Pocket Bravery is an impressive fighter that shows some wonderful detail with its combat motions. The varied characters and their vast movelists give you many options on how to mangle foes, and you’ll need to use them skillfully if you’re to hope to win.
This four-button fighter has a unique cast that comes with some neat collections of stuff you can do. Malika lays out trap fireballs (on the ground and in the air) that explode on contact, but that she can also use as teleport points. She can also reflect fireballs back at opponents. Sebastian is a boxer that can create ice walls you can blunder into. Arshavin is a Russian grappler, but one with some moves that send him rushing forward (including some lunging grabs). There feels like there’s some great depth to the characters and some interesting flexibility in their movesets, making them fun to dig into.
While the game’s Neo Geo Pocket-inspired visuals and characters are a bit of an acquired taste, the pixel visual style of Pocket Bravery combos is a sight to see. A whole lot of care went into the various pixel art special moves and acrobatic strikes you’ll get smacked with as you play this indie fighting game.
Pocket Bravery is an impressive fighter with a great roster of complex characters and a suite of fun modes and helpful tools. If only the characters looked as good as they play.
