Video Game / Midnight Fight Express

Fight your way across the city in a brutal romp

Midnight Fight Express is an isometric Beat 'em Up developed by one man, Jacob Dzwinel, and published by Humble Games. It was released on August 23, 2022 for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

The game has you fighting across a city with gameplay that mixes old school brawlers with fast-paced motion-captured combat. Hand-crafted levels, weapons and environments to use against Mooks, and moves to unlock as you beat the life out of your enemies and level up.

The story follows Babyface, a mysterious fighter as he fights his way through a massive crime wave aided by a drone who promises to fill him in on his past, all while stopping a criminal takerover before sunrise.

The developer has created a Discord server you may join for development updates/Q&A, etc.

Has a characters page.

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Midnight Fight Express provides examples of the following tropes:

• Abnormal Ammo: The Secondary Gun that you unlock can shoot various different types of ammo.
• Affably Evil: Arlena, the primary arms dealer for The Boss is generally the most friendly of his minions, having formed a Villainous Friendship with Babyface in the past and letting a wanted murderer stay on her oil rig.
• All Bikers are Hells Angels: The Sons Of Hedonism, a Russian biker gang lead by the big dawg of the gang, Daddy Hedonism.
• Amnesiac Hero: Babyface remembers nothing about his life prior to the start of the game despite the fact that all the villains instantly recognize him.
• As Himself: Mocap director Eric Jacobus and composer Noisecream are the secret characters in the Game Studio and Night Club stages, respectively.
• The Bad Guys Are Cops: And they(including SWAT) are on Jeffrey's pockects.
• Bad Guy Bar: One of the locations is a bar populated by a biker gang. Take five guesses as to what happens.
• Bar Brawl: Level 21, "Tavern". Can it really be a beat-em-up brawler without a bar fight?
  • Same goes for the Oakenfold Nightclub, where Babyface needs to fight the Bouncers, Ravers, and Leatherbabes in order to get to Doctor Maker.
• Bathroom Brawl: Level 5, "Restroom," has a bathroom as a fighting setting.
• Batter Up!: One of the several melee weapons available. Heads may not stay intact.
• Big Bad: The main antagonist of the game is The Boss, AKA Jeffrey Kingsworthy, a millionaire philanthropist who also happens to be a crime lord that Babyface has a history with.
• Bittersweet Ending: Babyface kills the boss, ending his plan to Kill and Replace humanity with his obedient, robot soldiers. However, during the escape, he takes a shot through the abdomen from a high-powered sniper rifle, and Droney ends up expending a ton of power to save him from the last wave of mooks sent to kill him. The two survive long enough to watch the sunrise from the top floor of a building rapidly deteriorating from the fire, with their chance of survival looking extremely slim.
• Blade on a Rope: You can unlock a grappling gun that attaches to enemies. You can pull yourself towards them, or throw them around and toss them at other enemies. You can also pull them towards you for a clothesline, and apparently it's also capable of shocking people!
• Bloodstained Glass Windows: Near the end of Level 27, you'll be fighting against The Devout in their church.
• Bouncer: They're also enemies and first appears at Level 30, "Night Club," .
• Boxing Battler: Several of the animations include boxing-style hooks and jabs.
• Brain Uploading: Near the end, it's revealed that The Boss' plan is to create a robot army with the minds of his minions uploaded into them. It's also revealed that Droney has no physical body and his mind is actually uploaded into the drone itself.
• Breakable Weapons: Every weapon(except for the pillow) has a limited durability and will break after a few or more hits.
• Character Customization: Babyface can be customized in various ways, complete with different skins that can make him look like different enemy types.
• Chase Fight: There's about 3 of them on each three levels: Wavechase, Highway, and Alleyway. Though the third one shifts to a Traintop Battle later on.
• Childish Pillow Fight: One segment has you getting involved in a pillow fight thrown by a game dev studio to celebrate the release of their game. You can also later pick up some Nerf guns for more non-lethal carnage. There's even a guy who's strapped pillows around him like armor.
• Co-Dragons: Ben and the Butcher are Jeff Kingsworthy's bodyguards, who Babyface has to go through before facing him in Level 39, "Office." Droney tells Babyface he personally trained them before he went away.
• Combat Pragmatist: Kicking people in the face while they're down, bashing guys through bathroom sinks, slamming their heads against walls, kicking them into furniture (or the aforementioned wall), chucking barrels at them, throwing them over railings, using firearms on unarmed and melee armed combat. Rules were thrown out from the onset.
