There will never be a shortage of bored office employees or schoolkids wanting fast-paced web games to pass the time, and the new .io trend is helping meet that demand. Brutal.io is a colorful new browser game that caught our attention. The developer, who goes by Andre Almeida on Twitter, launched the web-based, free-for-all arcade game last month, and I’ve yet to hop on to find an empty room.
You play as a rectangular, neon-colored creature racing around a glowing grid. By spinning your mouse in a circle, you spin your creature and the spiked flail attached to its rear end. Points are collected by picking up bits of energy, and as you gain points, your flail attachment grows. The flail can grow to a size so enormous that it slows you down considerably, making you an easier target for other players. If another player hits you with its flail, you’ll be deleted, which evaporates your flail into energy bits and boots you from the game.
When your flail has reached the size that spinning is no longer an option, another way to delete a player is to click with the left mouse button and launch your flail across the room. However, the flail doesn’t come back immediately, and while you are detached, you have the possibility of losing stored energy and points. Clicking and holding the left mouse button again will allow you to reattach the flail, preserving any stored energy, and transferring any small bits you picked up while away.
The multiplayer browser game shows a Leaderboard of the top players in your room, usually consisting of about 50-60 people. You can invite your friends to play in the same room by copying a specific link from the top left corner of the screen. No instructions are provided, but your friends won’t need them. It’s easy to catch on to the way the game works within seconds of starting. Having the .io fan base in mind, the designer didn’t add any sound effects or music, but he did include an option for Low or High graphics settings. Overall, Brutal.io is a fun, thematic browser game designed with the players in mind. We’ll try not to play it too much at work.
If you think Brutal.io looks fun, check out other flashed based games we reviewed that are playable on Poki.com.
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I really hate this game for one reason: the red flail. AND YOU SHOULD TOO