A preview code was used, many thanks to Wishes Unlimited.
Deep down, do we really ever tire of critter collection games? Maybe some players do, and for them, it’s as simple as playing other types of games for a while. But if you love the serotonin burst of meeting and befriending new animals, be they the fuzzy residents of Neko Atsume, the hybrid weirdos of Cassette Beasts, or the comforting familiarity of Pokemon’s wildlife, there’s always the desire for more. Beastieball, from studio Wishes Unlimited, is looking to scratch that itch, but with a twist that makes incredible sense when you think about it: Beastieball is about the sport of it all!
With a commitment to its chosen gimmick that blends being impressive with nigh-obsessive, the world of Beastieball includes familiar story checkpoints. Still, it attempts to blend them with a unique flair that makes you wonder why GameFreak never tried this. With a thick slice of demo now available for this upcoming game, it’s time to see if this game is shaping up to score its big goals.
Beastieball Takes the Obvious to Heart
Beastieball kicks off its play with a cel-shaded, paper craft-style aesthetic that works well for what it wants to show you. A little character creation gives you a vision of yourself that’s both idealized and also makes you comfy with being a middle-aged, well, middler of a person. That’s already refreshing for anyone who’s been playing idealistic kids and teens for decades; my Beastieball coach (because, of course, that is what you, as a monster team trainer, really are) looks as perky-tired and graying as I do, replete with a purple and black clothing style that I can freshen up at stores in other towns.
As a coach, you’re quickly introduced to the obvious and yet yes-that’s-perfect series of story checkpoints: you gotta challenge those rival gyms, babe. This time, you’re doing it so that this world’s version of the Pokemon League doesn’t… er… pave over your hometown’s nature preserve to build a gigantic Beastieball stadium.
Yes, in a beautifully sardonic twist, the League is also the distant, possibly slightly corrupt Team Rocket. To be fair to Pokemon, the original mob boss, Giovanni himself, turned out to be a Gym Leader late in the game. But still, Beastieball, without being in your face about it, is quick to play on late-night host John Oliver’s diatribes about the corruption rampant in the real-life of FIFA. You can’t keep bringing new beasties into the league if you’re steamrolling their habitats!
Fresh Tactics Make Matches Interesting
By now, we know the drill. You have a team, and you’ll field one or two critters in a battle, with the goal of getting the other critters knocked out. But Beastieball is committed to that sports aesthetic, and here, battles are matches. Not only that, but they’re sort of like volleyball, where two-player teams are not only trying to avoid being wiped out (each wipeout earns a team a point), but letting the opponent’s strike hit an empty square for a point.
It’s a novel way to help lower-level teams take out some big players, but it relies on a lot of tactical forward-thinking and understanding the skills you have available to you. Beasties you recruit — which requires both learning how to impress them and giving them a jersey so everyone knows they’re on your team — have palettes of skills available. These can modify a volley, how you tag in a different beastie, the way you strike at the other time, and buff or debuff a beastie’s stats.
You can change up their skills anytime outside of combat, and losing a match isn’t much of a setback. But with the flexibility of per-turn actions and the variety of beasties you’ll face, it can be pretty overwhelming early on to grasp the possibilities available to you. Even as a long-time Pokemon trainer, I got rocked in my first non-tutorial gym match because I hadn’t figured out all the potential my team had versus the strengths of this gym.
No worries, you dust off, redo your skills, and try again. But it’s still going to require a shift towards genuine tactical thinking, something Pokemon hasn’t relied on as heavily in a long time. It’s not that the game is hard; it’s that you’re not going to steamroll things without a little extra thought.
Early Version Tumbles and Delights
It’s always great to see a demo land on its feet, with snappy controls and a clean tutorial to help you into its world. Beastieball has a fantastically strong start, but if I can nitpick one thing, it’s that the open-world jumping puzzles can probably use a little smoothing. Yes, like its cousins, Beastieball will gradually give you more options to play with as you traverse the world. Your first new skill is remembering how to jump, and to get Jasper’s gym requirements rolling, you’re going to need that skill.
The answer to this first jumping puzzle is easy, as towns are small, and you won’t have trouble realizing where the landscape becomes a natural staircase to this emo kid on a townhome roof. However, the jump to get to him can become a little floaty, along with some fuzziness on where you should land. Failing the jump lands you on the ground, where you will, with mild frustration, wander back over to the start of the jumping puzzle… and constantly glide inside the gym next to the kid’s house, causing you to roll your eyes in equally mild annoyance.
On the whole, it’s a pretty small complaint. If the jumping control tightens up a bit or at least the puzzles of this kind don’t get too complicated far down the line — please, some of us are Bad at Mario — it’s going to be a non-issue. Especially compared to the already tight aesthetic, the cute new beasties, and the ESPN-flavored post-match highlights.
Final Thoughts
Like another NPC says in Jasper, I am not the woman one goes to for Sportsball stuff. I used to live in football-obsessed Pittsburgh, and if Ben Roethlisberger was in front of me at the gas station, I wouldn’t recognize him without his mugshot in my hand. Sorry, Steelers Nation. However, Beastieball overcomes my general apathy to Sports with its own gently silly, snarky brand of charm and quickly gets me to love my team as if I were wrangling the squirrels in my yard into acorn foosball.
Yes, there’s a lot of monster collection games, and yes, there’s always room for more. The trick is to find a game that’s realizing its own unique take on the genre with a catchy style and room to grow. Beastieball scores an optimistic start, and I’ve gone from ‘sport?’ to ‘yeah, I’ll look for the full release of this one.’ Try out the demo yourself, and if you like it, give this team a wishlist on Steam today.
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