• Counter-Attack: Just like some of its inspirations and influences, this plays a big part in the combat. Many of the animations are just as wince-worthy as well. The motion capture helps make everything look seamless and fluid.
• Cult: The Brother Hood, a shadowy cult lead by Father Hood devoted to a Dark Lord, who are opposing Jeffrey's Operation Neo Dawn.
• Dead All Along: In Mission 37, it's revealed all this time that the real Droney, Babyface's son, has been dead since his first assassination attempt at Kingsworthy.
• Defector from Decadence: According to the various villains, Babyface was a top-ranking member of the criminal syndicate before apparently betraying The Boss.
• Diner Brawl: Level 16 takes place at the Hawthorne Diner where Babyface takes on the Corrupt Bastards and Death Bunnies while also taking down Chef Favreau.
• Dirty Cop: The police department and SWAT are on Jeffrey's pockets. Including Agents Barn, Smithman, and McCloon.
• Down the Drain: Level 8, "Sewers" takes place on some parts of the sewers, which is the Rat King's lair. Inhabited by Plaguebearers and Ratboys.
• The Dreaded: Babyface is this in both the backstory and in-game. In the past, he served as The Dragon to the Boss, Jeffrey Kingsworthy, helping to establish his empire. In the present, even at his weakest he starts leaving a trail of bodies left and right. By the end of the game, he's left a trail of bodies that includes several different gangs, corrupt police, SWAT teams, and mercenaries.
• Dual Wielding: There are two of Jeffrey's elites that wields two knives: The Dicers and The Faceless.
  • Arlena is also this, wielding two stun batons when fighting Babyface.
• Elevator Action Sequence: Level 24, "Airport," has Babyface get into a brawl with the Russian mafia before they Shout-Out a certain video game mission.
  • Level 35, "Service Elevator," also has the... well service elevator as a fighting setting as well.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Mikhail "The Snail" claims his nickname is because he's slow to the draw, but it was actually from leaving a trail of diarrhea after getting salmonella.
• Enemy Civil War: Certain levels feature two enemy factions fighting each other while you get in between them.
  • Level 4, "Metro Station," has the Bozos and Security get into a fight, not only for the Bozos being on Security turf, but for ordering Security around.
    Security: You're on the wrong turf, Bozos. The Guy-On-High wouldn't be happy.
    Bozo: You idiot- Who do you think sent us? Out of our way. Now.
    Security: You did NOT just give me an order. Boys, strip search these trespassers.
  • Level 15, "Motel," has a Gang War between the Warriors and Earth Smashers. The Warriors believe the Earth Smashers are sheltering Babyface, but the Earth Smashers have no idea who they're talking about.
• Evil Chef: One of the targets you're after is Chef Favreau, Jeffrey's personal chef who's a psychopathic maniac who wants to kill and eat everything just to feel alive.
• False Flag Operation: In Level 24, "Airport," the corrupt SWAT team wants to allow the Russian Mafia onto the plane to carry out Mission Kilitary. Their orders are to kill some of them, but let most of them go so the outside world will think it was the Russians' own idea to hijack the plane. Their primary goal, however, is to kill Babyface.
• Fast-Roping: Level 36, "Eightieth Floor," has Kingsworthy's Special Forces team Australian rappelling down the side of the office to sneak up on Babyface.
• Fight Clubbing: Level 20, "Fight Club," takes place on... well a fight club that's part of the casino, which Babyface and Dromey needs fight a couple of fighters at the club to pass through in order to enter the casino from the back.
• Finishing Stomp: Some kill animations include this. There's a single-leg head stomp, or a jump into a head stomp with both feet.
• Fluffy the Terrible: One wouldn't typically associate the name "Babyface" with the city's most dangerous man, but practically everyone in the city treats him and his name with fear and respect.
• Framing Device: The story is set up as Babyface being interrogated by police and recounting the night's events leading up to his arrest. He breaks out when it's revealed they're all in on the Boss' plan and attempt to execute him for his insurrection.
• Gambling Brawl: A casino appears as a fight setting as well. Minus the friendly wager or betting games, it's just a infiltration for the duo though.
• Gangbangers: The Warriors and the Earth Smashers.
• Gang of Hats: The city is populated by various themed gangs in wacky outfits.
• Giant Mook: The Muscles are bigger and tougher versions of Bulky Bozos that can perform a Ground Punch on you and throw you away.
• Grapple Move: One of the sets of upgrades you can unlock.
  • Some enemies can do this on you.
• Groin Attack: One of the upgrades is a kick to the nuts that serves as a quick block breaker.
• Ground Punch: The grappling gun lets you leap towards your selected mook and do this with double fists.
  • The Muscles can also do this towards you.
