Dodgeball is a fun game, whether you suck at it or not. There aren’t many activities in school that allow you to throw things at people with the intent of hitting them without some sort of negative consequences soon following. That means pegging Seth with that big rubber ball brings quite a sense of satisfaction and pride. So what is the best way of translating that to a video game? 1v1 or 2v2 seems to be optimal with the newest game from Fun Punch.

It’s worth noting right now that Strikers Edge is a multiplayer game, much like the recent Nidhogg 2. Is there a campaign for the characters? Sure, but it’s more of a training area once you’ve completed the optional tutorial for gameplay. This is made most obvious when seeing almost all of the trophies/achievements are tied to online play. The campaign allows you to view the different stages the game has to offer and find out which character you enjoy playing the most. There are several characters to choose from, each with their own special abilities that will help or hinder your chances of winning, depending on your skills and who the other team is using.

This is a game that comes off as simple at a glance, but has a lot of depth. There aren’t many buttons to know – attack, dodge, aim, move, block, and special. Two of those are the analog sticks, which leaves you with four buttons, all of which are shoulder buttons. This makes the most sense as your thumbs will be occupied at all times with moving and aiming. While the computer will likely not give you any issues (depending on the difficulty you choose), much like Smash Bros, your hardest opponents will be humans. And honestly, once you start playing it, you’ll be begging for the challenge.

Admittedly, I was drawn to Strikers Edge because of its aesthetic, but it soon had its claws in me with the different play styles associated with each character. Much like a fighting game, you’ll soon find certain characters are better against others, and the varied locales bring different strategies with environmental defenses that break after a certain amount of damage. I can honestly see this becoming a huge game for streaming, and potentially even the e-sport circuit. If you’re playing on the PC, the game also includes a Twitch centered mode, which allows the community to choose what’s going to happen with the match. Certain modifiers are shown prior to it starting, and are then voted on by the community. This makes the game a more interactive experience for viewers, and also adds something new to the game for those playing.

The weakest offering here is the campaign. While I appreciate the effort to provide something for those of us that aren’t huge into multiplayer games, it feels like a last minute add-on opposed to a hand crafted experience. There’s some exposition detailing what’s going on with each character, but the meat of it is the battles, and while you’ll go up against more than one opponent at a time, it never provided a sense of accomplishment. Perhaps if there was more of a reason to complete it, I’d have enjoyed it more. I also found myself waiting several minutes at a time for online matches to start up. I believe this has much more to do with the amount of people that had the game and when I was playing it than anything else. While these types of games basically live or die depending on their player base, I believe this will grow quickly once people actually see it in action.

Strikers Edge seemingly came out of nowhere, and proves once again that Playdius is a publisher you need to be watching. I believe this is also Fun Punch’s debut title, and what a way to enter the game space. We’ve had a lot of great debuts recently from budding developers, but when genres you normally don’t care for are able to make you crave more from them, that’s something altogether different from the norm. Even if you only plan on playing this locally at parties or small get-togethers, it’ll make a great impression on everyone that picks up a controller and launches a spear.

9 out of 10

Pros

• Character Mechanics
• Addictive Gameplay
• Amazing with Friends

Cons

• Weak Campaign

Strikers Edge was developed by Fun Punch and published by Playdius. The game launched on PC and PS4 January 30th, 2018 for $14.99. The PS4 version of the game was provided to us for review. If you’d like to see more of Strikers Edge, check out the official site.

 

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