Awesomenauts Assemble!

Game Info

Awesomenauts Assemble! is my first venture into the MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) genre.  I mostly play platformers, puzzle games and RPG’s, so naturally I was pretty excited by the opportunity to branch out a little bit.  At first, the game was very frustrating being the noob and having the online community on mop up duty of me.  Low and behold though, once you have this game down, it is a treat.

When you launch Awesomenauts Assemble! you are greeted by a short generic story about how you have been hired to fight to protect a base and attack another.  The story here is not really of any importance as you are about to be tossed into the fight of your life.  The games first level is a single player tutorial that will only prepare you for the constants of the game.  Once you’re online though, the online community that you didn’t see in the tutorial is a whole different story.

The game plays like a 2D action game, similar in style to Mega Man, Metroid, Contra, etc.  Now throw yourself online with either local buddies or complete online players and you are about to have some crazy fun.  After leveling up you will unlock characters who have different attacks, speed, styles and other attributes.  There are tanks, healers and other classes that you will want to align with the other players carefully.  Once you reach a certain level you will unlock a loadout screen which lets you choose what in game upgrades you can purchase.  Awesomenauts Assemble! has tons and tons of unlockables which will keep you battling it out online for hours upon hours to unlock everything.

The arena gameplay will have you battling 3 human opponents trying to destroy their 3 turrets and there base.  Every character will have different powers and a jump mapped to the shape buttons and R1 will teleport you back to base.  The Vending machine where you purchase upgrades with the money you earn from collecting it in the game and by making kills will also heal your character.  Following behind the drone characters will take the turrets vision off of you which allows for you to wreck some havoc.  The first team to destroy the others base wins the bout.

Graphically the game has a cartoon comic book look which fits the humor and characters they were going for well.  I would expect with the graphical power of the system a little bit more, but it works for what they are doing.  The music and voice acting are good but not anything special.  The soundtrack which has an 80’s cartoon theme feel is pretty bad ass though.

If you haven’t played a MOBA game yet like me, this seems like an easy entry into the genre.  I had no problem picking it up after a few battles.  The Costume DLC is a little steep at 2.49, but the actual game at 9.99 is a great value.  If you are looking for an addicting multiplayer game, this will be right up your alley.  I highly recommend it if you are bored with 3D games on the PS4 and want a good 2D online game.