No matter how much we’d like to dream otherwise, it’s very unlikely Nintendo will ever port Super Smash Bros to PC. So, developer Dark Screen Games has made its own Smash Bros for PC, Bounty Battle, pitting heroes from a variety of indie games against each other in a brightly animated brawler.
The concept and execution of the fighting game is a broad replication of Smash Brothers. A bunch of your favourite protagonists are taken from their worlds and forced to battle to see who wins, in platforming micro-stages that reflect each individual universe. There’s lucha-libre stylings of Guacamelee, the supremely dark fantasy of Darkest Dungeon, the dour dungeon-crawling of Dead Cells, and many others to choose from. The battles can be up-to four player, with a roster of 30 characters.
Where the Super Smash Bros series has always distinguished itself by being about knocking the opponent off the stage, Bounty Battle is a straight knock-out game. No items either, though every character does have an assistant to spice things up from time to time. The gameplay trailer from earlier in the year shows it as a middle-ground between Smash Bros and more conventional fighters – though hopefully the frame-rate issues have since been ironed out.
The use of indie characters is both smart an endearing. We’d all love to see who’d win between Doom Eternal‘s Doomslayer and Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn, or Lara Croft, or Serious Sam and his new gundam popemobile, but getting all those triple-A publishers together would be a nightmare. This is easier for all involved, and some of these games have a dedicated, sizable audience to say the least – Dead Cells, for instance, has sold three million copies.
Here’s the latest animated trailer:
Bounty Battle launches on September 10 – you can find the Steam page here.