Publisher: Image Comics
Writer: Daniel Freedman
Artist/Co-writer: Sina Grace
Release Date: 7th May 2014

The game has changed while Rock’s been away. When he was off ‘trippin’ on alien psychedelics and battling water bears, his fair city has fallen into the fascist hands of an old enemy.

When Burn the Orphanage first got started, it had all the grace of a round house kick from a drunken E.Honda. There were mad brawls with strippers, aliens and many impossible moves from Street Fighter just happened without reference. It was an immense homage to all the brainless brawlers that gave blisters to the thumbs of adolescents across the globe in the early nineties.

The characters motives were simple and the plot, like many of the best games, was just an excuse to have a lot of fun. I thought that Burn the Orphanage would be a short lived jumping high-five to the magnificent bygone era of the side scrolling Beat ‘em Up.

Now begins a five issue arc and with that so does the challenge of fleshing out these 2D characters as well as building an actual story begins. This flies in the face of what made it such a riot to begin with. This opener is entirely exposition and sadly feels like a bloated starting sequence of a game you just want to get started.

Maybe we were treated to too much too soon by the previous arc. There is still a lot of potential here with a new Streets of Rage style roster of characters whose introduction reminded me of a character selection screen. As an opener, it’s short on laughs and action but I flat out refuse to give up on this title. Being a massive Beat ‘em Up fan, it’s just too important.

Rating: 2/5.

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The writer of this piece was: James McQueen
You can also find James on Twitter.