BOUNTY BATTLE
Indie gaming’s hippest heroes will clash on PS4 this summer
Rumours persist of a new PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale heading to PS5, but you can’t play hearsay. Instead, turn your attention to something very real: indie brawler Bounty Battle.
The pitch is the same: one to four players slug it out against ten colourful backgrounds. It’s unashamedly two-dimensional and features a cast of well-loved characters. Choose from over 25 familiar faces from 20 of consoles’ most-loved indies, including Death’s Gambit, Guacamelee!, Dead Cells, Owlboy, and even Blasphemous’ dour The Penitent One.
HIP TO BE HIT
Looking across the character roster, we’re amazed it’s taken this long for these indies to gang up and shove some established stars out of the limelight. The character design on display is beautiful.
These heroes play the part too. Each fighter has a bespoke array of moves and special attacks, plus a minion support character to lend a hand when needed. We’ve seen Battle Chasers: Nightwar’s Gully call on war-golem-with-a-big-heart Calibretto to lend a hand.
Though played in 2D to match the origins of the cast, Bounty Battle is happy to lay on the spectacle. Hits land with a fiery flash and fighters blaze across the screen – Gully lands a hard-hitting three punches before picking up a boulder and slamming it into her dazed rival.
À LA MODE
There will be multiple ways to play, including a story mode, couch multiplayer, practice, and tutorial (the latter replicates the fighting stick display of an arcade cabinet for a punch of nostalgia).
A Signature Edition is available to pre-order, and will come with four limited-edition enamel pins featuring Atlas, Lazarus, Lilith, and Tyran, numbered prints signed by the dev team, a special case, and a 34-page booklet championing the heroes.
Bounty Battle releases this summer; order here: signatureeditiongames.com.
EACH FIGHTER HAS A BESPOKE ARRAY OF MOVES AND SPECIAL ATTACKS, PLUS A MINION.