Super Dungeon Bros – Review
Follow Genre: Roguelike, Action, Adventure, Indie, Casual
Developer: React Games
Publisher: Wired Productions, THQ Nordic
Platform: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Tested on: Xbox One

Super Dungeon Bros – Review

Site Score
7.5
Good: A fun couch sitter four player co-op game. Random generated levels gives the game more longevity.
Bad: High difficulty when playing solo.
User Score
0
(0 votes)
Click to vote
VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

Do you ever think back about those fun times where you and your friends or family all sat down in front of the TV, enjoying a co-op game together while talking about the normal things? It is no lie that with the introduction of online play that the split screen function has seen a dive in popularity. While some players prefer the classic split screen because of the social aspect, finding a compatible game has become hard over the years. If you agree with this statement, then this could be a good moment to introduce a nice four player co-op game named Super Dungeon Bros.

Super Dungeon Bros - title

Story

Our story starts with an unknown person that knocks on the door of the ‘bro cave’. When the group asks the man to identify himself, the individual turns out to be Freddy. Freddy is the loose cannon of the bunch and joyfully brings home a vinyl record. After playing the record, the group is treated with an awful song, driving them crazy and pushing them on the edge of destroying it but Freddy has a clue of the real purpose. He plays the record backwards to uncover a secret message: a wizard talks to them about an epic quest for fame, money, beautiful women and everything to their hearts desire. Since our group is bored and ready to kick some ass, they accept the noble quest to raid those damned dungeons. All of this is the only story there is sadly enough. You play through five stages and end with a big boss battle. After you successfully beat the boss you will be rewarded with a short cutscene with the bros celebrating their victory and the wizard congratulating them. This is as far as the story goes, thus you’ll be sorely disappointed if you were expecting more.

Graphics

While Super Dungeon Bros is set in a darker world, it does use various color pallets to be expressive towards the player. The playable characters are all in bright colors while enemies have darker tones or have a fiendish aura to accentuate a more powerful being. Everything is smoothly designed but backgrounds can become stale with the limited resources used. Various placements are destroyable and will remain intractable for a short period of time before de-spawning. In the honor of normal RPG typed games damage is shown with floating numbers and enemies have visual keys for when they attack.

Super Dungeon Bros 3

Sound

In most games dungeons are seen as a dark and scary place thus this is accompanied by a more eerie music tone. However since we are playing a real action game to ‘bro down’ on, we need something more intense. The game comes standard with a rock soundtrack that reminds us of great evil games like Twisted Metal, but it offers a dubstep and metal soundtrack as DLC. This music plays through menu and game and although it is looped it’s easy to listen to it never really becomes bothersome. Sound effects are well placed ensuring each action is escorted with the right sound. Like classic titles we find that the characters are really talkative and ensure to make funny comments of things that happen, like we’ve seen in games as Duke Nukem and Serious Sam.

Gameplay

Super Dungeon Bros is a Roguelike dungeon crawler game where you control one of the four bros to find treasure and kick ass. The main aspect of the game is to complete the dungeon found in the vinyl record. To complete this quest you and your friends will need to survive the tedious challenges, traps and boss fights along the way. You could play this game on your own but this is not advised since the really high difficulty level of the overall game. So better call up some friends, have some refreshments set and connect those controllers. The reason why this is so important lies in the co-operative nature of the title. Because in multiplayer you are able to revive your friends without the cost of a life, this however needs to be done in a certain period of time (as in a bleed out situation). To have a balanced team it is in your best interest to have each character pick a different role. To select what type to take there are four classes in total each divided by their own weapon base: Sword and Hammer are close ranged melee types, Crossbow and Wand are long ranged attack types. During your quest two types of currencies will be dropped: coins and shards. Coins are there for temporal upgrades to weapons and life, shards are for buying stronger weapons permanently and increase your looks with a new shiny helmet.

Super Dungeon Bros 4

When everybody is ready and equipped the dungeon will start. At the entrance we find various shrines, these serve as a modifier to change the difficulty: while some increase difficulty, others will make the game a little bit easier at the cost of points. Our playground is made up of randomly generated dungeons that are filled to the brim with enemies and traps. These can be used in your advantage, so plan carefully to lure all those silly skeletons in a spike or mower trap and having a good laugh in the process. The game is controlled by using both sticks on the controller and the shoulder buttons. This allows for fluent combat while dodging arrows and making sure all your hits land properly. You will get used to them very quickly, and allows for even lesser trained gamers to become a helpful ally in the hardest battle. It is advised to move swiftly because the dungeon master does not allow for sightseers in his realm. This is portaited by a threat meter in the right corner of the screen, the more time you take the more it gets filled up and the more enemies will appear. You can abuse this to get more money, but at the risk of your own safety. This resets after each level, so feel free to grind the end zone as much as you desire.

Conclusion

Although this game is near impossible as a single player, the co-op aspect is fun and lets us relive the fun times we had as a kid when we played at each other’s houses. The fact that every person is free to choose which weapon and role to take and a random generated dungeons means that each party and gameplay experience will be unique. So call up some old buddies and have a laugh at this dungeon crawler!

Super Dungeon Bros 2

VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)
VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)
MC_JP


Never give up on a dream. It might be a long nightmare, but one day it will change into a beautiful reality - MC_JP 2014

No Comments

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.