The spirit of the ’90s is totally alive in all of the trustworthy arcade-style beat ’em ups which have been popping out lately. Indie devs clearly infatuated with the style have been doing it justice, and the most recent try is Maiden Cops. Take one half anthropomorphic animal anime woman and add just a few dashes of Ultimate Struggle and River Metropolis Women and also you get the thought. What has me most on this one, nonetheless, is the way it manages to seize the essence of a barely offbeat residence port of an arcade brawler.

A demo made its means on-line as a part of Steam Subsequent Fest, giving us an opportunity to take a look at just a few hard-hitting areas. It’s simple to see what Maiden Cops goes for from the primary body. You possibly can select from one in every of three Maiden Cops: Priscilla Salamander, Nina Usagi, and Meiga Holstaur. Every one presents your customary gentle, medium, and heavy fashion of fight. Meiga, for example, comes from a household of fighters and is basically your beefy Hagar. Nina is the oldest of the group however appears like somewhat bunny-eared woman. Priscilla has at all times dreamed of being a Maiden Cop, and specs-wise she’s the right center floor. 

Assault on Precinct Jyusan

Enjoying a single degree — which consists of three completely different areas — isn’t fairly sufficient to understand all of the nuances of every playable character. You’ll get a good overview, although, and the 15 or so minutes it takes to finish the demo is loads of time to introduce your typical enemy fodder and a boss. Strolling in from all sides are… extra anime women! There are tall girls, small girls, and even girls in jail. Once more, it’s powerful to complain about enemy selection while you’re coping with such a small slice. 

Taking over these foes is fairly simple. Every character has their very own melee strikes and throws, in addition to tremendous strikes which might be good for clearing some area. There are additionally loads of scattered weapons to select up, from knives to metal beams. I sometimes had points with selecting weapons up off the bottom within the demo. Fortunately, that downside by no means carried over to well being or different collectibles. When all of it comes collectively, the motion is pretty satisfying, if just a bit slow-paced. That’s the place these console port vibes come into play. It typically feels such as you’re enjoying a second-hand interpretation of what Maiden Cops actually is, and that’s not essentially a foul factor. Whereas I doubt it’s intentional, it’s oddly becoming given the fashion on show. 

Are we the baddies?

The demo closes out with a battle in opposition to Miranda, a Maiden Cop who’s gone corrupt. Like most beat ’em up bosses, she’s nice at knocking you in your ass proper as you’re about to do the identical to her. When you battle her and her minions, crunchy chiptune approximations of electrical guitars wail within the background. Even the soundtrack — which is totally becoming as brawler BGM — has that mid-’90s “I simply rented this on SNES” air about it. Enjoying Maiden Cops is like getting a few days over the weekend with a well-worn copy of Most Carnage. I do know that’s not Spider-Man, that’s an anime woman with large boobs. The comparability nonetheless stands. 

These comparisons carry over to the character animation, which appears a bit stiff in locations. Then again, the backgrounds are actually spectacular. The burning buildings, the overflowing trashcans; it’s all very Konami in its prime. And despite the fact that pace is a lingering concern, the areas within the demo are comparatively quick and candy. You by no means spend an excessive amount of time in a single location, so even the repetitive enemies don’t have a lot of an opportunity to put on you down. 

Maiden with love

Regardless of just a few points and a common want to select up the tempo, it’s clear the devs have love for the style. Pippin Video games has dabbled in equally styled throwbacks with earlier efforts. Kawaii Dying Desu had gamers taking management of supernatural idols and beating up overzealous followers. Spouse Quest noticed Mia heading out on a side-scrolling journey to rescue her kidnapped husband, Fernando. Each have garnered followers of their very own with loads of constructive evaluations on Steam. Maiden Cops takes their expertise and applies them to an much more conventional beat ’em up, and hopefully, the ultimate package deal continues to increase upon what makes the demo enjoyable. We’ll discover out when Maiden Cops launches someday in This autumn 2023.