Your Only Move Is Hustle hit Steam back in February this year, but had been on Itch.io before that. It’s a strange prospect, because while this is undoubtedly a fighting game, it’s also turn-based, and matches can take up to thirty minutes depending on the people and characters in play.
While most fighting games have you relying on split-second reaction times and learning lengthy combos, Your Only Move Is Hustle is a very different beast. It plays out a lot more like an intensely granular turn-based RPG. Every move you make can be from among a number of basic attacks, specials, and defensive options. You can tweak the direction of a lot of these slightly, and even change the direction you’re launched in if you get hit.
Every move shows you a preview of what it could do, along with when your and your opponent will get a chance to react next, meaning you will regularly cancel moves into other moves, try and find the perfect timing, and plan your blocks and dodges accordingly. Whoever lands a blow first will have an advantage and the chance to combo off, but it’s rarely straightforward.
The game has four characters by default, but modding is massive in YOMI Hustle (that’s what the cool kids call it). That means that if there’s an anime, game, or obscure meme character you can think of, they’re probably in the game thanks to those mods. The base game is absolutely incredible anyway, but modding means you can have Baki the Grappler fighting against Michael Jackson from Moonwalker, his video game, and that’s the kind of thing only gaming can manage.
While getting to grips with things does take a little bit of time, there are few games out there that make you feel quite as badass at the end of each match. That’s especially true as the fight will play out in real-time after your hard-fought battle, so you get to watch your characters beat the snot out of each other with more fluidity than most people can dream of.
