Tuesday, July 16, 2024

Squad Bustin' Makes Me Feel Good!

A couple days ago I shared my Brawl Stars post about Berry on Twitter and my old acquaintance, Officer McGruff, let me know that he too was a Brawl Stars player, but ended up switching to Squad Busters, the new Supercell game that launched a little over a month ago. I remember the cross-promotion that was done in Brawl Stars, but at the time I ignored it . . . how could anything be as awesome as Brawl Stars!

Bustin' makes me feel good!

On the other hand, who could argue with Officer McGruff?  It was something I needed to try out.  It's new. It has a fantastic rating, and if Officer McGruff likes it, I'm in!  I immediately downloaded the game and tried it out.  

My initial reaction was, MAN, I am DOMINATING the 10-year-olds today, and then I realized that it was probably bots I was going up against there. In my eyes, they did a really good job at making you feel amazing for those first few games. That's a thing we used to try to do at KingsIsle and WIMO back in the day. If you can improve a player's win-loss ratio in the first moments of gameplay, they'll be more apt to keep returning to play more. It's an art.

I DESTROYED them! What?!

This game will also feel like a fun fit for both Brawl Star players and Clash players as well since it merges the two characters from the games as playable heroes that join your squad.  One of the first characters that joins your squad is a cute little baby version of El Primo.

Everyone's favorite baby wrestler!

Basic gameplay goes a bit like this: You enter a match that takes four minutes and thirty seconds to complete. When you start the game you get to choose one of three characters as your starter hero. you then run them around a slightly isometric, retro Zelda-like looking map full of monsters, trees, chests, and other players.  In fact, there are 10 other players, and if you kill another player you "bust" them, and they're out of the game. 

From small beginnings come great squads!

After killing a few monsters, you're able to invest in a new hero at a chest. If you keep purchasing the same type of hero, they will evolve and merge into a tougher version of that hero. So, basically, you're building a party, or squad, if you will. Eventually over the four-and-a-half-minute game, you draw closer to the center where other players have brought their squads as the center is where all the good gems and super tough enemies are, which also drop gems. The remaining squads at the end of the match have their gems tallied up and a ranking is determined. The goal is to be in the top 5 to keep your win streak going.

Squad fight!

If you're one of the teams in the top 5, the opportunities to increase your rewards from the chest you get to open after the match keep escalating. Much like cracking open Brawl Stars' "stars" at the end of a match, you unlock chests, and with each tap to unlock it, the opportunity to increase its rarity and size happens.

Cracking open a super big chest!

It's super addicting and fun to play. I also really like the familiarity of the Supercell characters. Squad Busters is definitely going to have a new place on my phone thanks to Officer McGruff's excellent suggestion.

Happy Dueling! 

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