Super Treasure Arena Preview

Multiplayer games are always a great find for me personally, especially one that supports local and online. But then there’s always the issue of the single-player content, and something that the current selling price can’t quite justify. The player is tasked with collecting coins in a free for all or bringing treasure boxes back to your starting area, fighting against the spawning hostiles and players in the attempt of getting highest point at the end of the match.

Featuring treasures and arenas, Super Treasure Arena is a tantalising Early Access game that is great in premise and delivers. But still manages to both underwhelm and disappoint despite a strong performance. Online and local multiplayer? Check. Responsive controls with nice visual feedback? Check. Audio and Music matching the theme? Thereabouts a check. It’s a great game that might be seen (or to be more cruel belongs) on an application store like iTunes or Google Play.

Little did I know the other enemies were least of my concerns.

With a game like this though I can see why it’s in Early Access, an active developer who’s tweaking and adjusting aspects of the game to make for a better multiplayer experience. Upbeat and weirdly reminiscent of The Amazing World of Gumball, if it were an 8 bit game, the pixel art style proves to be a well polished game as whole. Whilst I wasn’t able to test the multiplayer online, in local co-op it played just fine; have it as part of a games night and you’ll be having a pretty competitive game.

At it’s current price point of £5.59, purchasing this for a games night is an easy recommendation for its price and what it offers, but it’s a little hard to justify multiple purchases if you were to play it as an online game with your mates. But purchasing this to experience alone has quite a few issues that just make it: “Get this if you have a games night planned, but honestly you could give this a miss”. Which isn’t something I’d like to say to games that have a strong premise and execution.

It's dangerous to go alone, have a Link.

The major issue being the lack of adequate single-player. The AI for players for the most part is pretty dumb and aren’t that much of a challenge. The actual combat is great, melee is slightly bland with the blocking mechanic, maybe having a parrying system could give it the necessary depth to do melee. The range of ranged attacks (the main chunk of combat) is a solid mix and the classes give the promise of really fun wave based arena combat for single-player and co-op gameplay experience. Story isn’t necessary, but it’ll help flesh the content out. Also the player’s speed could be increased slightly, traversing the map in order to attack other players is slightly awkward at best, even a stamina/sprint system could help liven the gameplay.

Final Thoughts:

If the game gets adequate single-player content and has more game modes, this is an easy recommendation of a fun game with local and online co-op experience. But for now, just a recommendation for games night - assuming you don’t have something already like TowerFall Ascension, Black & White Bushido or Broforce.