Today I had a chance to have a go at publisher NCSOFT’s up-and-coming free-to-play battle royale title ‘BATTLE CRUSH’, a game where you commandeer an adorable champion, hook up with two others, and compete with a total of 10 teams across a battlefield in the skies for a chance at the chicken dinner first place. Set to launch into Early Access on PC via Steam, mobile devices (Google Play and iOS), and the Nintendo Switch on the 27th of June, I’ve got some nice things to say about this one especially if you’re looking for a pick up and play style of game for on-the-go gaming.
During the little preview session, BATTLE CRUSH only allowed team-based battle royale and training modes. Granted with the few short hours we had with the game, that’s more than enough. There are 15 “Calixers” (let’s be real, everyone’s going to say “champ”), each with their own abilities and playstyles. Some are ideal healers, supports, tanks, and the like. I spent some time in practise mode before jumping in and briefly kicking butt to eventually getting whooped over the course of two hours.
Now here’s why this arena is worth jumping into (and not just because it’s free):
Booting up the game the first thing I noticed is how adorable everything is —from Freyja to even the likes of Hades and Arthur, whose cheeks look prime for grabbing and stretching across the world. I like the game’s overall art direction even if it is a bit tired, seeing as how many mobile games use the same style of soft and blocky character designs with an overworld that may or may not remind you of a prettier rendition of ‘Clash Royale’ or ‘Dragon City’. Mind these aren’t inherently disses, BATTLE CRUSH’s art doesn’t stick too far out from the Top Grossing page on the Play Store. But it’s saved by two absolutely adorable character designs: Dandi and Seri, two absolutely adorably dinosaur baseball players. Throw Poseiden back into the playpen, these two need the spotlight, away from these Greek gods.
But anywho, BATTLE CRUSH is a very easy game to pick up and play. The tutorial gives you the bare necessities to play, but if you desire additional tactics you can continue it for additional rewards (more on that in a bit). Each character has a fast and strong attack, followed by a dodge, special, and ultimate move. Each move you use eats up stamina relative to its capabilities: The fast attacks go in three, the third being the strongest and necessary for dropping stamina from foes, hard hitting attacks tend to be more crowd control, and specials and ultimate abilities are what you can expect from a champ-based game.
The stage is a small, square-shaped map that, as time goes on, falls apart. Akin to a storm circle, you’ll need to keep an eye on your map and indicators as the stage collapses into little hexagons. On said stage there are powerups and heals you can use, armor to increase damage output and defence, revival statues, and other goodies you can use against other players. You can even hide in grass if you so choose! Play on this map is smooth, but what’s notable is how well the game let’s you recover from potentially fatal blows. See, you have a health bar that once depletes, puts you in a state of decay—unless you can get away and wait out the bar’s recovery, all an opponent needs to do is 123 you with their light attack and away you go.
A good strategy is to stick with your teammates and pick your battles. Fallen teammates can be revived at stations across the map or as long as a teammate holds onto your crystal long enough for it to be recharged (a great addition that keeps the flow of the game going). But as the stage is also a floating island, deep within the skies, falling is far worse than being combo’d to oblivion. But as long as you have stamina, you can actually jump back onto the stage no worse for wear. This is even a tactic to reach other parts of the map that may be your only choice for survival. These tactics and mechanics combined with easily accessible items on the map make BATTLE CRUSH a very fun game to play. I mained Lop, tried out Urus, Nyx, and the like but found myself having a lot of fun stunning opponents as a giant pink blob. I came in clutch twice saving my teammates and the favour was returned multiple times. Trust me, I got crushed towards the end of the play period. But it was fun!
Between mouse ‘n keyboard and controller, this game feels good to play, though I have much less nice things to say about the main menu’s UX.
Here’s our main menu. It’s busy, no surprise there for a live service title. For the two hours I spent on this game, this UI was… Not fun to use. Calixer is our champ menu and Style is the game’s closet. Why these two aren’t combined I don’t know because truthfully, they don’t need to be separate. The first menu doesn’t even let you scroll through champs with the bumpers unlike the second, which means I had to keep backing out between profiles just to see who does what. Other parts of the menu also feel odd to control, such as the game’s insistence that you use the triggers to move between vertical menus on a controller. I also noticed that you can’t use your emotes in lobby—why?
Besides my menu griefs, your typical live service-style currencies are here. I didn’t catch what everything does, but the gems are meant for costumes and the battle pass (I cannot lie, a lot of them look very nice!), coins for some free stuffs like emotes, and materials which I assume is mean for the synthesis tab. No idea how that one will work at this time as the menu was empty. Hopefully not too grindy of a process—speaking of which, there were levels for weapons, which I assume will be handled through this game system. More on that when the game launches later this week. Hopefully the grind won’t be too harsh.
But all in all, solid thoughts on BATTLE CRUSH. I plan on loading this one up on my tablet and I think I’ll stick around for quite a while. Oddly enough the overworld gameplay reminded me more of WildTangent’s ‘FATE’ and the battle royale twist is kept short, allowing for quick sessions of intense fight-for-your-life style gameplay. ∎
BATTLE CRUSH will launch into Early Access as a free-to-play title on the 27th of June on PC via Steam, Android via Google Play, iOS’ App Store, and the Nintendo Switch. You can pre-register for rewards through the respective Steam and mobile storefronts.
