The very name “Super Dungeon Bros” evokes a Marioesque vision without the Mario. While the popularity of the famous plumber’s exploits are widely known, the soon-to-be-released dungeon fighter has only been played by a select few at gaming conventions.
While it is billed as a co-op, rogue, dungeon fighter, the blend of genres is more like “heavy metal four-player dungeon comedy”. If that sounds like the makings of an interesting game, you’re in for a treat. However, this is nothing like Gauntlet or other four player dungeon battles.
The co-op portion of the game is dynamic, fun, and hilarious. There are special fighting techniques that are available when the champions stack on top of each other. However, it is also possible to throw teammates off the side of bridges, staircases, and so forth. The ability to intentionally kill allies in a co-op game will no doubt lead to a lot of yelling and screaming when a troll ends up on a team, but it added to the fun during my demo.
Graphically, the game features an isometric viewpoint like Diablo, but the graphics are only a slight improvement over Minecraft. That’s forgivable, since the retro look is all the rage, and the gameplay is enthralling.
The continual thrashing music successfully adds to the fun, while adding a distinct personality to the game. Also on the audio front, the catchphrases of the characters are entertaining.
Next is the rogue-like element. For the uninitiated, that means the dungeons are generated randomly so that no two games are exactly the same. What is exactly the same, however, is the goal: To save metal music. If this sounds like a great plot for a dungeon fighter, it’s certainly unique.
I thoroughly enjoyed my demo time with the game and will be buying it, though I wouldn’t play it without at least one co-op partner. The game hasn’t been released yet, though it is scheduled for release in September 2015.
