Awesomenauts
Score: 85% ESRB: Teen Publisher: dtp Entertainment Developer: Ronimo Games Media: Download/1 Players: 1 - 6 (Online) Genre: Action/ Strategy/ Online
Graphics & Sound: Oddly enough, Awesomenauts is my first MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) game. It's just as well, too: it's a charming and accessible game that easy to pick up and difficult to put down. It may not have any staying power for those who don't like to play online, but those who do are in for a treat. Awesomenauts has a soft, cartoony feel to it. The colors are never harsh, but they find their own little ways to stand out. The action is very easy to keep track of, even when things cluster up and get wild. I particularly like the character designs. While not all of them have their own novelty, most of them do. Additionally, everything is clean, easy on the eyes and zany enough to make for a livelier battlefield than you're probably used to. Supporting the visual design of Awesomenauts with an adequate bit of audio design is no small feat, and it's admittedly more familiar than the visuals might lead you to believe. However, it's no slouch. It's always fun to have an announcer who's really into what's going on, and the music is appropriately energetic.
Gameplay: There's a premise at play in Awesomenauts, but it only exists in service of the art style and the gameplay. It's essentially a futuristic free-for-all between two robot armies who are apparently fighting for different causes. The Awesomenauts are apparently their trump cards, though it's funny that both armies enlist their services. Each battleground contains a number of automated turrets and one drill-core for each team. At measured intervals, droids are released from each base. They travel along set paths until they are destroyed. The Awesomenauts are actual player characters who assist the borderline suicidal robots in their goal, which is to destroy the enemy's drill-core. It's a simple game with simple rules. As an Awesomenaut of your choice, it's your job to assist in the destruction of the other team's drill-core by using whatever tools you have at your disposal. But you acquire your tools with Solar (money). Each base has a shop which you can use to upgrade your abilities on the fly. There's a special kind of flow to the action in Awesomenauts, and it's definitely comparable to the flow in a good real-time strategy game.
Difficulty: Since Awesomenauts is online only, the only real difficulty factor has to do with the skill level of your opponents. If you're dealing with bots (which you probably will from time to time), you won't have as hard a time of it. Bots are far more predictable than humans in most games, and Awesomenauts doesn't do anything to change that. In terms of playing the actual game, Awesomenauts could not possibly be any easier to get into. Movement, aiming, and unleashing abilities are mapped to the normal inputs, and the interface is there to remind you if you manage to forget that. The comparatively low player count (three for both team) and the presence of a fully-detailed map (that includes enemy locations) guarantees that you'll maintain a high level of battlefield awareness as long as you're paying attention.
Game Mechanics: Awesomenauts combines platforming, shooting, and role playing elements into a cohesive whole, and the primary control scheme never leaves the screen during a game. WASD and Space are your movement keys, and your mouse buttons (including the wheel) are your abilities. As mentioned before, you cannot control the actual robots, only the Awesomenaut you send into battle. The robots follow a set path, and the game encourages you to use them as shields. Of course, you can only do that for as long as the poor bot lasts, or until a human enemy gets wise to your strategy. Once that happens (and rest assured, it will do so 99% of the time), it becomes a mad dash to smoke the bad guy while keeping yourself alive. It's great. Acquiring Solar during a match is a must, and you can get it by killing enemies, blasting critters that roam the map, and steering your pod correctly as your landing pod plummets towards the ground. Awesomenauts has a leveling system that is similar to those used in modern shooters. Hitting certain levels nets you unlockables, which include new characters and abilities. And though it isn't a shooter per se, it still has that addictive rhythm that keeps you saying "just one more." If you're into MOBAs, this is a no-brainer. If you are craving something a bit more light-hearted than your average carnagefest, Awesomenauts is a nice change of pace.
-FenixDown, GameVortex Communications AKA Jon Carlos
Minimum System Requirements: Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8; Dual Core CPU; 2 GB RAM; ATI or Nvidia Videocard with at least 256MB, or Intel GMA 950 or newer; 600 MB HD space   Test System: ASUS G74S Series, Intel Core I7 - 2670QM, 2.2 GHz, Windows 7 Premium, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M, 12 GB RAM
Related Links: Official Website of Awesomenauts
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