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ARCADE
Gods Arena Review: A Two-Button Fighter That Made Me Miss When Arcades Had More Than Two Buttons
I've played fighting games since Street Fighter II cost me my lunch money in 1991. Gods Arena has two playable characters, four moves, and the audacity to call itself a throwback to arcade fighters. Let me tell you about my five minutes with Olympus's budget brawl.
Paul
January 22, 2026
4.3
Overall Score
"Gods Arena wants to be a throwback to arcade fighting games, but it only remembered to bring the 'insert coin' screen and forgot everything that made those games legendary."
First Impressions (Or: When 'Throwback' Means 'Missing Features')
I launched Gods Arena expecting a love letter to arcade fighters. What I got was more like a postcard with half the message smudged. The main menu presents you with two characters—Zeus and Ares—and I immediately knew I was in for a lean experience. But hey, the original Street Fighter only had Ryu and Ken, right? Except Street Fighter had actual depth to its combat system. Here's what Gods Arena offers: punch, kick, uppercut, and an ultimate ability. That's it. Four moves total. I've played browser games with more complexity. The pixel art tries to evoke that retro arcade aesthetic, but it feels more 'rushed game jam project' than 'nostalgic throwback.' The characters animate like they're fighting underwater through molasses. I sat there thinking about Mortal Kombat II, which had fluid animations and weighty combat back in 1993, and wondered why we're going backward thirty years later.
Combat: Where Spam Meets More Spam
The fighting system is brutally simple, and not in the good 'easy to learn, hard to master' way. You mash punch and kick buttons, occasionally throw an uppercut, and wait for your ultimate meter to fill so you can press the win button. There's no blocking system that I could find, no combos to discover, no mind games about spacing or timing. It's pure button mashing until someone's health bar depletes. Zeus and Ares play identically except for their ultimate abilities—Zeus does his lightning thing, Ares does his war god thing, both deal heavy damage. That's your entire strategic depth right there. The hit detection feels mushy, like there's a delay between connecting and the game acknowledging it. I threw punches that clearly missed but still registered, and landed uppercuts that should've connected but whiffed. After two rounds, I'd experienced everything this combat system had to offer. The third round was just going through motions while mentally planning my lunch.
Visuals and Audio: Functional But Forgettable
The pixel art is competent in that 'I learned Unity and can place sprites on screen' way. Zeus and Ares look like gods, I guess, if you squint and have low expectations. The arena background is static and uninspired—just some pillars and a floor. No spectators, no environmental details, nothing that makes Olympus feel alive or interesting. I've seen Flash games from 2005 with more personality. The animations lack weight and impact. When Zeus punches Ares in the face, it should feel devastating. Instead, it looks like he's gently tapping him with a pool noodle. No screen shake, no dramatic hitstun, no satisfying crunch. The audio exists. That's the kindest thing I can say. Generic punch sounds, basic ultimate ability effects, and background music that I turned off after thirty seconds because it was just repetitive loops. Street Fighter II's soundtrack is still iconic thirty years later. I won't remember Gods Arena's audio thirty minutes later.
Local Multiplayer: The Only Reason This Exists
Gods Arena supports local multiplayer for two players, which is clearly its intended purpose. Fighting against the AI is pointless—it just walks forward and attacks. Playing against another human at least introduces unpredictability, even if the combat system is too shallow to support interesting matches. The game supports keyboard, gamepad, and joystick inputs, which shows the developers actually thought about accessibility. That's genuinely commendable. If you're looking for something to play with a friend for exactly five minutes while waiting for literally any other game to download, Gods Arena might fill that void. But after those five minutes, you'll both look at each other and say 'want to play something else?' There's no tournament mode, no unlockables, no reason to keep playing beyond the initial curiosity. Even the CPU matches are single rounds with no progression or variation. I played this with my friend who tolerates my gaming rants, and after three matches, he asked if we could go back to Lethal League. That's damning.
What This Game Actually Needs
Gods Arena needs about six more months of development and a complete combat overhaul. Add blocking, add combo systems, add more characters with genuinely different movesets, add stages with variety, add a single-player arcade mode with progression. Look at what Pocket Rumble did on a small budget—that game understood how to create depth with limited resources. Study Divekick, which built an entire fighting game around two buttons but made it strategic and replayable. Right now, Gods Arena feels like a proof of concept that shipped before it was actually a game. The foundation is here—the engine works, the inputs respond, the basic framework functions—but there's no meat on these bones. It's like the developers watched one YouTube video about old arcade fighters, implemented the absolute basics, and called it done. I'm not asking for Marvel vs Capcom complexity here, just something more substantial than 'mash buttons until ultimate meter fills.' Give me a reason to choose Zeus over Ares beyond their ultimate animations.
Rating Breakdown
Quality
4
It runs without crashing, which puts it ahead of half the Unity projects on itch.io, but the animations are stiff and the hit detection feels like everyone's wearing invisible foam padding.
Innovation
3
Zeus fights Ares with punch, kick, uppercut, and an ultimate move—I haven't seen innovation this thin since every mobile game became Candy Crush with a different skin.
Value
7
It's free and took someone actual effort to make, so I can't complain about the price, but I've gotten more gameplay depth from fortune cookies.
Gameplay
4
The combat loop is punch until ultimate charges, use ultimate, repeat—I've had more strategic depth playing rock-paper-scissors with my nephew.
Audio/Visual
5
Generic pixel art that looks like every other Unity mythology game, and audio that exists but doesn't make me want to keep my speakers on.
Replayability
3
Two characters with identical movesets except for their ultimates means I've seen everything this game offers in literally three rounds.
What Didn't Annoy Me
It's completely free, which means the barrier to entry is zero and I can't complain about wasting money
Supports multiple input methods including joysticks, showing actual consideration for different play preferences
Runs smoothly without technical issues, which is more than I can say for many Unity projects
The ultimate abilities look decent and provide brief moments of visual satisfaction
Local multiplayer works without setup hassles, making it theoretically playable with friends who have low standards
What Made Me Sigh
Two characters with functionally identical movesets is barely a roster, it's a character selection screen crying for help
Four total moves means I've experienced the entire combat system before finishing the tutorial that doesn't exist
No blocking, no combos, no defensive options makes every fight a mindless mash-fest
Animations lack impact and weight, making combat feel like foam LARP weapons bouncing off each other
Zero single-player content means fighting the brain-dead AI gets old in approximately two matches
Final Verdict
Gods Arena wants to be a throwback to arcade fighting games, but it only remembered to bring the 'insert coin' screen and forgot everything that made those games legendary. With two characters, four moves, and combat depth measured in millimeters, this plays less like Street Fighter II and more like a tech demo someone released by accident. The fact that it's free saves it from being a complete waste of time, and local multiplayer might provide five minutes of entertainment if you're desperate. But I've played Flash games with more staying power. If the developers actually care about this project, they need to add substantial content, overhaul the combat system, and remember that 'simple' doesn't mean 'shallow.' Until then, Gods Arena is a proof of concept that proves mostly that it needs more work. Go play Pocket Rumble or Divekick instead—they actually understood the assignment.
Gods Arena
Genre
Arcade
Developer
Dataspelsutveckling, Ă„delfors fhskPlatform
Windows, Mac
Release Date
Jan 1, 2025
Rating
4.3
/10
Tags
fighting
mythology
local-multiplayer
pixel-art
arcade
bare-bones
two-player
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