Set during the roaring ‘20s when prohibition seized the United States, the multiplayer-only Speakeasy pits caricatures of notable men and women of that era (including Nikola Tesla, Amelia Earhart, and Charlie Chaplin) in quick brawls where there's just one goal; knocking your opponent's head off (and I should note here that in order to make fights fair there is no difference in how fighters perform). To aid in the beheading, you have three moves; an attack, a block, and a feigned attack. The twist, however, is that you have a limited number of uses for each. On the beginner “Quick Play” option, you can only do each one once, with the self-explanatory “2's” and “3's” modes adding more uses. What ends up happening is a madcap brain-bending mix of memory and reflexes. The moment the round starts, do you unleash an attack to catch your opponent by surprise or block (and don't even think of jumping the gun, because a premature attack is an instant lost). Do you feign and hope your opponent blocks by mistake, leaving them defenseless to an attack? Even though the fights are fast-paced, you'll be putting a lot of thought into each move.
When twists outside the one-off rock-paper-scissors combat were added, the insanity and mindgames grew too. 2's and 3's led to slightly longer fights where I had to think even harder to remember my opponent's (and my own) move inventories. With more than one punch and block at my disposal, one rebuffed attack wasn't the end of an offensive assault, nor did a mistaken block mean my defenses were completely gone. Even though fights could still end almost instantly due to a well-timed attack (the game doesn't wait for each person to pick a move, which adds to the mindgames), two opponents who know each other's strategies could have a series of blocks and attacks that could run the entire 10-second round.
If this formula sounds a bit limiting, the “Tag Team” mode may become a fast favorite instead. In Tag Team, you choose two or three fighters that you can switch between, completely refreshing their movesets every time they hop off-screen. The twist? Every time a fighter hops back in, they remain woozy for a second, likely due to the consumption of illicit booze. Even though you can choose to have the fight end with a single knockout, choosing to make it a true team battle where every fighter on a single side is vanquished led to the most insane Speakeasy battles, as animated heads and their optional accessories (you can attach top hats, monocles, moustaches, and other items in the character select screen) littered the battlefield during marathon battles that lasted almost a minute.
There's even more to Speakeasy that remained prohibited during my hands-on time; since there were only two players around during my demo, I wasn't able to try out the “King of the Hill” mode that calls for new players to enter the fray almost immediately after a vanquished opponent is defeated (and I worry if that is almost too crazy). The tournament mode, however, should make for some fun parties, particularly as the rounds progress and the drinks flow.
Speakeasy will debut on PlayStation 4 before the end of the year for $10 (with other platforms coming later, as you can tell from the button prompts in the video and screenshots), and the simple yet crazy combat mechanics almost seem foolproof. It may not make it to EVO, but it has plenty of potential to become a party favorite. Dave Rudden is a former editor for Official Xbox Magazine and GamePro, and a current freelancer extraordinaire. If you want to chat about pro wrestling or commiserate about how his beloved Mets, Islanders, and Knicks are doing, you can follow him on Twitter @daverudden.