Introduction to Hobo 5: Space Brawl
You know, when you hop into Hobo 5: Space Brawl, you’re thrown straight into a ridiculous outer-space showdown where our favorite street-wise tramp is up against hordes of alien toughs. There’s no grand backstory beyond “hobo gets abducted, hobo must fight,” but that’s exactly the charm—every level feels like one long, over-the-top brawl with pixelated blood splatters, improvised weapons, and more slapstick brutality than you’d expect from a stick-figure hero. You’re constantly moving forward, smashing through waves of enemies while collecting coins, health pickups, and the occasional crazy power-up.
Mechanically, it’s about as straightforward as a beat ’em up gets: punch, kick, special move, rinse and repeat. But the way the combos flow, you’ll find yourself stringing together attacks just to watch your hobo cartwheel across the screen, knocking aliens off ledges or straight into hazards. There’s a simple upgrade system tucked into the pause menu—you spend your ill-gotten loot on stronger attacks or extra health bars—and it gives you just enough reason to keep cleaning house in every cramped corridor and zero-gravity chamber you stumble through.
What really sells this one is the sense of humor dripping from every pixel. Your protagonist’s gruff voice lines—when you finally get to hear him grumble—and the absurd boss designs (an intergalactic mime, anyone?) make each brawl feel like you’re watching a campy sci-fi movie with a traffic cone-headed lead. It’s silly, gory, and somehow oddly satisfying, especially when you clear a room with a single well-timed spin attack.
If you’re after something short, sweet, and a bit deranged, Hobo 5: Space Brawl is a neat time-killer. You’ll probably laugh at how overboard it goes—only to dive right back in and see if you can get a better score or chain a crazier combo. It’s not reinventing the wheel, but for a quick blast of stick-figure smackdown, it definitely hits its mark.