Gutter Critters

Ashby. Everyone calls it the Ashtray. It's your twentieth birthday, it's raining, and your mum has just thrown you out so she can turn your room into a smoking room.

Under the canal bridge, Professor Dregs – former zoologist, current sofa – hands you a soggy cardboard box with a critter in it. Out here, rats, one-legged pigeons, drunk wasps and things from the drains fight for whoever shares their chips, and critter fights are the only thing that pays.

Sergeant Hammer is clearing the camp under the bridge. He respects one thing: a fight in his own pit under Precinct 13, against him and his partner Constabella. To get in, you need the tokens of the three Kings of Ashby – Granny Gertrud in the park, the Mole in the tunnels and the Junk Baron at the scrapyard.

Slam a carton, bucket or shopping trolley down on 28 kinds of critter and hold the lid shut while they thrash. Build a crew of four, let them glow up inside an old box and teach them dirty tricks across eight types from SMOKE and FILTH to BOOZE and LAW. Street fights run on a NEXT strip: quick critters act more often, big tricks cost GRIT, and pressing at the right moment lands a solid hit or braces you for one. Plus a rival with a green mohawk, bottle deposits, a soup kitchen, rain, neon and a lot of dark humour. Plays with keyboard, gamepad or touch; your progress is saved to your account.

16+: swearing, alcohol, smoking, homelessness and a very corrupt policeman. Critters only ever pass out.