• Gun Fu: John Wick would approve. With the Firearms Finisher skill, you can perform some execution moves when you've got a gun in your hand.
• Heavily Armored Mook: The Heavy Bois are well equipped with armour that is equivalent to a tank's armour and has a minigun to mow you down. Only way to defeat them is by using any explosives.
• Heroes Fight Barehanded: While most of the game prioritizes unarmed combat, there are several segments in the game where you're either forced or heavily incentivized to use weapons and firearms.
• Heroic Mime: Babyface never speaks a word in-game, though he is the one recounting the story to two policemen.
  • Averted near the end of Level 39.
• Hit Spark: Used well to sell the impact of some of the moves. There's also little tufts of dust that come off with every impact.
• How We Got Here: The game starts with Babyface being interrogated by Agents Smithman and McCloon about the events of the game leading up to his arrest, with the game finally catching up at Mission 37.
• Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: Chef Favreau's biography reveals he and his father hunted humans not just for sport, but also to cook and eat them.
• Improbable Weapon User: Lead pipes, wrenches, batons, baseball bats, wooden boards (some of them have nails in them), plastic chairs? Paint rollers? Pens and scissors? If it's not nailed down to anything, you'll probably be able to pick it up and smash mooks' faces in with it.
• Instakill Mook: The Deadheads can kill you instantly when you're close to them.
• Levels Take Flight: One of the levels takes place on a plane headed towards a military base.
• Locomotive Level: Level 3, "Commuter Train" takes place on the said train that is heading to a metro station.
• Luke, You Are My Father: It's eventually revealed that Droney is actually Babyface's son.
• The Mafiya: The Russian Mob AKA Russians are allies to Jeffrey and are the ones running a sub-operation of Operation Neo Dawn called Mission Kilitary.
• Malevolent Masked Men: Several of the enemy factions don masks as part of their outfit. Babyface himself can unlock various masks to wear himself.
• Mecha-Mooks: The Kingbots. Robots with sentience from human brains uploaded to them.
• Motion Capture: According to the dev, about 80% of the animations in the game are mo-capped, with the remainder being hand-made or bought from the Unity asset store. The results are speaking for themselves so far. Jacob worked with Eric Jacobus and his company for the motion capture.
• Neck Snap: A finisher Babyface can uses when approaching a stunned enemy from behind or on one that's lying on the floor. He also employs it on an unwary mook at the intro cutscene for the Russian Casino level.
• Night of the Living Mooks: The Deadheads and their berserk varients.
• Not-So-Safe Harbor: One level has a harbor that is used as a honeypot made by Jeffrey and disguised as a Civilian Evacuation Center to lure unlucky refugees. Oh, and it's also filled with organ trafficking LARPing pirates.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Jeffrey Kingsworthy says that his plan to Take Over the World with an army of robots is for the betterment of humanity, but between all the horrible stuff he does to innocent people and his own minions as well as his backstory of wanting to outshine his brothers shows that his motivations are more selfish than they seem.
• Nuclear Mutant: Clips of gameplay show barrels of nuclear waste leaking, and mutated people known as the Ratboys, which it's one purpose is to aid in Operation Neo Dawn by running amok in the City of Tomorrow and killing anyone in their path.
• Organ Theft: Level 13, "Civilian Evacuation Center," has the LARPing Pirates harvesting organs for the black market by killing unlucky refugees.
• Parking Garage: Level 33, "Parking Garage" has this as a fighting setting too.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Babyface sees the worst kinds of scum committing violent acts against innocents and makes sure they die in the most violent ways possible. One example is the Psycho Pirates, who are butchering their victims for the sake of violence.
  Droney: Okay! That does it. Let's eye-for-an-eye these guys and see how they like having THEIR organs on the outside.
• Ragdoll Physics: Employed in the game, from enemies reacting to how they're hit, to dead enemies piling up on the ground.
• Railing Kill: With the Environmental Finisher unlocked, defeating an enemy near railings will have you toss them over it.
• Railroad Tracks of Doom: On the Level 7, "Train Tunnel," has two railways which you need to be careful for any incoming subway trains. There are two icons next to each other, one or both of them will flash to indicate to which trains are coming from.
• Renegade Splinter Faction: The Top Men, government agents who defected from their agencies and now works for Jeffrey on his takeover. Same goes for the Special Forces.
• Rogue Soldier: The Special Forces. Top of the elite, highly trained black op agents from all over the world now works for Jeffrey's most homicidal of whims
