PAX East – Awesomenauts Is, Well…Pretty Awesome

There seems to be a large number of MOBA oriented games on the show floor. League of Legends has a gigantic booth and we enjoyed our time with Smite yesterday. Today we forgone traditional MOBA customs again and this time tried out the 2D side scroller Awesomenauts from Romino Games, which, for an indie game, was drawing quite the crowd.

Romino seems to be out to simply the genre and capture the chaotic essence of team fights, something magnified by putting the game in a 2D view. Placement, something that’s hard to learn for newcomers, isn’t as much of an issue here, as all you need to worry about is backing up out of the way and jumping over enemy attacks. In addition, Romino has simplified the buying items system. Instead of learning which items work for each character, you’ll actually have twelve skills unique to each character and are able to purchase them all once you gain enough in game cash.

By simplifying the genre, players are able to actually enjoy playing Awesomenauts instead of learning item and skill builds. The learning cap is nowhere as steep as it is in, say, Heroes of Newerth, and is actually easier to learn the ropes than League of Legends. Each character has a jump, normal attack, and two special attack buttons, all of which are mapped to the face buttons on your controller. During a playthrough, my teammate had some trouble getting acclimated to how his character works, but by the end of the game, which we won short handed, he had a basic understanding on how everything works.

Speaking of short handed matches, Awesomenauts will load in bots to take the place of any human spot that isn’t filled. As expected, bots are nowhere near as intelligent as actual players, but its better than being 100% short handed. Additionally, since most of your damage is going to be coming from your special attacks, all of which naturally have a cooldown, teams with a bot aren’t too handicapped.

As always with the genre, there are two issues to deal with: hero balancing and keeping the game in balance if a newcomer over feeds. For the most part, they’re both non issues. In both games that I played, despite the fact that one hero in particular was fed and really strong, the winning team had to put in some hard work to win the game. In particular, enemy turrets packed a pretty serious punch, something I’d normally not be happy about, but it seems natural here.

All in all, my time with Awesomenauts was well spent and I’ll probably be heading back to play it some more Sunday. With a release date of next month, I’ll be counting down the days until the retail release.

Share this article:

Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on linkedin
LinkedIn
Share on tumblr
Tumblr
Share on email
Email
Share on whatsapp
WhatsApp

Recent Posts

Master Chief holding his helmet. Halo Infinite Features

What Halo Infinite Should Have Been

https://youtu.be/Cagxj2RchQI?si=_fFf3fs_fsh7d0Fq Many people have a gaming franchise that changed their life in some way. I have life-long friendships that have been formed while playing games like Mario Kart and Golden …

Gaming News

Should You Buy A Meta Quest 3S?

https://youtu.be/EVSbA2Yxx2k?si=G2KXmPguAB_45u5n Meta recencetly heald their Meta Connect conference and announced some excited things if you’re into VR and AR. The Meta Quest 2 was once the hottest item in their …

Halo Project Foundry Gaming News

What Is The Future of Halo?

https://youtu.be/a2CCRgycbLI?si=3juhSUwirUTpKWoJ There have been rumors for years about what is next for Halo. Today during the Halo World Championships, we got our answers. 343 Industries will now be known as …

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind Gaming News

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind | Developer Interview

It may surprise many, but there has never been a Power Rangers arcade beat ’em up game. (I know right!?!?!) Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind is a passion project …

Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch Gaming News

Jay and Silent Bob: The Chronic Blunt Punch | PAX West 2024

Going into PAX West 2024, I knew that I was going to enjoy ‘Jay and Silent Bob: The Chronic Blunt Punch’, but I did not know it was going to be …

Gaming News

Undisputed at PAX West 2024

Ash Habib has a true passion for boxing and Undisputed is his love letter to the sport. ‪@PlayUndisputed‬ aims to be both a technical and fun boxing game. The game …