BOMBFEST is a very simple and highly addictive multiplayer party game developed by Sudden Event Studios and Whitehorn Digital and it is slated for release in early 2019.
In BOMBFEST, players will battle other players with bombs and try to be the last one standing on the stage. At the end of the round, the player left standing on the stage is the winner and points are distributed among the players depending on how well they played in the round.
The game offers both single player mode where players can battle AI controlled enemies or jump in action with their friends in local 4 player multiplayer. The game offers extremely simple gameplay with decent visuals and explosive action that can keep you busy for hours.
BOMBFEST promises a pick-up and play formula with easy two button controls extremely simple mechanics that are fun to enjoy by both casual gamers and hardcore gamers. The game also comes with controller support so you can use a controller to play the game.
Even if you play the game on a keyboard, the simple controls make it very easy to play. If playing with the keyboard, you use arrows to control the character and X to pick up and throw bombs and ‘C’ to jump and tumble to dodge bombs thrown by enemies.
The characters are small and made from simple blocks but they come with different skins like wizard, minstrel, baker or courier. This helps in identifying them and you can also unlock more skins by simply playing the game. There are no complicated championships or unlock procedure. Play more game and you will unlock more skins even if you lose the game.
Same goes with the bombs. BOMBFEST features different types of bombs to have fun with. Apart from the regular bomb, you can also unlock different types of bombs such as Ice Bomb, Sticky Bomb and Bouncy Bomb. Each unlocked bomb comes with a unique attribute that keeps the challenge alive.
The game features around 12 stages which range from kitchen sinks to little tree stumps in greenhouses. Each stage comes with a little challenge of their own such as you might fall down while trying to cross a tight bridge or so. This means that bombs are not the only threat that you need to look out for.
The stages are destructible as well. As you throw around bombs exploding your friends, some bits of the stage will also explode and the resulting debris on the stage will make the game more challenging. You can also use this as an advantage to block enemies and escape pursuers.
Another fun little mechanic in the game is that eliminated players are not gone for good. They spawn back on the stage as bombs which means that they can now move around as bombs and explode on demand. This is a very neat feature and players can come back for some quick revenge on the player who eliminated them.
At the end of the round, players are awarded points based on their performance in the game. Points are awarded based on eliminations, players survived, assisting in eliminations, damage dealing or getting an elimination while playing as a bomb after getting eliminated from the game. This ensures that even if you do not survive
It started its journey back in 2015 and has been under development since then. In October 2018, the game finally reached its Kickstarter target and is now on its way to a release. We were given a review copy to test out the game and we played the game on PC on a keyboard and it is a very stable game without any problems. Even with the keyboard, the game is very easy to play. You might need slight practice to be good with picking up bombs and throwing them other than that, the game mechanics are very simple.
The final version of BOMBFEST will include more stages, more character skins and more bombs and it will be released on Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One and PC so everyone can enjoy this fun little game with their friends. The developers are also planning to increase player support to 7 players, include a Team Mode and Horde Mode to make the game more interesting.
We lack couch party games these days but BOMBFEST is a solid title that offers local multiplayer and a very decent one as well. We guarantee that once you start playing this game, you will keep playing it because it really keeps you coming back for more. At this point, Nintendo Switch has the most party games and luckily for us, BOMBFEST will also come out on it.
BOMBFEST is set to release in early 2019 on Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One and PC.
