Awesomenauts should have you instantly gripped from the intro video. It brings a slightly late 80’s/early 90’s cheesy Americanised anime theme with that classic style of intro music you would expect to hear on a Saturday morning kids show. Sounds lame but it’s the kind of mockery you’d expect from the Awesomenauts humour. You’ll notice that it has its cartoon charm which is more than welcome to the arcade seeing as many games that thrive on graphics lose out to hideous gameplay, especially with recent titles such as Bloodforge and I Am Alive which don’t give a sudden enjoyment to the instant gaming that Awesomenauts provides.

So what is Awesomenauts? It’s a team based competitive arena style game familiar with the popular Monday Night Combat. The big difference here is that MNC was massively 3D with sniper vantage points and corridors which enemies can slip pass without notice. The real charm in Awesomenauts is it throws the 3D arena environment right out the window and brings a true arcade feel with 2D platforming.

If you’ve played MNC then you’ll know the style. If you haven’t well your team is comprised of 3 players. You, your friends or a bunch of randoms will join online to take on another team of 3. Each team has a drillcore, these are like team/enemy bases in which you have to destroy in order to win the game. Along the way you’ll come against the opposing teams droids which are automatic AI controlled workers who spawn to give a helping hand on attacking enemy turrets. You will have to use your very own droids to protect from enemy fire using them for cover to draw nearer to the turrets which must be destroyed in order to continue along the arena and bring you closer to the enemy’s drillcore.

Health is a big issue, always keep an eye on it otherwise its more deaths than kills for you. You can simply head back to base either on foot or teleport where you’ll find the health station, in between the arena maps you’ll find health packs to aid you if you are in the heat of the battle. Along the way you’ll notice many cubes to collect. These are known as solar coins which are a much needed source for progression in your battle against the enemy. Collecting these will earn you points which you can then spend on upgrades to you powers and even new abilities. Still familiar with the arena based conflict featured in MNC but with very fresh and very fun ideas.

There are six main characters to choose from with a possibility of more coming in future DLC. Each character boasts of a range of different abilities creating a totally different way of playing the game. Some characters are suited to full on attack where as some are there to provide healing and defences. Abilities will be unlocked through progression with levelling up and those abilities can then be assigned to character classes limiting you to select only 3 slots per row. Levelling up is based on the amount of Solar picked up and bonuses for wins. Once you reach the maximum level you can then further the levelling up with Awesomenauts very own prestige system.

Awesomenauts is primarily an online game, but don’t fear the possibilities of never finding a match online. If the lobby seems a little lonely you’ll find that bots replace any players who decide to leave mid match or before game so levelling up is never a problem if that is your main aim in the game. Playing bots constantly however can get a little boring at times. You get the sense that these bot characters are too ‘automatic’ and home in on your every move, but usually the bots on your side can help a great deal. After a while you do begin to wish for a full lobby of human players to give that variation of human error and human skill. Being a beginner in this game can feel rather intimidating to and humiliating if you end up dying through a lack of not quite knowing what you are doing but you’ll soon get to grips with it and after a fair few losses you’ll eventually end up winning a large amount too. The good thing is with only 3 on 3 battles you’ll eventually come across a fair few maxed lobbies to enjoy.

Team work is necessary and it’s good to be able to join a game with 3 controllers for a local get together and you can even take them online providing they’re gold members when playing on Xbox 360 or at least have them join in as guest players. Other than the usual online battles there is no other mode to get to grips with at all so if you’re going in for a hard session you could get a little bored with the very few maps included and you’ll end up unlocking everything through one playthrough until you’ve maxed out your levelling to a point where you’ll prestige and never go back to it again. It is a shame about the limits of gameplay with Awesomenauts but we’re hoping to see a fair few additional DLCs to hit the marketplace soon and hopefully it won’t be just the additional characters and maps. We need to see a different mode, a different way of playing the game or include an array of different objectives to each and every map rather than end to end combat and turret destroying.

With the limitations of modes and gameplay we haven’t been left disappointed at all. Awesomenauts has proved to be funny, quirky and enjoyable when playing as a team of friends. Playtime wouldn’t last longer than the odd few matches but you’ll keep it up if you’re looking to grab all of the achievements or the leaderboard ego takes a hold of you. Cartoon graphics and multiplayer competitive gameplay brings the charm to a title like this one and it proves that arcade games on the marketplace can still be instant and fun. Awesomenauts is available on Xbox Live Marketplace and PSN.

This work by Immersed Gaming is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.