A fast-paced, evolved beat'em offering a serious challenge, Super Crush KO seems like something that would appeal to traditionalist, capital-G “Gamers”. However the female cast, chill humor, and bubbly pastel aesthetic appears aimed at a female audience.

Thus I think this is one of those rare titles intended for hardcore gamer women & girls, as opposed to the cliche, overly-catered-to male gamer demographic. And this makes me love the game even more!

Karen must fight her way through an army of robots to save her cat, Chubbz, from alien invaders.

Super Crush KO’s gameplay has a genuinely satisfying loop of beat'em up punches, frantic shooting, highflying special attacks, carefully timed dodges, and screen-clearing super-moves, all tied together by light 2D platforming. The visual style and overall aesthetic exude a cheerful bubblegum pop/pink neon vibe. Plus the premise and characters are refreshingly original and incredibly fun.

The difficulty curve is excellent, as each new ability and element is introduced in order as complexity and difficulty escalates. It’s so good that this feels like a master class in ramping up challenges. Levels are broken down into conquerable bits, so even if you fail along the way, you can always just jump right back in without feeling like you lost progress. Environments and enemies can feel rather samey by-and-large, but it’s not much a shortfall. The way new waves of enemies get thrown at you really builds from one level to the next, so gameplay doesn’t feel overly repetitive.

If you can string together a variety of attacks, take potshots at far-flung enemies, and—most importantly—dodge incoming attack at just the right time, you can string together some rather lengthy combos, which the game definitely incentivizes you to do. Combos are given a letter grade, going all the way up past A to S-Rank (which reminds me very much of Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike). You giving a similar grade for each level upon clearing it, and if you’re the competitive type, you can immediately post your scores online.

Ultimately the game becomes so challenging that I feel like if I put it down for too long, and return to it sometime later, my fingers might not have the muscle memory to clear later levels. Kind of like in Celeste, you are rewarded for mastering the tactical mechanics of the game, not so much in terms of experience points to unlock permanent upgrades. So if your skills are rusty, you could take quite a beating.

So hey, if you find yourself with a lot of downtime all the sudden and you’re looking for a fun & fresh game to pick up, check out Super Crush KO. This one’s a real knockout!