Curses ‘N Chaos is a 2D wave-based brawler in which you control one of three characters (the third has to be unlocked) and beat up monsters. It has platformer mechanics (X and Y axis movement, double jumping), but there is no platforming. All you do is fight enemies and bosses with your fists, your feet and the occasional sub-weapon.

And shake your belly if you’re the dude, or twerk (I never thought I would type that word, let alone use it in a sentence) if you’re the girl. This taunt gives bonus points, which is a neat addition.

It’s a very simplistic game, but it’s also quite retro-charming and fun to play in short bursts.

The game is straightforward and elegant; every time you hit anything, your combo counter goes up. Hit 10 enemies and you get increased score for hitting enemies and more money. The more you do this, the higher your multiplier goes, but get hit once and it’s back to the bottom. Money can be used to buy items to start the game with or mixed to create new items. You’ve got five hearts and five lives to make it through ten waves of enemies and beat the boss, and near as I can tell, there are several worlds (but each level is a single screen, so there’s not much to it). It can be quite challenging and even a bit unfair, but it’s still fun to me. It also has 2 player local and online co-op.

I only wish the visuals were better. They work (and look better in motion), but they’re really cheap.

I played the game thinking, this is simplistic fun that would be fairly easy to mimic in a game IDE, like, say, Construct 2 or Game Maker. I should try making something like this, realizing that my Jet Dancer game is perhaps too complicated to develop any further on my own. I could see myself building a game like this with my WEAPON Combat League concept at the core, perhaps giving every character some simple but diverse attacks–only a few–and have many of the characters unlockable. Maybe even include a versus mode.