Scrappers

Aside from its quirky garbage picking mechanic, this is a fairly straightforward side-scrolling beat-'em-up. Scrappers relies on a formula tried and tested by countless arcade classics, from Double Dragon to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, that has players punching and whacking enemies slowly advancing from the edges of the screen as the frame slowly moves from left to right. Like the games from which it draws inspiration, combat can be a little finicky -- you'll need to ensure you're on exactly the same horizontal plane as your target for your melee attacks to hit -- but is ultimately fairly fun and satisfying, especially when you get to pick up the broken metallic bodies of your enemies and toss them into your truck like the rest of the scrap you're collecting.

That brings up the second part of the game: Scrap collection. Picking up junk and hauling it to the truck for removal and salvage is a simple pleasure, but it can be difficult to manage when playing alone. Some types of trash are heavier than others, and keeping up with the slow moving truck while being attacked by rivals is a challenge. Things get much more fun when teaming up with others, which sets up the possibility to stack and toss heaps of rubbish between bots for more efficient collection. When everything's clicking it's almost like a robot circus, with your team stacking, moving, tossing, and beating in beautifully choreographed fashion. The trick, of course, is finding people to play with so you don't have to go it alone. Scrappers is a fun little throwback to the arcade era, but it has most of the same limitations as the classics that preceded it.