• Roundhouse Kick: Can be a move among your repertoire, along with many other kicks.
• Ruthless Modern Pirates: You will encounter these guys, who are actually people LARPing as traditional pirates, but are doing anything than finding treasure chests on Level 13, "Civilian Evacuation Center," .
• Ship Level: Level 10, "The S.S Muggler" takes place on smuggling ship where Arlena is in.
• Shout-Out:
  • The end of the 2021 trailer cuts to black with someone saying "Remember, no Russia." Cue the player in a horse mask walking into an elevator with armed men and absolutely bodying them .
  • A clip in the 2020 trailer shows off a gigantic free-for-all brawl inside of a church.
  • The costume unlocked by achieving 80% completion of level 1 is of a character called "Dareman."
  • Level 5, "Restroom," takes place in a public bathroom.
  • Level 20 is named "Fight Club", and before you can pass, you have to fight through Kyler Turden. You encounter a group of armed people in animal masks. The leader of them is a guy in a horse mask named BoJacket.
  • One of the enemy types you fight in the smuggling ship level are giant sailor men with massive biceps who attribute their strength to injecting spinach into their arms.
  • One of the finishers Babyface can pull on enemies is the Crane Kick. However, instead of kicking the enemy in the face like Daniel, Babyface uses it as a feint and knocks them out with a karate chop to the head instead.
  • Droney ends his exposition at the start of the Bar level with "Strike first. No mercy. Babyface never dies."
  • The Warriors are named after The Warriors. They and the Earth Smashers are purple and green respectively, with their bitter rivalry echoing that of the Ballas and the Grove Street Families. The Motel stage even features a scene where a member of the Earth Smashers (who resembles Big Smoke and is named "Large Soda") defects to the Warriors.
  • The description for the zombies, called Deadheads in-game, at the Graveyard level ends with "RISE FROM YOUR GRAVES."
  • In Level 29, "Suburbs", Babyface gets access to a rope dart gun. Droney will make a reference to Mortal Kombat by suggesting for Babyface to scream Get Over Here when using the rope dart.
  • In Level 39, "Office," two of Kingsley's enforcers, Ben and The Butcher were previously trained by Babyface, and also have personal drones. The copycat tactics prompts Droney to say There can be only one.
  • In Level 39, "Office," Kingsley has the Delicious Cake from Portal on his table.
• Sinister Minister: The Devout are a heavily armed mercs dressed as clergy. Their leaders certainly talk like the part, too.
• Slide Attack: One of the upgrades is a slide on the ground to knock back any enemies in front of you, making them less likely to block subsequent attacks for a short time.
• Suicide Attack: What the Sacrificial Hoods do when you're close to them, though they'll explode upon death.
• Super Mode: You build up a rage meter in combat that when filled puts Babyface in a state similar to the Mad Max (2015) game where all of his attacks are massive haymakers.
• Suplex Finisher: Also among the moves/finishers you can perform in the game.
• SWAT Team: They're also enemies as well. Been on Jeffrey's pockets for years.
• Take Over the City: What the Big Bad is trying to do to the City of Tomorrow, and after that he'll start to take over the world. And your job is to stop the takeover before sunrise.
• Traintop Battle: Level 3, "Commuter Train," has Babyface fighting enemies on top of a train while also dodging sniper fire.
  • Another one happens in Level 32, "Alleyway," right after a Chase Fight segment.
• Trojan Horse: The Russian Mafia's plan for the sub-operation of Operation Neo Dawn, Mission Kilitary, is to take a plane, fly it to a military base which they believe will be filled with civilian refugees escaping from the violence, and attack the base.
• Underside Ride: At the end of Level 24, Babyface gets into the Russians' airplane by clinging onto the landing gear.
• Unique Enemy: Some enemies only appear in one levels. While they appear a few times, those few times in each enemies are restricted on one level.
• Virtual Paper Doll: Babyface can be customized with different clothing options as well as hair color, skin tones and tattoos. You can even unlock different skins for him.
• Voice with an Internet Connection: Babyface's main ally is a flying drone controlled by a mysterious hacker that fills him in on what's going on. The hacker is also his son.
• Wrestler in All of Us: Along with suplex finishers, elbow drops, chokeslams, standing senton splashes, dropkicks, DDTs and backbreakers have been shown.
• Wretched Hive: The City of Tomorrow is one of the worst places to be in, and is made so by Jeffrey Kingsworthy. Gangs run rampant all over the city, and the cops and firefighters are just as crooked as the Mafia.
• Your Head A-Splode: Babyface's more powerful strikes tend to obliterate the head of the unfortunate mook that crosses him.
• Zombie Puke Attack: Ratboys barf up bright green bile.

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