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Troublemaker is an action-adventure-beat-’em-up title developed by Gamecom Team. They are based out of Indonesia and I am here to tell you that Troublemaker is unapologetically Indonesian and I was absolutely here for it. I love being able to experience games that embody a culture or show, however much exaggerated a little slice of life. Undoubtedly inspired by some legendary franchises, Troublemaker is at its heart a beat-em up game and if you are a fan of the ZTGD Podcast, well you know how much I love those.

MSRP: $19.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PC
Price I’d Pay: $19.99

In what feels like a set up for a new Karate Kid movie, players are given control of Budi, a young high-schooler who has just started at one of the finest high schools in Indonesia. Our young hero had promised not to fight in attending this new school but quickly finds out the school holds an annual fighting tournament known as Raise your Gang. Which is also the subtitle of the game, coincidence; I think not.

In terms of graphics, Troublemaker is stylish if nothing else. The menus, presentation and character art are all extremely stylish and vibrant. Unfortunately, this doesn’t translate to the in-game portions. Many of the characters do not look similar to their artwork, having a ho-hum bland character model instead. As I said at the outset this is a small indie team so a lot of these things I tend to overlook. I did find it humorous though that there were a few characters where the artwork for cut scenes have a different hair color than their in-game counterpart.

Though the game has various aspects not focused on fighting, the fighting itself is the primary gameplay portion. Combat is what you would expect in a beat-’em-up style game, with the ability to use light, heavy, and more various attacks. Combat typically occurs in a sectioned-off arena, usually with some environment objects that you can utilize in your fights. While the combat is certainly fun, it is definitely janky with some issues. There were multiple times where my inputs weren’t recognized which usually meant dropping a combo or taking unintended damage because I didn’t block.

Overall, I felt like Troublemaker is a solid but janky beat-em up. The atmosphere, presentation and story are all really well done, feeling like a Karate Kid type spin-off. It has its moments of over-the-top craziness but at its core tells a nice ‘slice of life’ story about an area of the world that I have never been. And if you were to tell me that this was an accurate depiction of Indonesia I would 100% believe you. Well minus the child fighting tournament that is school sanctioned of course.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.