Absolum: The Streets of Rage 4 Team's Roguelike Brawler Hits Every Platform
A studio behind Streets of Rage 4 built Dotemu's first original game: a hand-drawn fantasy beat 'em up with roguelike runs and a frog wizard. A year on, it is still spreading, now to phones.
For most of gaming history, the beat 'em up was an arcade genre: walk right, punch everything, feed the machine another coin. In 2020, Streets of Rage 4 proved the genre could still feel modern. Five years later, Guard Crush Games, one of the studios behind it, asked a bolder question. What if every run through a brawler was different?
The answer is Absolum, developed by Guard Crush Games and Supamonks and published by Dotemu. It launched on 9 October 2025 on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch, and sold more than 200,000 copies in its launch week. It came to Xbox Series X|S and Game Pass on 25 March 2026, to Nintendo Switch 2 on 17 September 2026, and to iOS and Android on 5 November 2026.
A brawler that changes every run
Absolum is a side-scrolling beat 'em up with roguelike elements and two-player co-op. A roguelike is a game built around repeated runs in which progress resets when you die, but you carry some upgrades or knowledge forward.
You choose from four heroes with very different styles:
- Karl, a dwarf who fights with guns and fists
- Galandra, an elf with a greatsword
- Cider, an agile fighter with twin daggers
- Brome, a frog wizard who surfs through the air
On each run you pick up Rituals, passive abilities that are lost when you die, and bosses can grant Inspirations, active skills. The levels themselves are hand-made rather than random, but you choose your path through the world, and side quests add light role-playing elements.
Dotemu's first original world
Dotemu, the French publisher, is famous for reviving classics under licence: Streets of Rage 4, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge and more. Absolum is its first original intellectual property, a world it owns outright.
The art comes from Supamonks, a French animation studio for whom this was the first video game project. The hand-drawn look feels like a fantasy comic in motion, and it is one of the main reasons the game stands out on store pages.
What inspired it
The team cited three classics as inspirations: Sega's Golden Axe, the roguelike action game Dead Cells and Capcom's arcade brawler Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over Mystara. You can feel all three: the fantasy setting of Golden Axe, the run-based structure of Dead Cells and the RPG flavour of Capcom's D&D games.
By the numbers
- March 2025: game revealed
- 9 October 2025: launch on PC, PS4, PS5 and Switch
- 200,000+: copies sold in launch week
- 90: Metacritic score on Switch (87 on PC and PS5)
- 25 March 2026: Xbox Series X|S and Game Pass
- 17 September 2026: Nintendo Switch 2
- 5 November 2026: iOS and Android, ported by Playdigious
Why it caught fire
A trusted team. Streets of Rage 4 earned Guard Crush enormous goodwill. Fans knew the combat would feel good.
A fresh structure. Beat 'em ups are short by nature. Roguelike runs give them replay value that the genre has always lacked.
Everywhere, over time. Rather than one big launch, Absolum has kept arriving on new platforms, from Game Pass to Switch 2 to mobile. Each release gives it a fresh wave of players.
What's next
With the mobile launch on 5 November 2026, Absolum now runs on almost every modern platform. The question is whether Dotemu builds its new world into a series. Given how well it has done, that seems likely, but nothing has been announced.
WGC's take: Absolum shows how a veteran indie team can reinvent a 40-year-old genre without losing what made it fun. If you like co-op games with friends on the couch, it is one of the best of the past year. For another 2025 indie that took a familiar genre in a new direction, read our feature on Escape from Duckov (Escape from Duckov).