izigame.me

I highly recommend this game to old-school brawler fans. It's phenomenal. The way they made combos and health and energy and coins and all that flow into one seamless resource... it's just elegant in a way I've not seen before. I'm 50 and have played a lot of brawlers. This one does a lot of things I wish had been implemented long ago. For example... if you combo a big finishing move against 3 enemies at the same time (which means you got their health down to a dangerous level, positioned them, have the required energy for the special move and hit them all at the same time) you'll be rewarded with a small meal that boosts your health. Catch 4, get a bigger meal. I think 5 is the biggest. They stay on the ground for you or your teammate (or your tag character) to eat as needed. This allows them to throw in endless mooks during boss fights for you to setup as health banks while also focusing on beating down the boss. This multi tasking adds a lot of excitement to what might otherwise be a repetitive experience once you'd memorized the boss' patterns. You also have to maneuver around them while attacking the boss so you don't squander their health resources by killing them too early.
The fact that an unskilled player can still play the game by mindlessly killing all the enemies in 1's and 2's and getting no benefits but that someone who takes care and plans can benefit greatly from their patience and skill makes for a 'play as you like' sort of experience. As you raise the difficulty, the skill and planning becomes a necessity. It's depth that most brawlers lack.
There is also the level selection order mattering greatly, but I'll just say that of the 4 options, the first one you choose will last one of it's potentially 4 max levels. The second 2, and so on to the last zone being the one you go all the way through to the final boss at it's maximum difficulty. So you have a lot of replay just to see the entirety of all 4 zones. If you really hate one, go their first.
There are a ton of special characters to unlock with the coins you get from the combos. Those coins also buy you character upgrades allowing you to focus on upgrading the moves and stats that appeal to your play style. This becomes very handy in Survival mode, which is awesome. I will say that my favorite character, Abobo, is beyond broken in SM. You can get him to the point where he cannot lose and goes indefinitely. I eventually just had to give up because he was never going to lose. But still a lot of fun getting there.
That's the thing. On top of everything else, the gameplay is just a lot of fun all along. Give it some time though. At first I didn't know what the hell I was doing and it seemed awkward and confusing. When it clicks, it all makes sense.