Mother Russia Bleeds
Windows - Released - September 5, 2016
Mother Russia Bleeds is a 2D side-scrolling brawler with pixel art graphics. The game is set in an alternate Soviet Union in the 1980s. A group of four gypsy fighters — Boris, Ivan, Natascha and Sergei — is imprisoned and treated with a new drug called Nekro, under the influence of the Russian mafia working together with the authorities. They escape from the facility, but permanently suffer the effects of the drug and decide to go after the mafia.
The game supports up to four local players working together, but with 'friendly fire'. The game can also be played in single-player, optionally with additional characters as bots controlled through the AI. The game takes place in locations such as a prison, a ghetto, a sex club, a prison, a laboratory etc. with vivid depictions of gore and explicit violence. Characters visually sustain damage and brutal fatalities can be performed. Basic controls include horizontal and vertical movement, jumping, and dashing. Basic attacks are a punch and a kick that can be combined into combos. It is also possible to grab and hit or throw characters, slide or punch while dashing, mash downed opponents, attack in the air, and charge punches. The game also incorporates lots of weapons like bats and knives. Having to fight 20 or 30 characters at once is not uncommon and they each have different attacks, strengths and weaknesses.
A character's health bar is tied to the Nekro drug. Certain defeated opponents will convulse for a short time, providing a brief window to sample their body to extract the Nekro drug. This fills a syringe in the top left corner; but a character is very vulnerable while doing so. The liquid can be injected to restore some life or to go bezerk. While bezerk movement becomes faster and attacks are much more powerful for a short while. That way, sampling Nekro is largely a risk-reward mechanic. There is an unlimited amount of continues, but starting again at the latest checkpoint.
Next to the main story mode there is a wave-based arena survival mode, supporting the same type of player options. The four characters have different statistics based on force, jump, range and speed. Next to a character an ability can be selected, but most of these need to be unlocked first.
