Gang Beasts

A modern multiplayer classic finally comes home to console, although the package is as scrappy as the action itself.

A one-trick pony of a multiplayer fighter, Gang Beasts is sometimes hilariously messy but often just a mess.

It's tough to be down on Gang Beasts. At heart, it's just very silly entertainment for you and your pals, like the multiplayer games of yesteryear. It's kind of bad, broken even, and it's certainly not going to become a mainstay of anyone's regular gaming catalogue. But it certainly guarantees some laughs with your pals. Isn't that what gaming was designed to do?

What we're left with is a multiplayer game that still has the ability to delight and surprise, but perhaps lacks some finishing touches to make it truly great. With online play a bit of a mess and a limited number of modes, Gang Beasts isn't short of issues, but just about gets away with it due to a solid core idea that, with friends, can be uproariously entertaining. If you're after a new title for gaming nights with buddies, or indeed, the Christmas party, you can do far worse than this.

Gang Beasts' charm has always been its janky, unpredictable, chaotic physics brawling, and you'll either be pleased or disappointed to know that it hasn't changed too much since 2014. On Switch, it runs well in Local and Online mode, although the Switch's voice chat options make the latter a less appealing choice. If you're a fan of portable party games, though, this is a classic not to be missed.

Beyond the core multi-person battles, Gang Beasts has little else to offer. There's almost nothing for solo players to truly sink their teeth into for an extended period and local multiplayer starts to get old after a while without the ability to add bots. That only leaves online play as the best way to experience Gang Beasts as it should be played, but playing online is a rocky prospect at the moment.

Gang Beasts is a game for friends. It's funny, silly and inconsequential. With a huge array of costumes to wear and places to brawl, you can play one game or ten and have a great time.

At the end of the day, Gang Beasts is a straight-up treat.

All-in-all, Gang Beasts is a fun multiplayer romp that’s best enjoyed with a few friends after a couple of beers, but doesn’t hold up nearly as well once you try to take the party online. The derpy characters, intentionally awkward controls, and daft physics will bring plenty of laughs in a room full of pals, but become more frustrating as a solo experience. Ultimately, once you’ve played a few rounds in each mode there isn’t an awful lot of meat on the bone; Gang Beasts is an admittedly tasty morsel, it just carries the price tag of a prime cut.

Among the pros of a hybrid form ideal for local multiplayer and the cons of a network experience with the handbrake pulled, the conversion for Switch of Gang Beasts defends itself just enough to provide the Nintendo audience with the opportunity to recover one of the craziest party brawlers of recent years.