I got little hotdog guy's saliva running down my face

Slap City is what the cool kids call a platform fighter. I call them "Smash Bros clones" myself, but that's just me. This is the second platform fighter I've ever played in my life.

The first was the first Smash Bros on the N64. It's hard to believe now, but I used to be a diehard Nintendo fan. I used to eat up EVERYTHING The Big N put out as a kid. And I got to rent the original Super Smash Bros on the N64 when it was new. Short review of that: I liked it. I didn't love it, but I liked it. My main was Yoshi. Bit off-topic, but once the PS2 came out, and since it had WAAAAAAAAAAY more games than the GameCube, and since I wasn't really interested in the DS's library, I effectively gave up on Nintendo once the N64 and GBA were discontinued, but that's a story for another day.

I mention this because Smash Bros has only gotten even more popular since then. I actually remember a number of people back in the day buying or borrowing a Nintendo Wii JUST to play Smash Brawl. It was so popular, I jokingly referred to Smash as, "The only Nintendo series anyone gives a S*&^ about anymore," because it was the late 2000s, and Real Gamers(tm) were generally avoiding family friendly games like the plague, yet they made an exception for these quirky platform fighters. The original on the N64 is supposedly the worst due to lack of polish and being a new thing for the time with nothing to build off of. If that's true, well, I still like it.

So now we fast forward many years later. An indie game studio from Sweden puts out a free game called Princess Remedy In A World of Hurt. I saw it recommended on an article about free PC games. I played it. I liked it. It was cute. Because I played Princess Remedy, I eventually got an update from Steam that the company that made Princess Remedy put out an early access title called Slap City. I'm not against early access, and this company, Ludosity, had earned some respect from their free game. Slap City was advertised as a platform fighters. Having been many years since I played that old N64 classic, I dug in.

I've seen the game evolve to its current final build. My review? I love it. Yes, it's better than Smash 1. Is it better than Smash U on the Switch? I dunno. Slap City doesn't have tons of characters, lots of famous game music, etc. And while I like the Slap City cast, I can't say they're as iconic as the likes of Mario, Link, Pikachu, etc. But does that really matter, when SC is as polished as it is? In my hours playing the game, I couldn't find any bugs, weirdness, bad gameplay balance and what have you. In my inexperienced hands, it basically plays like an improved version of the original Smash Bros.

SC, like its inspiration, is also a crossover of various characters, albeit from the games made by Ludosity. Besides Princess Remedy, you'll also see the likes of Ittle Dew (AKA Not Link), a musclebound fishman named Ultra Fishbunjin 3000, my main Business Casual Man, a girl who uses watermelons for boxing gloves, among others. The game is very weird, and very quirky, but it's a good quirky, i.e. not forced. The game is delightfully cartoony, not at all realistic or dark, which is especially evident in its story mode. Yes, this game has a campaign, sort of like Subspace Emissary (disclaimer: I know nothing about Subspace Emissary. The one time I borrowed a Wii, I played Super Paper Mario. Sorry, but Mario RPGs take priority in my household.) It's a good way to learn the controls and figure out how the characters move, attack, how they play off each other, and so on.

Up to 4 players can fight at once. Any number of them can be actual fighters or CPU opponents, depending on what mode you're playing. There's also training for those who wanna get really good. SC also features unlockables and funny lore for the combatants.

I'll admit, I'm not the biggest fan of tournament fighters in the world. I've played several, but the only 2 I highly recommend are Street Fighter Alpha 2 and Garou: Mark of the Wolves. I'd still take those over SC. As far as platform fighters go? SC takes the cake. The only other platform fighter I've played is the original Rivals of Aether. I do like ROA, but I prefer the way SC controls. It really puts the platforming in platform fighter, giving the characters floaty jumps and long air time.

Don't be fooled by SC's retro graphics; this is a polished gem, one with catchy music and gameplay that's easy to learn, but difficult to master. This is definitely something you should get friends to play with. And even if it might not be as good as Smash U, I can say one thing with certainty; I've never experienced Joy Con Drift playing this. (Also, yeah, the graphics might look like an upscaled PS2 game, but it also gives SC lower system requirements than your typical Triple A game.)