BOUNTY BATTLE

’Tis a modest bounty indeed

Whenever indie games reference one another, it’s undeniably cute, whether that’s Shovel Knight showing up in Yooka-Laylee or A Hat In

Time’s Hat Kid being a playable brawler character in the upcoming Tunche. But usually they’re limited to a tip of the hat to a particular series. In Bounty Battle, though, it’s the whole deal. This is a fighting game with a roster full of indie heroes.

In total they make up 25 of the 30 fighters on offer. 1 Chances are many of your indie favourites are in here, be they Rusty from SteamWorld Dig, Otus from Owlboy, the Prisoner from Dead Cells, or even the Penitent One from Blasphemous. Their movesets feel true to the characters, with light and heavy attacks and specials often referencing how they play in the original. Tap the touchpad when you’ve earned enough coins in a brawl and you can summon a minion helper who also references the game your character is from.

All that would be great if the game weren’t so rough. Many animations feel painfully stiff. Some stages feature killzones where you can fall off the level, but there’s no real air recovery to speak of. A ‘tournament’ mode allows you to unlock skins by completing a series of five challenges, but you have to play through the roster of characters in sequence, you can’t just choose to unlock the ones you’re interested in. 2 With a fantastic lineup, interesting fresh mechanics like the minions, and a bounty target being placed on the player performing best, Bounty Battle was in a good position to succeed, but it’s frankly hampered by being clunky and not much fun to play.

A real shame. Oscar Taylor-Kent

FOOTNOTES1 There aren’t as many stages, but plenty reference indies too. Our favourite is the Guacamelee stage. 2 In single-player most fights are trivial as most basic attacks can stun-lock your foe.