Super Dungeon Bros Review – Rock And Roll Gauntlet

<p>The title to this game is a bit misleading&period; When I saw that I was reviewing <em>Super Dungeon Bros<&sol;em>&comma; I assumed that this game would rely heavily on platforming&period; I was wrong&semi; this game plays more like <em>Gauntlet<&sol;em> and that alone brought back some great memories&period; Unfortunately&comma; while the game does play like <em>Gauntlet<&sol;em>&comma; the developers decided to add in some platforming&comma; but I&&num;8217&semi;ll get to that later&period; React Games made a charming&comma; <em>Diablo<&sol;em> like romp for friends to enjoy and I salute them for that&period; For far too long couch co-op has taken the wayside to online co-op&comma; but React Games offers both in <em>Super Dungeon Bros<&sol;em>&comma; and I couldn&&num;8217&semi;t be happier&period; Now if I could only find some friends&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The story&comma; as in most indie games&comma; is pretty sparse&period; One of the four brothers comes back to his abode with a new record&period; For those of you who don&&num;8217&semi;t know what a record is&comma; its a large black disc that plays music on a turn-table and it is the absolute best way to play music&period; So the brother with the record begins to play it&comma; much to the chagrin of his siblings&period; After they protest a bit he starts to play the record backwards and some ghoulish voice tells them of a quest they must undertake&period; After discussing it with the disembodied voice and learning they will acquire better instruments&comma; fame and possibly women&comma; they hop into the portal only to be whisked away to a very dangerous dungeon&period; When you get to the dungeon you realize that you&&num;8217&semi;re not in the platformer that you had hoped you would be&period; Instead you find yourself in an isometric world where skeletons and witches want to kill you&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;115235" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-115235" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-115235 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;11&sol;13005440&sol;super-dungeon-bros-dukespookem-bossfight-100573610-orig&period;png" alt&equals;"Super Dungeon Bros" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"360" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-115235" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Super Dungeon Bros<&sol;em>&comma; Wired Productions&sol;THQ Nordic&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Controls are quite simple for you and your friends to master&period; To jump all you need to do is press A&comma; but I will warn you it is a very laggy jump for some reason&period; I fell off the platforming sections a few times due to the jump and the fact that my destination was difficult to see because of the isometric level&period; The designs of the levels&comma; while very gothic and easy to find your way&comma; mean that the upper part of the dungeon will get in your way if you are in a lower level&period; A few times I could not locate enemies or loot because the bridges overhead blocked my sight to them&comma; which was a huge drawback&period; Right Trigger is attack and Right Bumper is heavy attack&comma; which for me is easy since I play a lot of <em>Dark Souls<&sol;em>&period; Left Trigger is roll&comma; which is something you must get good at if you play alone because man do you get swarmed by the enemies&period; Should you come to a level in your travels all you have to do is press B and a bridge will appear or a door will open&period; When you are completely overwhelmed by enemies or a massive boss just press Y&semi; you will loose a super move that causes massive damage&period; However&comma; choose when you use this wisely as you can only use it twice until you level it up or purchase more power&period; The game is kind to you though in case you misuse your special attacks&period; With the Left Bumper you can pick up bombs and the like to toss at hordes of enemies and bosses&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As I said prior&comma; the dungeons are beautifully designed aside from higher levels blocking the player&&num;8217&semi;s vision from some pretty important aspects of the game&period; There were times when I couldn&&num;8217&semi;t see an important chest or the enemy that continued to berate me with arrows&period; There is no camera control and I couldn&&num;8217&semi;t swivel everything around to see what I was missing&period; This small but glaring error made getting through some dungeons quite difficult&period; The platforming in this game while minimal wasn&&num;8217&semi;t thought out too properly&period; The way the levels are designed makes it difficult to gauge where to jump from and where to jump to&period; My poor little Dungeon Bro fell to his demise several times before I could nail the jumps&period; The sluggish jump button did not assist either&semi; if Lara Croft jumped like this she would have never made it to twenty&period; As I went from floor to floor in the dungeons I realized that this game was built for co-op&period; I had an insanely difficult time playing through alone&comma; and would have loved to have had some assistance&comma; whether that be on the couch or online&period; Having a buddy would make this game more enjoyable and you won&&num;8217&semi;t feel that your life is empty&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;115243" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-115243" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-115243 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;11&sol;13013546&sol;1622-2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Super Dungeon Bros" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"360" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-115243" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Super Dungeon Bros<&sol;em>&comma; Wired Productions&sol;THQ Nordic&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>I enjoyed this little title&period; Hopefully in the future some Xbox One buddies will grab this and we can have some online co-op fun&comma; like adults are supposed to&period; Even though there are some drawbacks with the level design it didn&&num;8217&semi;t take away my enjoyment&comma; just one or two of the four precious lives I had&period; If you don&&num;8217&semi;t have any co-op friends or ones that may be interested in buying this title in the future then  I would hold off&period; It is fun alone&comma; but I&&num;8217&semi;d rather pop in <em>Diablo<&sol;em> and play that alone instead of <em>Super Dungeon Bros<&sol;em>&period; I do think that this would be a fun party game though&comma; if you can afford four controllers and still some booze for a guy&&num;8217&semi;s night in&period; That is one thing from my past that I miss&colon; drinking and gaming with the boys&period; Parents and kiddos could have a gas with this as well&comma; but seeing as I hear no pitter patter of footsteps I&&num;8217&semi;ll be content playing this alone until I can blackmail a buddy into buying it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>An Xbox One Review Code for <em>Super Dungeon Bros<&sol;em> was provided by Wired Productions&sol;THQ Nordic for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;