Guilt Battle Arena is an alright multiplayer game that relies too heavily on its gimmick and its weak humor. $14.99 feels a bit steep for a game with so little content, even if the core gameplay is sufficient.
Guilt Battle Arena
Developer: Invincible Cat
Price: $14.99
Consoles: PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC
MonsterVine was provided a PS4 code for review purposes
Guilt Battle Arena is a rather small multiplayer game with an art style that is reminiscent of Behemoth titles like Castle Crashers and Alien Hominid. This Flash/Newgrounds style can definitely work, but when done poorly, it makes a game look cheap. While there’s a certain charm to Guilt Battle Arena, it falls victim to this Flash effect with unfortunate validity.
The story of Guilt Battle Arena is simple. A bad guy is taking over the universe, and the only way to stop him is to partake in wave-based side-scroller combat against everything from priests to chickens. There are no boss fights or anything, and the story is only really present in two text-based scenes. The ending is odd, as the villain just wanted to be a judge, so he’s turned into a volleyball coach. Which makes him give up on dominating the universe, I guess? It’s an awkward attempt at random humor which doesn’t really land, coming off as confusing and kind of tryhard. The story is barely there, but it’s still a weird experience that doesn’t work.
Guilt Battle Arena’s main gameplay modes have your character in a contained space on a 2D plane, where they’re barraged by waves of enemies. Your character is always moving the way they’re facing, which feels incredibly awkward. While this seems to have been a design choice to add some thrills to the game, it feels janky and makes losing lives needlessly frequent. Turning too quickly would also make you walk the opposite direction, which got particularly frustrating when I was surrounded by enemies. Enemies are constantly flying by you on the ground and in the air (often at the same time), which makes wonky movement a real issue.
The main gimmick of Guilt Battle Arena is that your gun only has one bullet. The bullet doesn’t go too far, but it can be collected off from the ground to be reused as frequently as needed. I like this concept, though I wish the bullet always went all the way to the other side of your character’s area. Having the bullet drop and do no damage to an enemy because it was a pixel off is frustrating, and makes quick planning difficult. It’s rather satisfying to take out a number of enemies with one shot though, as rare of an occurrence as that may be. Unfortunately this simplicity means the game wears thin fast, making the $14.99 a tough sell.
You can either play Guilt Battle Arena by yourself or with friends, though the gameplay doesn’t change much either way. You’ll still be dodging enemies and shooting one another, which is more fun with friends in my opinion. There aren’t a lot of stages to play on, but the character roster is rather impressive. Whether you want to play as a stumpy version of the Joker or a Krang-esque creature, there’s something for everybody ready to be unlocked.
Visually, Guilt Battle Arena is mixed. Though the stumpy characters are quite charming, the minimal animation and lack of variety in settings make it feel a bit cheap. There isn’t a lot of energy to the animation, as characters typically just wave their arms or jump around, making the game feel a bit lifeless.
The music in Guilt Battle Arena is mostly forgettable, acting as serviceable background music. There are a few tracks that prove to be somewhat grating though, which is a shame since the soundtrack itself isn’t particularly robust.
The Final Word
Guilt Battle Arena doesn’t offer much for its price-point. The singleplayer story is incredibly short and leans too hard on weak humor, while the gameplay gets old fast. While I wouldn’t call Guilt Battle Arena a particularly bad game, it’s not really a particularly good one either.
– MonsterVine Rating: 2.5 out of 5 – Mediocre
