Brawl

If you're interested in a horror-inspired Bomberman clone with shaky movement, non-distinct stages and a toned down freneticism BRAWL might just pique your interest. For the rest of you looking for a party/combat game there are other, more solid feeling, options out there including but not limited to Switch's own Super Bomberman R.

Aside from the story, there are local multiplayer and challenge modes. The latter does offer some really interesting game types like a horde mode, a boss challenge and a type that asks you to protect a flock of sheep. But, for me at least, I didn’t find any urge to pick up my Switch and play Brawl. This could have been a great game, but it tries to sell players something that we’ve already seen done much better and a style that just doesn’t merge all that well with the idea.

Brawl takes an existing concept and adds a B-grade horror theme to give it a unique twist. It's not as fun as its source material, but horror fans may get a kick out of its dark, twisted humor.

In the end Brawl isn't necessarily a bad game, it's just a hodge podge of ideas that individually may work but somehow when they're mashed together it doesn't seem to congeal.

Bomberman has seen its up and downs over the years, but the overall formula is still a popular one with a lot of players. Brawl seeks to capitalize on a lot of the same gameplay elements while adding a horror aesthetic. All in all, it is a competently made game, but not one that does enough to make it a more compelling play than the games that clearly inspired it.

BRAWL tries really hard to bring something new to the bomb blasting formula but for the most part, just ends up being a scarily average clone. There's a lot wrong with BRAWL but if you can get past that, this is an alright affordable alternative to Bomberman with an interesting theme and minor gameplay twists. While the story in this game suffers from many cliches and the game can feel terribly uninspiring and glitchy, the voice acting and art style help make up for this and make this explosive mess somewhat bearable. If you're interested in a different alternative to something like Super Bomberman R to shake things up, BRAWL might be worth a look for you, but otherwise, you'd probably rather be blown up than play this.

________________________ “The story mode's narrator did a fantastic job

Applying a new aesthetic to the established gameplay formula of Konami's Bomberman series, BRAWL brings a unique darker feel and subtle mechanic changes, grouped together in a bundle of multiplayer goodness. There are only some frame-rate issues that hold it back slightly, and the lack of online play also proves to be a bit disappointing.

When it comes to Bomberman clones, Brawl is an okay take on the classic formula.

In the end Brawl isn’t necessarily a bad game, it’s just a hodge podge of ideas that individually may work but somehow when they’re mashed together it doesn’t seem to congeal. There’s obviously been effort to inject some personality into things but at the same time what makes each character distinct ends up detracting a bit from the ease of handing someone a controller and having some fun. With the voice work it’s also obvious that the single-player story mode had some investment but the glorified tutorials with somewhat bland play and wonky AI failed to leave a very positive impression. Just from top to bottom the overall effort plays out as pretty average, though its stuttering periodic performance issues make it more difficult to redeem.