Many pixel art games try so hard to emulate the original style of gameplay, that they add nothing new, merely becoming second rate imitators. Others forgoing fun entirely, begrudgingly adding mediocre game-play as it attempts to masquerading as high art.
Broforce takes inspiration, but also attempts to be it's own thing, never forgetting games are suppose to be fun.
While it plays similar to a game like Contra, it uses elements from Minecraft style games to directly integrate the topography as a gameplay element. Instead of hitting it with a spade, like Worms, the player shoots it, carving their own path, as well as utilizing the topography to eliminate enemies. It's closest comparison is probably Terraria, however this is not a crafting or home building game, it is an out and out side-scrolling shooter.
The other element that helps differentiate it, is rogue like character generation. The game has a set of premade characters (action heroes) each with their own ability. The player doesn't choose which one to start with, it is random, likewise saving hostages (Shinobi style) yields extra life's, which also in turn, randomly chooses a character, Levels themselves are handmade, with specific unchanging scripts, but these two mechanics help create emergent gameplay, keeping the players interest while maintaining simple gameplay.
BroForce is also great example of a difficult game, that it entirely skill based, but also forgiving.
The player will die, and die often. It's practicably inevitable. However, the instant respawn, and short duration of levels remove any frustration. Rather than memorizing a set route or enemy pattern, the destructible topography and rogue like character generator create new paths and new methods of play, keeping the player consistently engaged.
The game on a whole, is best experienced in COOP. The COOP experience is at once chaotic, yet rewarding for players with coordinate, sometimes it operates almost like a dance while fireworks of destruction light up the screen. It's immediate gratification with easy to learn, hard to master game-play an 8 year or 80 year old can quickly adopt.
The only major issue with the game arises from it's camera. It doesn't operate split screen, but rather, a single screen. The camera chooses to follow the host, if the other player wanders off, they will not show up on screen, turning to complete blindness. The business of the screen can also lead to problems as so much mayhem is happen at such a pace, following your characters movements can become illegible.
This tends to happen extremely rarely though, once fine turned into the rhythm of the game, the problem quickly alleviates itself - becoming a minor nuisance rather than any signicant road block.
Although pixel art is done to death, Broforce oozes character. Avoiding pesky copyright laws, with heroic characters like Brade, Rambro Brobocop and Ellen Ripbro the game celebrates the 80/90's era of action movies, satirizing the pro-America agenda and using pop culture references endearingly, rather than cynically. It's audio is deliberately obnoxious with screams, explosions and rock music blaring encapsulating the ridiculous but paradoxically entertaining nature of the these movies.
For it's price, and entertainment, it's difficult to think of a COOP experience to recommend over Broforce, it's a game trying it's best to entertain and by and large, unanimously succeeding.
