The Showdown Effect is taking beta sign-ups

The Showdown Effect is the next game from Magicka developers Arrowhead. It seems to feature fewer calamity-prone wizards (which is a shame), but more “fast-paced combat meets movie clichés” which is … an interesting set-up. To find out what that means, exactly, you have a few options. You can carry on reading this sentence when I say that it looks like a 2.5D scrolling battle arena type thing; or you can watch the live-action-meets-gameplay trailer below.

If you’re swift enough, you can catch a livestream of the game on Paradox’s Twitch TV channel (beginning at 7pm GMT/11am PST). It’ll probably be archived, so you should be able to watch at some point even if you don’t see it live.

Finally, the title is taking beta sign-ups right now. That’s probably the best, most direct way to figure out if The Showdown Effect is something you’re interested in.