Squareboy VS. Bullies: Arena Edition Review

Squareboy VS. Bullies: Arena Edition

Release: October 12, 2017
Publisher: Ratalaika Games
Developer: Ratalaika Games
Genre: Action, Other, Switch Reviews
PEGI: E
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I remember playing games like Double Dragon and Spider-man Maximum Carnage when I was younger. I wasn’t that big on Double Dragon but liked the Spider-man game a lot. They were both pretty basic, walking left to right beat ’em ups. You don’t see these types games too often anymore. Enter Squareboy VS. Bullies: Arena Edition for Nintendo Switch, a game that is a big call back to those sidescrolling beat ’em ups I mentioned. Is it a good game on its own though? Here is my review of Squareboy VS Bullies: Arena Edition!

Squareboy VS. Bullies doesn’t have much of a story. The game is basically about a boy who is getting beat up by bullies and then suddenly a mentor pops out of nowhere, teaches him to fight, and then he goes out for revenage. Squareboy is a pretty straightforward game.

Like games of the past, such as Double Dragon, each level of Squareboy is a straight line. You go from one little area to the next little area to beat up random bullies. If you’ve played any beat ’em ups from the past, then the gameplay will feel very familiar. I think Squareboy is a good beat ’em up but it really lacks anything special that makes it stand out from those games of the past. I think if any of those older games were on Switch, I’d probably play them instead of Squareboy VS. Bullies.

That said, Squareboy does have very good controls and its easy to learn. I would say that its a good first sidescrolling beat ’em up for people who have never played this type of game before. The game even has a two-player mode and an arena mode for those people who just to want to beat up bullies in one little place without moving on. The game doesn’t take advantage of the Nintendo Switch’s touch screen or motion controls at all. What you see is what you get with this game.

Squareboy VS Bullies is not a bad game. In fact there is really nothing bad about it at all. Its just that there isn’t anything too special about it either. The game does have good graphics though.

Squareboy has a very retro feel to its graphics, though the backgrounds of the levels are more detailed than what you’d find in the SNES games that this game seems to be mimicking. Though, I’m not a big of the main character or the enemies in this game. They all seem very generic and theres not much variety in them. Sure, there is a different hat or hairdo for the enemies here and there, but overall, they are all pretty ho-hum character designs. The graphics, overall, are good, though I think they could be even better on the Nintendo Switch.

As far as the game’s music goes, tis pretty much what you’d expect. The music is done in the style of games from the SNES. Its not bad music and its not annoying, though like the rest of the game it doesn’t really stand out either. The same can said for the game’s sound effects. In the end, Squareboy VS. Bullies is a good game, but it lacks anything that would make it special or a must-buy for long time sidescrolling beat ’em up fans.

Squareboy VS. Bullies: Arena Edition is a good game, but its not going to wow anyone. If you’ve never played a sidescrolling beat ’em up before, then this wouldn’t be a bad one to start with. But if you’re a long time fan of this genre, you will be left wanting more.

Thanks to Ratalaika Games for providing a copy of this game. Squareboy VS. Bullies: Arena Edition is out now for the Nintendo Switch eshop.

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