Developer: CATASTROPHIC_OVERLOAD
Publisher: Firestoke
Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Tested on: PC
Bish Bash Bots – Review
Party games have seen a rise in popularity over the last few years, and the main contributor to this is Team17’s Overcooked! series. These wacky cooking party games put the genre back on the map, especially thanks to its cooperative play compared to Mario Party’s friendship-destroying mechanics. Soon after the first Overcooked! game, many others tried to mimic the experience and some even tried to create an original experience in the process. The latest contender to step into the party game boxing ring happens to be Bish Bash Bots, which tries to combine cooperative party play with tower defense gameplay elements. As fans of the genre, we were curious to see how this one held up.
Story
Humankind has grown lazy, and they have grown accustomed to a world where robots do pretty much everything for them. The robots are doing all the heavy lifting, and the humans are left to their own devices, trying to live their best lives. Sadly, all good things must come to an end, and the robots have now started revolting against their humanoid overlords. You’ll have to fight back the hordes of robots that are clearly out to get you.
The game is extremely light on story content, but that’s okay for a multiplayer title such as this. You’ll pick up a few group pictures of the team as you progress, but there isn’t a meaty story that starts to unravel as you play through the different stages.
Graphics
Bish Bash Bots is a very colorful game. This action-packed tower defense title oozes charm, and the characters, the robots, and the structures all look very cute and appealing. The game’s stages sometimes lack a bit of charm, but even so, everything looks very nice. The turrets you place will also change appearance depending on how high you upgrade them. This is a fun touch, and it makes the game a bit more dynamic. We have to say, Bish Bash Bots does keep things simple, and in terms of design, it’s somewhat limited. What’s present, however, is nicely polished.
Sound
The sound design isn’t too bad. The game has a lot of satisfying SFX and the supporting soundtrack is okay. The latter perhaps lacks the same catchiness as the soundtrack of bigger productions, such as the Overcooked! series. Even so, the audio feedback for the onscreen action is decent, but with everything that is going on, you’ll probably be too busy to listen to the background tunes anyway.
Gameplay
Bish Bash Bots is a tower defense game with brawling elements. The game can be played with up to four players via local co-op or online multiplayer. Online multiplayer only works with friends, as the game has no public matchmaking, which is a shame. In Bish Bash Bots, you’ll play through fairly short levels, in which you’ll have to keep your charging EMP safe while building turrets to fight back the robot rebellion. The offset is quite simple, but it does take some time to master the controls. We do advise you to play the game with friends or family, as this title is a lot more fun when playing with multiple people.
Overall, things remain simple throughout the game. You can roam around the map of a level with the character of your choice, and you’ll be able to build turrets in designated areas. You’ll have to be close enough to start building the turret when you have collected enough scrap. Scrap can be earned by destroying robots, and it’s important to pick up scrap before it disappears. After building a turret, you are able to upgrade it for free, but you’ll have to spend a lot of time near the turret, hitting it, to do so. Upgrading turrets is certainly helpful as it increases the damage output, as well as the range. When playing with multiple people, it was easy to assign someone to upgrade turrets while the rest built new ones and keep the enemy waves in check. You’ll simply have to survive until your EMP is charged. When that’s done, all players will need to go to the EMP to activate it.
While the overall hectic gameplay is quite entertaining, the game remains fairly basic from start to finish. This doesn’t mean things don’t get harder, but the game just lacks a certain something that makes titles such as Overcooked! amazing. Bish Bash Bots does try to spice things up by adding certain obstacles or items in levels, such as poison clouds or a crane you can operate to throw bigger robots into pits. While these added set pieces are interesting, the gameplay doesn’t change things up too much, and when you’re halfway through the (fairly short) game, you’ll have seen all it has to offer. Bish Bash Bots does have a few powers you can unlock for your characters, as well as stronger turrets as you progress. These can also be used in earlier levels if you wish to replay certain stages to get a higher score.
We do have to mention that at the time of writing this review, the keyboard controls were absolutely atrocious. It’s been a long time since we saw such poor controls in a game. We do realize that games like these are often more enjoyable with a controller, but if you’re someone who loves a mouse and keyboard setup, you best steer clear of this one as it is nigh unplayable. The level select screen is also clunky, even with a controller.
Conclusion
Bish Bash Bots is a fun tower defense brawler that is best enjoyed with friends or family. While the core gameplay loop is enjoyable, the game doesn’t take too many risks and keeps things a bit too basic at times. If you’re a fan of tower defense games, and you also like more hectic titles like Overcooked! or Catastronauts, then you can’t really go wrong with this one. Even though the price of entry is fairly low, we might still suggest waiting for a sale.
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