Bounty Battle Reviews
Bounty Battle is one of the very worst video games we've ever played. It's got an amazing premise, for sure, and Dark Screen Games' has somehow managed to procure the use of all of these fantastic indie characters, but that's as far as the positivity goes. Everything else about this appalling mess is absolutely broken. Janky menus, awful combat, a shocking framerate, crude animations and poorly explained mechanics leave this one in a hole that's surely impossible to climb out of; a hole that should be boarded up and forgotten about. If you're considering picking this one up on the strength of that enticing indie Smash Bros. premise, trust us, run away.
Bounty Battle is one of the coolest ideas for a game I've seen in some time, which is partly why I feel like part of my soul has been crushed. This game is an absolute mess. It's presentation is terrible, the character models are laughable, the systems are confusing, and it made me wonder half the time if my PC was broken. Given the rich roster of wonderful indie characters, this should have been a contender. Instead, this fighter's career is over before the bell even rang.
A staggeringly inept attempt to clone Super Smash Bros. and populate it with indie characters, whose only achievement is to make you appreciate the real thing even more.
Sadly, Bounty Battle plays about as well as it looks. The goal is to empty the health bar of your enemies, but character animations are so basic and stunted that it's near impossible to tell what's going on — especially during three or four player fights. The controls are responsive enough, but the release is riddled with stuttering issues on PS4 — combat just never feels smooth, and that's a nail in the coffin of any fighting game.
Bounty Battle is offensively poor. An impressive selection of beloved indie characters are paraded around with none of the charms that their independent games have. I never thought I’d miss the cold, calculated way AAA equivalents are designed to make me part with my money, but I’d take a thousand carefully planned cash grabs over this staggeringly inept Smash Bros. clone. I don’t say that the game is almost unplayable flippantly. The sheer disappointment I felt playing this game was almost worse than the horrendous controls and the lack of gameplay options.
Can I give Bounty Battle a slight recommendation for character diversity alone? No, I can't. There are excessive issues through and through, including (but certainly not limited to) lack of fluency, gameplay variety, and depth.
To be perfectly honest, I could probably write another 1,000 words explaining just how hollow this experience is. When you figure you have a bland indie fighter, set in largely linear stages, that has, at best, three modes to play, it's not an attractive experience. Toss in stiff animations, extremely frustrating stages, underwhelming characters and it's hard to find something redeeming in Bounty Battle. Heck, I unlocked every costume and can only seemingly use them in one mode, which brings into question why even bother. The really unfortunate thing is, a lot of the problems can be fixed and likely was the goal when it got delayed sometime back but in its current state I struggle to find something positive to say and that is really unfortunate.
With smoother action, a deeper story mode, and a little TLC, the game could evolve into a decent substitute for Smash Bros. Right now, though, it's simply not ready for center stage.
Bounty Battle is a disappointment through and through. On paper, its concept is fantastic; many players will be tricked into picking up the game so they can see their favourite indie characters in action. But in reality, it’s a mess that will only serve to disappoint.
There is a lot of potential when it comes to Bounty Battle. The art is great and there are some unique gameplay mechanics. The team is continuing to improve on the game so it's worth keeping an eye on Merge Games.
An underwhelming game, full of lag, that is janky and has issues with hit detection. There is no online multiplayer, and it's very boring to play against the dumb AI.
Bounty Battle is a game that I was very excited which is why I’m that much more saddened to give it the bad score that I am. A game that brought together so many fantastic indie game characters to fight it out has no business being as rough as this is. The characters all feel the same, the stages are too basic, and the technical issues ruin the rest. If this game gets patched to run better it would still only be an average brawler but for now you should avoid this battle.
Bounty Battle is a disappointment from start to finish. It completely squanders a sincerely impressive character roster with a mixture of convoluted gameplay and poor technical performance. If you're looking for indie Smash Bros., you're better off grabbing the Undertale and Cuphead costumes in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and making the Shovel Knight Assist Trophy the only item.
Bounty Battle's character roster is the only thing it has going for it as everything else comes across like a school project gone wrong.
There's no doubt that making a game that's meant to compete with the likes of a juggernaut title from Nintendo is always going to be tough, and the likely results aren't going to live up against the massive team and budget the Big N put together...
Bounty battle is great on paper, a great casto ut of the very best indies, unfortunately it doesn’t reach it’s potential due to limited engine, poor interface and clumsy gameplay.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
From what I can tell from the excellently animated introduction, Bounty Battle brings a whole host of iconic Indie stars into battle. A strange portal appears in each of their worlds, dragging our heroes into a void and bringing them to another world entirely. There, a bounty is placed on each of their heads, and each character must fight to claim the bounties on each other.
Unfortunately Bounty Battle is a series of missed opportunities almost destined to be a candidate for our site's yearly awards – but not one of the good ones. Horribly unresponsive controls, shallow move sets and game modes and a clunky presentation all squander the goodwill that comes from bringing together so many awesome indie characters from across numerous other video games.
This game is a hot mess of cheap and nasty gameplay that never pays off or shows any resemblance to something fun. If the year 2020 was a fighting game, it would be called Bounty Battle
A great roster of iconic indie heroes gets overshadowed by too many technical and gameplay problems. A game that would have needed many more months of development and testing to be acceptable.
Review in Italian | Read full review