Beast Breaker

The core concept of this game is immediately interesting and fun to play with. It's great on that merit alone. The devs could have just put this out there as a cute casual game where you pinball-fight your way through these different monsters, and called it a day. Instead, they added an absurd number of weapon combos, item options, strategy choices, and underneath it all, a story absolutely bursting with heart and character. I loved this game and it needs people to see it and play it.

This game is like the result of a fusion between Monster Hunter, Peggle, and an idea for a Cartoon Network series all in one game. It is definitely a concept that makes it so unique, and that same distinction is what gives this game its beauty—that, and the care its former and, unfortunately, now-defunct studio put into it. Originally released for the Switch and the Epic Games Store in 2021, this game tells us the small (literally) story of Skipper, a little mouse who must face different beasts that are four times his size, in order to free villages from the clutches of these very creatures. Along our way, we will encounter different companions who will be of great help, contributing their qualities, characteristics, and specialties in battle. At the same time, they bring with them their own narrative and personal stories, which makes every interaction—whether with Skipper or another companion—unique and personal. The attention to detail in every piece of dialogue makes me believe the developers loved working on this small but beautiful game! Not only that, but the gameplay is its strongest aspect; the key here is that with every bounce, we will deal damage. We must launch Skipper in a certain direction or at a specific angle; depending on how effective the launch is, we will deal damage to the beast with every bounce he makes. But that depends on the weapon, since here we have 5 different types of weapons to use, each one working better against a specific type of beast. That is without mentioning that we can upgrade, customize, and equip different weapons and armor that we can have forged or improved. Also, before even facing the beast, we can gather resources on a sort of mini-map to be prepared for the attack; this brings with it unique items and unique beasts for each biome. This, believe me, gives the game enormous variety, and since it grants the freedom to play using your own logic, it gains even more points for versatility! What also stands out is its music, composed mainly by composer Big Giant Circles, alias Jimmy Hinson, who might sound familiar to you thanks to the fact that he composed the OST for COD Black Ops 7 and II. The composer's experience is what allowed the music throughout the game to sound so good, making the experience more pleasant. Curiously, even though the game might not be as well-known as other indies, this game—and above all, its studio, the former employees of Vodeo Games—made history in the video game industry after becoming the first North American studio to form a union, supporting the enormous cause of prioritizing workers' rights over massive productions. Despite this achievement, the studio would later vanish due to the low budget they had to develop video games... But even so, if you end up buying this game, you would be supporting the devs who originally worked on it; you get simple, yet entertaining gameplay, there is a ton of lore to go through, and the soundtrack adapts perfectly to the moment! This game is the definition of a hidden gem, and if you have come across this game, it is because you really appreciate indies that propose new things, like this one. And if you have the opportunity to buy it and play it, do it—it will be worth your time!

Clever, cute, and addictive.

Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING about this game is absolutely FANTASTIC. The story, the characters, the enemy design, the combat, the music, the replayability, EVERYTHING about Beast Breakers was fantastic in my 21-hour playthrough. And I haven't even 100%ed it! I wish I had bought this full price, because DAMN this game was beyond fantastic. Kudos to everyone on the dev team for the wonderful experience!

When I got this game, I bought it because I thought some of the character portraits are cute. My initial impressions were pretty harsh- I don't like pinball games, I find them too simple while also too chaotic. I found the in-battle aesthetic a bit gaudy, I did not expect to find such a vast array of characters and every single one of them to be so endearing. For the gameplay to have such creative variety around its core system of "bouncing around." For the story to gouge into my heart and leave me emotional and pensive for hours on end. And yet, here I am. This is a game that defies expectations. I'm left baffled, wondering "How is this game so good??" and yet, here it is, a beautiful, heartfelt game.

Amazing work. I wish the studio was still around to rebalance it. The gameplay is an absolute blast. This is the most fast paced, action packed fun I've ever had in a turn based game. Top notch game design. They offer you dozens and dozens of different builds, all of which have pros and cons. And they offer you increased customizability as the game goes on, which is a brilliant choice, and makes grinding an effort in tailoring instead of power creep. However, about a quarter of the way into the game, the difficulty really starts ramping up, and instead of feeling like a cool challenge, the ramp is so steep that it flat-out disqualifies the majority of builds, no matter how clever or well played. Most weapons and strategies simply *cannot* do enough damage per turn to be viable by the mid-game, and by the final boss (which I did reach), there's literally 2 viable builds remaining. Now, those two builds are hella fun and feel very clever and powerful... but I would love an "easy mode" in this game where you can simply turn down the health of enemy vital cores by, like, 50%. Sadly, the studio that made this went under a while ago, despite its recent release date, so I'm not expecting any updates on that front.

Such fun! The game makes it so easy to just give it another run and feel a bit more progress in your campaign and upgrades, and I find myself doing just that on the bits of free time I've got. Runs aren't super long, and they don't feel samey, because there are mechanics that incentivize plenty of experimentation with lots of combinations of abilities. I do highly recommend it if you find mildly puzzley, geometric combat. Think MOBA abilities & combos, mixed with something like breakout. You often can't fully predict what's going to happen, but that gives the game the bit of randomness every combat needs. And you can always prepare ahead of time so that your abilities work well. There are some UX things I'd love to see implemented: - the ability to see what the monster if when hovering their name (there's enough of them I have a hard time remembering) so I can pick adequate equipment and upgrades. - Maybe a compendium / archive of enemies? - Filters for upgrading/crafting/equipping equipment - Starring/favoriting types of motes to make better choices when picking run location - A help menu with some mechanics (I didn't know you could go anywhere on the map, whereas the monster gets to move only X amount of spaces, which depends maybe on monster type?) But even with these little QoL/UX issues, the game is fun and I'm sure I'll keep coming back to it :)

I bought this game when it first came out on Epic, beat it, loved it. Bought it again here because it's worth it. The art, writing and music are all excellent, and the gameplay is utterly unique. There's no other game like it and I'm enjoying it just as much the second time around. Highly recommended!

Genuinely one of my favorite games, I'm so glad the Steam release has given me an excuse to replay it. Wonderful characters, a moving story, very fun to play, especially once you start experimenting with the weapons, a great soundtrack, truly just an underrated gem all around.

Very fun game with a cool story. I really liked all of the companions.