Have you ever played a Survivors-like and have it instantly click? Well, Megabonk did that for me the second I started my very first run. It’s got fast-paced gameplay, a sick soundtrack, and a surprisingly long list of stuff to unlock and achieve.
Let’s dig a little deeper into what I think makes this title special and what could be improved!
Nonstop Action
From the moment you start your first run, you’ll be greeted by some extremely energetic retro-style music and the freedom to just run around aimlessly as enemies start spawning around you. The only goal, aside from “beating” the level by killing the portal boss, is to survive for as long as possible.
Those familiar with roguelikes, even if just the most popular titles, will immediately notice the similarities with other titans in the genre. You’ve got the leveling system and occasional power-up/chest drops similar to Vampire Survivors, and then there are the movement mechanics and interactable objects (shrines, altars, pots, etc.) very reminiscent of those in Risk of Rain 2.
Megabonk takes these familiar elements and adds its own little twist on things. Most notably, the movement is insanely fun, and this is because every character can slide and bunny hop to build up momentum and zip across the procedurally-generated levels. This simple mechanic alone is enough to add a little bit of depth to what is usually a dull and/or slow early game phase.
There’s also a wide range of unique weapons and characters to unlock, and most of them you get by simply playing through the game, win or lose. It only takes a minute or two to ramp up to ridiculous levels of power and blast through the endless waves of enemies that’ll spawn until the timer runs out. That’s not to say that it’s easy, though, because you’re still mostly at the mercy of RNGesus.
You’d think that this game is something that you’d just play for a couple of runs at a time, but it’s very easy to get consumed by it that you’ll probably be surprised at how long you’ve actually been playing.
Yesterday, I told myself that I’d play just one or two runs where I try out a silly combination of items. The next thing I know, I already dumped 2 hours of my free time into it as I try to unlock new stuff to mess around with. The best part? I don’t regret it one bit. The game’s just really fun!
Simplicity At Its Finest
Look, I won’t lie to you. The game’s hilariously simple at its core. You pick a character, fight for like 10-20 minutes, and then maybe unlock a bunch of stuff along the way. However, this simplicity is why it’s easy to fall into a never-ending loop of “just one more run”.
Basically, each map has three tiers, and you unlock the next by “beating” the previous one. You do that by activating the portal that’s randomly placed somewhere in the level, and then killing the boss that spawns from it.
At tier 3, you can take the portal to fight the true final boss of that map. This is how you officially and fully “win”. Between all of this is a set of challenge modifiers that you can try out for each tier, and examples include having just 1 HP throughout the run or the condition that you have to win within a certain amount of time.
That’s really all you need to know to understand how to play the game. It has a solid foundation that the creator can easily build on by adding new maps and unlockables, but right now, that’s really all there is to it.
The only other thing you might care about is the leaderboard, which is just a measure of how many enemies you can kill before inevitably dying.
You see, once the timer for a level runs out, an endless wave of ghosts that get stronger over time will start spawning. There’s not much reason to endure this outside of some achievements, unless you really care about getting a high rank.
Solid But Barren Foundation
While you can get a ton of hours out of this game, especially if you’re the type who likes messing around with silly builds, it could definitely use a bit more variety.
As I’m writing this, there are only two maps in the game: the Forest and the Desert. Sure, each tier kinda changes the color of the environment, but it’s going to get old rather quickly. The enemies don’t exactly change either, so even if you’re on tier 3 of the forest, you’ll still run into those regular goblins.
Luckily, the creator did say that they’ll be releasing free content over time, including new maps. I think my only gripe with it is that we have no idea when this new stuff will drop, but at such an affordable price tag, I already got my money’s worth and more.
Time will tell if it’ll continue to grow, but it’s already off to a good start, especially if the dev stays true to their promise of releasing more content. I’m honestly surprised that it’s as popular as it is right now, because games like these don’t normally get this big of a spotlight.
Right now, it’s available on Steam at a relatively low price, so you should definitely check it out if you’re looking for a quick time killer or if you’re a huge fan of roguelikes!
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to play Hades II now. The only reason I haven’t touched it yet is cause I couldn’t put down this dang game… lol.