Arrowhead Game Studios, the team who developed the quite quirky Magicka, has revealed a new gameplay trailer for upcoming action-packed 2.5D multiplayer combat title, The Showdown Effect. The video features a short introduction on each of the playable characters in the style of their recent "live-action" Magicka videos, but it also does showcase some beta footage of the side-scroller.

The Showdown Effect is a 2.5D multiplayer action game inspired by 80’s and 90’s action movies where champions from different eras of time fight to the death, for fun, for glory and for awesome. Players will battle for the upper hand through cunning use of different weapons, the game's wide range dynamic environments and even the engine's own dramatic audiovisual effects.

The focus of The Showdown Effect is in recreating the outrageous action found in classic action movies and taking them one step further. Players can pick weaponry from the silver screen's unparallelled arsenal, including shotguns, frying pans, lightsabers, assault rifles, grenades, katanas, gauss guns and anything in between. No explosion is too loud and no bullet dodge is implausible – The Showdown Effect is all about impaling your friend with nearby broomstick and dropping a “Stick around”-taunt as you jetpack heroically off to the next enemy.

The trailer also marks the announcement of the beta signup page available on the official website, which requires users to get three referrals for guaranteed beta access. Currently no date has been given as to when you can expect the beta, but hopefully it will be soon enough for those in need of some over-the-top movie clichés.

The Showdown Effect is expected sometime in 2013 on PC.