And that's where projects like *Absolum* truly shine. They force us to look beyond the labels and see the deeper currents connecting our favourite games. What common ground exists between a deckbuilder and a roguelike, as *Balatro* so brilliantly showed us? It's that essence of mixing, matching, experimenting, and suddenly, finding that one combination that makes everything click. That, my friends, is the heart of a roguelike – and perhaps, the very spirit of game development itself. *Absolum* isn't just a game; it's a work of buildcrafting in its own right, and I reckon it's going to be something truly special.
Tags: Roguelike, Beat-em-up, Indie Games, Game Development, Absolum
Original article: Polygon