Bounty Battle Review (PlayStation 4)

by Jim Smale · Published September 11, 2020 · Updated September 11, 2020

Bounty Battle Review

Bounty Battle is the ultimate indie fighting game: a new multiplayer 2D fighter, where you can pit your favorite indie heroes against one another! Indie heroes from games like Guacamelee! and Darkest Dungeon, to Dead Cells, Owlboy & more battle it out in this fighter frenzy.

Pros:

Cartoon style graphics.
1.29gb download size.
Platinum trophy.
Fighting/arena brawler gameplay.
Two modes-single players and versus.
Single player-tutorial, tournament, challenge, and training room.
Versus- local.
The cast of characters are made up of indie game protagonists.
Think Super Smash Brothers with indie characters.
Gimmick-Bounty system whereby you earn a bounty by defeating other players and with bounty points you can spend them in the match on powerful new moves or a minion who will fight alongside you until death.
You can lose bounty points by being defeated but also if you spam the attack button too much.
Energy-regains over time and you use this to power all your moves and attacks except the base attack button on the square key.
Air juggling and launching is in the game.
Side stable of attacks and combos from grabs to special moves and air attacks.
Tournament-30 of them and it will give you a list of opponents and the name of the player you must be for the tournament. Finish each fight without dying to unlock a new player’s skin.
Modern Chiptune soundtrack.
2-4 player local multiplayer. You can choose team colors.
Ai/bot match support. Can be mixed with other local players.
30 characters to choose from.
Ai/bot difficulties are on a 1-5 star system.
16 arenas to fight in.
Combo counter.
Three game types-victory is achieved by either-count, time, or life.

Bounty Battle Review

Cons:

Fighting is very sluggish and takes a minute to get used to the flow.
A lot to take in initially.
No online play.
The tournament doesn’t have difficulties.
Only unlocks are skins.
The arenas feel small.
Small scale fights.
The bounty system feels a bit all over the place.
It kind of feels like an early access game with only a few game modes and all modes ultimately playing the same.
Not that fun in single player.

Bounty Battle Review

8/10

Graphics - 8/10
7/10

Sound - 7/10
7/10

Accessibility - 7/10
6/10

Length - 6/10
6/10

Fun Factor - 6/10

6.8/10

Summary

Bounty Battle is a who’s who of indie gaming, think of any recognizable characters from the last few years, and its a good bet they are in Bounty Battle. The gameplay feels and plays like a Super Smash Brothers game but with its own set of rules so more a spin-off than a direct copy. Each character has a unique set of attacks, the game rules are done via a scoring system of kills or survival, and it’s all very chaotic. I did enjoy playing this variant of a fighting game but it took some time to get used to the controls, they felt kind of sludgy and squishy, never feeling like I hit my opponent or if I did that I didn’t do much damage, I found levels to look better than they were to actually play on and the stand out features of Bounty Battle is the bounty system as you can earn bounty points and call in support or do better special attacks, but even that is not well explained or implemented in a way you a) remember it exists or b) know when to use it or what it gives you. I really feel Bounty Battle had more style than substance and it requires a lot of dedication and trial and error with all the characters to get the right match up so you can compete and get good. And yes you read it correctly, at the time of the review, there was indeed no online play so another stop to the fun as a single-player is not a good way to train and social distancing can stop Any local play. Overall I found Bounty Battle a fun distraction and a great way to showcase I die characters but the core gameplay feels like a Super Smash Brothers variant in need of some tweaking.