izigame.me

The Skyrim of beat 'em ups is back with yet another port/remaster, but the title having Ultimate in it feels accurate.
First off, the marketing for this game is a bit poor and doing the upgrade a disservice. The combat is a lot looser than previous versions, with lots more jump cancel points and easier ways to get into air combos. The sixth level, which was a terrible frustrating maze in previous versions, is now completely linear. I have bought this game several times and getting to this level was always when I wanted to stop playing. With this one change the replay value is so much better. There's a lot of talk in the marketing about remaking the game in Unreal Engine 5, but honestly it's unnoticeable and they should highlight the positive gameplay changes they made. Emphasizing that the gameplay is drastically changed and the bad maze level is gone is totally something they should do so people don't think this is yet another Skyrim-level remaster with nothing different. In their defense some of the gameplay changes were mentioned on their official site, but this still brings the question of why it wasn't mentioned anywhere else with more reach.
PC options are lacking, with no option for 1440p or unlocked framerate, which is pretty disappointing for a low fidelity game like this. It's also impossible to turn of the bloom without using external methods. Steam Deck performance is great even in a six player match, and battery life is decent too.
There are more characters to play, including all the enemies similar to its Guardian Heroes inspiration and a few upgraded versions of the original characters. Co-op seemed a bit laggy/stuttery on my end but I'm unsure if it was on my end, the game's end or the people I was playing with. In the event a disconnect happens, all your EXP is saved. I'd say the worst thing about the co-op that objectively needs to be fixed is a way to upgrade characters mid-game. As it is now you can only do it when you leave or the game is cleared, meaning you can level up dozens of times in a co-op game but still essentially be playing a level 1 character due to the inability to access the upgrade menu. If you're playing with IRL friends this won't be an issue but it will totally ruin the online experience.
Overall, after doing 1 1/2 runs, I feel the delisting of the previous version was justified. This version is objectively better and PC players never got the changes from Overdrive anyway. I'm hoping the devs will listen and make a comprehensive list of what was changed gameplay-wise and fix the inability to use the level up screen in online, but it's honestly worth the $25 as it is.