Awesomenauts (XBLA): "Like The Saturday Morning Cartoons Of Old"

In the video game marketplace of today there are clones of games, sequels, prequels, and blatant knock offs. Finding something as original as 'Awesomenauts' is gradually becoming a rare occurrence. It's a truly sad situation to say the least, and one that needs to be remedied if the video game marketplace is to survive the long haul. The good news though is that there are still developers out there like 'Ronimo Games (Awesomenauts)' who strive to bring something new to the table. It's definitely a good thing ...

By now most of you have either watched the trailer of 'Awesomenauts', or purchased the game. I was a little late getting in on the action, and getting my review posted though. I have to say that my first impressions of 'Awesomenauts' were a little mixed. I didn't want to dive head first into a game that I knew little about, but the game had a fun look to it that I couldn't shake off. When I had first watched the 'Awesomenauts' trailer I was like "WOW!". It reminded me of the Saturday morning cartoons I used to watch back in the 90's. The cartoonish style, and the catchy theme song really caught, and held my attention. To be honest though I did not know what to expect from the game. After viewing the trailer It looked like some sort of adventure platformer with co-op features. When I finally got around to doing my playthrough I found out otherwise. As you will find out with my following review this is definitely not a bad thing.

 Awesomenauts is a game that lays out the story in a brief, but understandable manner through an in-game tutorial. It then thrusts the gamer into the multiplayer which is the true focal point of the game. 'Awesomenauts' takes place in the very distant future (7586 A.D.?) where galactic robot factions are warring over a precious energy source called "Solar". To gain control over the solar resources each faction recruits mercenaries called "Awesomenauts" to stop the opposing faction's mining operations. At the heart of each mining operation lies a drillcore that is guarded by massive turrets, and robotic droids. As the mercenary it is you, and your team's goal to destroy the opposing faction's drillcore. Doing this requires the destruction of the enemy's turrets so that you can reach your objective. That is the plot in a nutshell, but trust me the tutorial's cutscenes set the mood of the game much better than I have.

During the brief tutorial you will be introduced to the game's various controls. The game does an excellent job of explaining everything, so I won't dwell too much on that in this review ...

Awesomenauts could be best described as a tower defense game meets platformer. Unlike most tower defense games though the majority of the defense deals with characters themselves, and their upgrades making the characters the most important part of the game. There are a variety of different characters to choose from in the game, each with their own unique abilities making each one best suited for specific tasks. You'll find a cowboy outlaw named "Lonestar" who uses a blaster and a holographic bull as weapons, "Froggy G" a ghetto sounding frog who uses a fish blaster and tongue grab, a chameleon looking creature who has a bladed weapon and cloning abilities, a german speaking brain alien who summons attack droids and heals teammates, a hulking robot who leeches the life from his enemies as well as shoots rockets, and an alien primate with a laser gun and healing ray that repairs the droids/drillcore.

The goal in each multiplayer match (local, Xbox Live, Quick Match, Player Match) is to destroy the other team's turrets, and ultimately their drill core. All enemies, droids, turrets, and drillcores have an energy bar that must be fully depleted through damage in order for them to be destroyed. As you kill droids, and other enemies the results will be recorded in a fashion similar to the "Call of Duty" Games. Yes you heard me right. There is a k/d ratio, and even prestige involved in this game. The announcer often chimes in letting you know when you've been killed, when an ally has been killed, when an enemy has been killed, and even when a player leaves the game. As a result the experience is quite competitive. Keep in mind though that this game does take a lot of planning, and strategy since it's mainly a tower defense kind of game. Running in guns-a-blazing will often times get you killed.

Each map in 'Awesomenauts' has two sides (Left & Right) on which each team's turrets, and drill cores are located. It is also where you will spawn each time you die/begin. The more times you die within a match the longer it will take for the respawn/pod launch to happen. Staying alive for long lengths of time is the key to being truly successful. This is an easy task if you choose to retreat often, and take the time to gather health regeneration items as well as heal yourself at your team's shop. In the long run keeping your health full will definitely help your team's goal of destroying the turrets, and the drillcore. Each team's base has a shop that allows players to upgrade the various features (weapon strength, shot distance, weapon damage, sub-weapons, player speed, player health ...) of each character. It also doubles as a health regeneration station. To get the various upgrades you have to collect solar coins from fallen enemies, and droids. This doesn't apply to healing though. Healing happens just by standing in the shop's holographic beam.

Awesomenauts is like the "Call of Duty" games in several ways. I mentioned that there are kill counts, and death counts within the game. The similarities don't stop there though. Aside from the k/d ratio there's also the ability to rank up with XP. In doing so you can eventually prestige. As you rank up you will unlock perks just as you would in a CoD game. Characters can also be unlocked in the same fashion. If you fancy playing splitscreen with some friends (locally) that is also an option. These competitive/co-op features defintely add a decent amount of replay value to the game.

When it comes to graphics 'Awesomenauts' is quite the impressive game. It has a sort of cel-shaded appearance to it that goes along with the game's theme. There are some images within the game such as the water that truly look of next-gen quality. In fact the whole game looks next-gen graphically. I would liken the art style to that of "Shoot Many Robots" only with a more cartoon-like style though. The characters are definitely more cartoon-like than the backgrounds. As far as sound quality goes it is amazing. The clarity of the announcer's voice is brilliant. The sound effects such as explosions are truly brilliant. When it comes to glitches I actually found none. There were no hiccups in the game's graphics, or sound. I think the game actually runs off of "Ronimo Games" own engine which is definitely impressive in it's own rights.

In closing I would say this is a game that's absolutely worth adding to your collection. The replay value alone makes it worth the 800 msp asking price. That accompanied by the fun gameplay, and flawless presentation makes it a must have. I definitely liked the fact that "Ronimo Games" added the CoD-like features. It's something new that I haven't seen in a tower defense game before. If there was one thing I did not like about the game though that would be the lack of a playable story mode. I was hoping there would have been a full length story mode with co-op, but sadly that was not included. Even so the multiplayer is still very much worth playing. One last thing I have to mention is about the online co-op. I don't know how "Ronimo Games" made their online matches so flawless, but it's something other game developers could learn from. Take note of this all you developers out there!