Ludography
70/100
Metacritic4 critic reviews
More scores
Metacritic usersuser score
70/100
GameFAQsJust Right-Tough
3.3/5
Player reviews
84% positive260 reviews
Steam Deck
Verified
Runs on
Windows
Price
US$9.99

Where to get it

Jitsu Squad cover

2022 · Action · Adventure

Jitsu Squad

4 Player Co-op Beat 'Em Up that's all about insanly fast paced action with colour 2D graphics.

Released
29 March 2022
Platforms
Nintendo SwitchPlayStation 4PlayStation 5WindowsXbox OneXbox Series X/S
Genres
ActionAdventureArcadeBeat 'em upFightingIndie
Developers
—
Publishers
Inin Games
Modes
Co-opSingle-player
Perspective
Side view
Themes
Action
Country
Netherlands
Age ratings
CERO CESRB TUSK 12PEGI 16ACB MA 15+
Languages
English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish (Spain)
Time to beat
3hmain story5hwith extras9hcompletionist

About

Jitsu Squad is a 2022 beat 'em up indie video game self-developed and published by Tanuki Creative Studio for Microsoft Windows, and published by ININ Games for home consoles. The game was released on March 29, 2022, for Windows, which was followed by console releases for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, on December 9.

Players say

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Development

Jitsu Squad is developed by Tanuki Creative Studio, an independent game company from the Netherlands.

Development on the game began in 2015 and over the years had two successful Kickstarter campaigns. YouTuber Maximilian Dood and the titular Yooka-Laylee characters, Yooka and Laylee, appear as cameo extras in the game. Several mechanics in the game, such as "Fury Mode" and "big burst attacks", were inspired by works such as Samurai Pizza Cats and Dragon Ball respectively. There were plans of a "Survival" mode and having the character Dash Kobayashi, the first boss of the game, to be a fifth playable character. None, however, were panned out into further update patches as Tanuki Creative Studio rebranded as Blast Zero in 2024 and are working on their next project Samurai Pizza Cats: Blast from the Past!

Reception

Jitsu Squad received "mixed or average" from critics, according to review aggregator Metacritic.

Scott McCrae from Nintendo Life scored the game a 7 out of 10, praising the "great art style and music" and being "a love letter to '90s Capcom classics" whilst critiquing that it has "performance issues" and is a bit too "short, even for a beat 'em up". In TouchArcade, Shaun Musgrave rated it a 7.5, highlighting its "cartoonish graphics" and "fast action", but felt that there was little "technique" to go off of and that the unlockable tag-team mode was not available from the get-go.

Legacy

In 2024, exA-Arcadia released an arcade port of the game, titled Jitsu Squad featuring Samurai Pizza Cats. It features the character Speedy Cerviche as a fifth playable character, with Kappei Yamaguchi reprising the role. The game was previously unveiled at the Amusement Expo in Las Vegas.

Awards

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Windows29 March 2022Worldwide
PlayStation 42 December 2022Worldwide
PlayStation 52 December 2022Worldwide
Xbox Series X/S9 December 2022North America
Xbox One9 December 2022North America
Nintendo Switch9 December 2022Worldwide

Games like this

Collections1 collection

Years

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.