Splatterbot: a delightful messy time
“No! Stop! You can’t just hog all of the power ups!” I scream as my partner zooms past me for the tenth time in a rush to dominate the board. It’s effective, and I’m trumped into my first loss playing Splatterbot in multiplayer mode. Splatterbot is reminiscent of Splatoon that was released on the WiiU years ago.
As a charming new entry into the market, you play as a little robot/roomba and it’s you versus your friends as you try to paint the most colour over the board to take the winning position with how much paint you can unleash onto the world.
Mr Caffeinated, as mentioned, absolutely kicked my butt as we played against each other. Splatterbot allows for solo play, or up to four-player local multiplayer. It fills the difference of non-human players in with CPU robots that are happy to zip around the board and try to foil your plans of creating the biggest mess. There are currently six total maps to choose from, so jumping between the maps is fast and easy to do. Some are more challenging than others, however all maps offer the same powerups on how to roll your way to victory. There are some that make you bigger (and it stacks!) there is another that makes a little ball of paint in your chosen colour to push around the arena. There’s another one that just literally gives you the zoomies. All of which are ridiculously powerful in trying to reign dominance.
Let's get the positive zoomies on!
Visually, this is a great game. The colours are fantastic, the music is a bop, and you just feel happy playing along with it. The strength is clearly in Splatterbot’s multiplayer mode (and advertised as such) and there’s enough content to be able to continue to play along for a good session with your friends.
When we look at the different maps available, there’s quite a wide variety and I really enjoyed there were added challenges ranging from a boxing ring where you go bouncing off the walls to an office space where you have to go inbetween the doors and tackle your way through your opponents.
The customisations are also really cute, with more of them unlocking the more games you play, so there is a neat incentive to grind your reps up.
Controls and movements it’s very easy to move your little robot around – and those with dexterity issues aren’t punished as in most maps you can just roll into things without too much issue. One very key thing to note is that Splatterbot only supports controllers, so if you are just planning to use a keyboard – you’ll need to wait for a hopeful future update.
Things to be improved
The biggest issue that we faced was no online multiplayer for steam – outside of the Steam Remote play. Now, a couple of problems with this. 1. I’d never used Steam Remote play so I had no idea what in the world to do. That’s more on me than the game. However number 2 – when we finally got into playing – I lost complete control over being able to host the game. Mr Caffeinated ended up controlling the whole session. Whilst this obviously isn’t an issue if you trust whoever you’re playing alongside, and also the fact that you need to have this person on your friends list anyway, it was a frustrating experience.
I’m not sure if it was just because it’s just in the early stages of the game (although it has launched in its entirety) – I felt there was no real reward to continue in solo mode apart from unlocking the next areas. The game did feel a bit repetitive. The white bot in my game also felt like it had about ten coffees before we entered into any of the matches and the erratic movements were crazy – but not entirely in a good way.
If I was to have a wishlist of future updates – these would be my suggestions:
- A changeable diffifculty scale with the AI/CPU bots in both solo and online mode. I found that I was able to dominate the battlefield too easily and it didn’t give up enough of a challenge. That or having the CPU have a learning upgrade on how to behave
- More incentives to continue matches after they’re finished. Maybe a new game area?
- Online multiplayer please and thank you
- New powerups (although don’t get me wrong, the ones we have at the moment are pretty good!)
- More ways to sabotage your oppoents. I think being able to push them into the walls and into the water in the higher levels was a great addition, and it something that should be done more.
- This is such a minuscule thing but having to hold down a button to progress between menus irked me. Just let me progress front or back with a click please!
Target audience?
If I look at the game and think I’d be playing against my brother, or in the same room as my family, I think this would be an absolute stellar game. You could really turn it into some more older audience fun if you’ve had a few drinks under your belt, too. I could see the competitiveness to it. This is definitely more geared towards families and younger audience. It’s good clean (er, messy?) fun that is age appropriate and having siblings to rival up against, or at a sleepover with a group of friends.
Final thoughts
Splatterbot is a great game if you’re just wanting something silly and fun and that let’s you turn your brain off to the competitive shooters and dark soul esque games of the world. For a low cost game, and supporting a great Aussie developer – I would recommend you look at this if you are after something to play with your friends at the next BBQ or drinks night – or a parent who is looking for something to entertain their little ones during the outcoming festive season. Be warned, fights will probably break out.
Note: I have received an early access code in exchange for a review of this game. Opinions and thoughts are my own and grateful for the opportunity.
