Introduction to Hobo
I never thought I’d find myself controlling a ragged wanderer who brawls his way through city streets, but here we are with Hobo, this delightfully absurd beat-’em-up that somehow knows exactly how ridiculous it is. You’re a down-on-your-luck drifter armed with nothing but scruff, street smarts, and an uncanny knack for turning everyday trash into a weapon. One moment you’re smashing a punk in the jaw with an empty bottle, the next you’re catapulting a manhole cover into a pack of snarling dogs. It’s messy, it’s loud, and it’s a blast.
The controls keep things simple—arrow keys to shuffle around, a button to throw haymakers and another for grabs or special moves—and yet there’s space to experiment. Ever slam an opponent into a dumpster? What about grabbing a stray plank of wood and turning it into a makeshift club? Boss fights in Hobo really lean into that creativity. You’ll face everything from hulking muscle-bound thugs to brawny construction workers, each one begging you to figure out whether you’ll clobber them conventionally or go all-out ghetto McGyver on their skull.
What really sells Hobo is its style. The pixel art is rough around the edges in the best possible way, like your TV got a pair of beat-up goggles and decided to run wild. Animations are snappy and cartoonish—when your scruffy hero takes a flying elbow, you feel every bit of his humiliation. Then there are the taunts: for every punch, your character yells something so ludicrous you can’t help but laugh. It’s the video-game equivalent of a wandering poet whose only verses rhyme with “smack.”
Playing Hobo feels like a brief, gloriously stupid break between more “serious” titles. Sessions can be short—perfect for a coffee break or when you need to come down from a tense mission. You won’t find any grand narrative arcs or hours of cutscenes here, just pure, unfiltered brawling fun. At the end of the day, it’s exactly what you want when you need to beat up thugs as a hopeless drifter and walk away with your dignity and maybe a few stray pint glasses.