River City Survivors hits Apple Arcade, letting you play classic side-scrolling heroes versus zombies

• River City Survivors is a Vampire Survivors-style take on the classic beat 'em up
• Step into the school shoes of your favourite brawling delinquents
• Take on the hordes of the dead, upgrade and take two fellow misfits into battle to fight alongside you

With Halloween now firmly on the horizon, it's about time to get into the spooky mood. And if you're an Apple Arcade user, it might well be looking at today's release, as River City Survivors hits iOS via Apple's subscription gaming service! So jump into a Survivors-like adventure featuring your favourite River City characters.

River City Survivors: Downtown of the Dead is, as you might have guessed from the name, a Vampire Survivors-style roguelite based on the River City Riot games. If you're only familiar with the newer series, River City Girls, these may seem a bit unfamiliar. But you'll have plenty of time to get to know the retro cast as you take on hordes of zombies.

Time to survive

If you aren't already well-acquainted with the Vampire Survivors-like genre, then here's a quick breakdown. You control your chosen character, who attacks nearby enemies automatically, and navigate them around the level. As you continue defeating enemies, your character will gradually increase in experience and gain new upgrades.

River City Survivors offers both this and more traditional RPG-style customisation. You can also bring two other characters with you to form a trio of brawlers, unleashing special abilities inspired by the hit brawler.

All this is rendered in familiar eight-bit style, and comes packed with plenty of easter eggs for fans of the series. And believe it or not, it's also developed by Arc Systems Works (yes, the people behind Guilty Gear). So if there's any reason to give River City Survivors: Downtown of the Dead a go, it's that pedigree of a studio behind it.

In the meantime, though, if you don't have access to Apple Arcade, then there's no need to fret. You'll have plenty of other options to play, especially if you dig into our list of the five new mobile games to try this week for some of our choice picks from the last seven days.