Awesomenauts

The PSN/XBLA is rarely in short supply of 2D action, but Awesomenauts has stepped up to the gauntlet with a multiplayer shooter focus to help spice up the plethora of 2D games sprinkled around the digital marketplace. It’s the gameplay formula nearly as old as multiplayer gaming has existed: your team have to destroy the enemies’ base before they can destroy yours. That’s the only goal. Pick your ‘Hero’, grab your gear, and shoot until you reach the promised land… Then blow the ever-lasting hell out of it.

You have a healthy collection of six Heroes (AKA playable characters), each of whom have unique abilities, advantages and disadvantages, and a miniature humorous backstory. Yuri, being my favourite because I happen to be a big fan of all things Russian, is monkey-like, uses time-manipulation, while attached to a jetpack. The colourful array of characters also have a variety of levels ala Super Smash Brothers to shoot it out, but the premise remains the same throughout: get to the other side. However, things are refreshingly altered at times with environmental hazards and differing paths to the final goal. I can’t tell you how many times I fell for the stupid mechanical Venus Fly Trap clamp trap.

The problem is that despite the simplistic gameplay objectives and style, the game has one (current) glaring flaw on its record: I feel that it is a tad unbalanced. STOP! Drop the pitchforks. It does eventually balance out, but for new players the experience could be best described as brutal. The issue with the entire XP levelling system existing on a multiplayer exclusive game means that anybody who has yet to grind to the higher levels is at the mercy of those who have. My first four games, which lasted on average around 15 minutes a piece, left my confidence rockier than an army of Silvester Stallones. Rather predictably, suffering to enjoy the very first steps of a game I just booted was not exactly a highlight of my experience. As time went on it did level out for me, as I unlocked extra upgrades and characters, but I was still heavily reliant on my teammates also having the upgrades and characters else they get rofl-stomped or understandably rage quit for greener pastures.

The balancing aside, though, once I had a solid team together against another solid team then the game really opened up to me and I enjoyed what I saw. 2D shooter action, at a low cost, which could be used in split-screen or partied online with a group of friends. It’s not a tall order, but few have ever been able to deliver in such a colourful and enjoyable fashion. My best recommendation would be to find a group of two to five friends to either create your own team or face off against each other and have a blast. At the very least make sure to always have a tag team partner by your side so at least when you’re both getting squished into a puddle of n00bness you’ll have somebody to laugh with as you watch a time-travelling monkey flying around on a jetpack with a laser gun.