Midnight Fight Express

At the end of every level, the game picks the coolest few seconds and lets you save them as GIF. This was definitely a good decision, but their quality and resolution are lacking. I wish there was a way to browse other people’s GIFs in-game, but as it stands, you’d be better served using your console or PC’s built-in instant capture instead.

Another pass of the floor polisher probably would have helped. There are 40 missions which equal about six hours of runtime with a lot of highs and lows. A tighter narrative wouldn’t have even been necessary if the moment-to-moment gameplay was a little more consistent. Midnight Fight Express is just a mixed bag. There’s a lot here to appreciate, but just as much is going to have you curling your fists.

Repetition does begin to creep in as you approach the credits, yet the multitude of mo-capped animations ensures that you're still seeing new ways to batter enemies unconscious five hours in, and speaks to the excellence a developer can achieve when motion capture is utilized so extensively. It faces some stiff competition to stand out, with the likes of Sifu and TMNT: Shredder's Revenge offering different takes on the genre, but it's easy to recommend Midnight Fight Express to anyone craving an accomplished brawler.

Midnight Fight Express is a solid beat 'em up that offers more than one would expect. While it would be nice to see some added accessibility options in future updates, it's still possible to get through each of the game's 40 levels and have a blast doing it. Beat 'em up fan or not, Midnight Fight Express is an awesome game with a great sense of humor and is absolutely worth picking up and throwing down.

Midnight Fight Express is an incredibly engaging brawler, but it slowly unravels as it comes to its conclusion. The storyline, levels and writing are nearly there but don’t quite gel, but it’s hard to judge it too harshly when the actual minute to minute gameplay – battering bad guys – feels so damn good.