A scrolling brawler with a comedy streak
Slaps And Beans is a side-scrolling beat 'em up starring Bud Spencer and Terence Hill in a brand new story. You fight through locations such as a Western Saloon, Miami Downtown and the fairground, trading slaps and mass brawls with anyone in your way. The action mixes the classic punch-and-kick brawler loop with platform sections where you jump and climb through the level, plus mini-games that break up the fighting. The whole thing is drawn in retro pixel art, and the fighting system is built around the Bud Spencer & Terence Hill style: heavy slaps, quick dodges and plenty of beans to keep you going. A red Dune Buggy with a yellow tarp shows up along the way as part of the ride between fights.
Playing it together
The game works as a single player run or as a co-operative multiplayer session, so you can go through the story alone or with a friend. On top of that, Remote Play Together lets someone join your session over the internet even if they do not own the game, which makes it easy to team up with a friend from your Discord group without sorting out who buys what. The co-op is built into the main campaign rather than a separate mode, so you are both working through the same levels, the same platforming stretches and the same mini-games side by side. Splitting up the crowd control works well: one of you can hold the line while the other grabs a weapon or clears a platforming section.
Before you start
Expect a 2D pixel-art game with a light, comedic tone rather than a serious action plot. The structure alternates between brawling, platforming and mini-games, so a session will not be one long uninterrupted fight. It plays as a local co-op game at its core, with Remote Play Together as the way to bring in a remote friend. The story is original to this game, so you do not need to know the films to follow along, though the humour leans on the Bud Spencer & Terence Hill dynamic.