Super Dungeon Bros Review for Xbox One

Reminiscent of Castle Crashers and God Mode, Super Dungeon Bros is a fairly addictive dungeon crawler by developer React Games and independent games publisher, Wired Productions. It’s easy to pick it up and play solo or with friends. If you’re looking for a casual game to spend time with your crew, then this may be worth your while.

There is not too much plot to understand, because you will be spending most of your time trying to destroy or to avoid enemies. In addition to the grind, you will want to find as much gold as possible to afford upgrades at the end of each section. There are cinematic shorts that are pretty well done, and they flesh out the characters a little. We get some banter between the four rockers, but it feels underwhelming compared to the glowing record player providing exposition. I personally thought that the voice acting was not half bad either – that is, of course, when they do speak.

I really like the visual effects and style that remain consistent throughout the game. You get that sense of that steadiness in the dungeons, the loading screen, and the occasional quote. I swore some of the sound effects came from guitar hero at certain points. At first I did not quite get that rocker vibe, because the characters come off as a different kind of metal head when you first see them, like knights, but then the general attitude comes off as “Let’s rock.”

You can choose from four very identical characters to play as when fighting off hordes of skeletons. Each character has a particular fighting style, too. When I started playing through the first area, I sliced and diced my way through plenty of skeletons as Axl. At some point I died too many times thanks to the many traps laying around, so I picked up Freddie, who uses a crossbow, to carry me onward. Being ranged is very difficult, especially when you set off Rambo style.

Thankfully each of the characters gets an ultimate move which can be activated when you’re cornered by frantically pressing Y. A whirlwind of swords or flaming arrows – they’re not too bad. My only complaint is how the characters stand still as they attack leaving them open to a world of hurt. My strategy developed into a hit and run (dash with the left trigger) for most of my time playing. There also aren’t any obvious combos besides pulling on the right trigger. I was hoping to a jump attack with a large area of effect. The hordes are seemingly endless, and they do not necessarily drop anything, so I don’t see too much incentive in trying to fight them all.

Multiplayer feels like the most critical aspect of the game, in that it feels essential. To each their own, but the challenge is made a lot more fun with co-op. If you’re looking for an enjoyable weekday night: order a pizza, invite some friends over, and couch the game together. You won’t regret it.

Some of the enemy types are annoying to fight, but the boss battles are engaging and keep you on your toes. The first boss battle I got into involved me using the environment to my advantage. Again, though, there is very little incentive to kill all of the undead besides a kill count, so I hope you like platforming, parkour, and expert maneuvering. Even then, the level design is not horrendous, but sometimes you’ll hate the designers for forcing you to run down a hall full of traps, archers, razor blades, and hell spawn.

Overall I think Super Dungeon Bros has potential to be a really solid game if it works out a couple quirks here and there. Everyone has a little bit of Leroy Jenkins in them, and this is definitely the place to unleash it. I would just say, however, the single player experience needs to be worked on some more to appeal to the larger audience. If I wanted to go through the grind for money and experience, I would stick to MMOs. The multiplayer is where the game shines the most, and I wish that carried over to single player. I think a fair score for this game is a 7.5 out of 10.

Watch the official Super Dungeon Bros launch trailer:

Super Dungeon Bros is available for PC (Steam), Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

John Pruitt

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I like to think of myself as the average Joe who grew up alongside video games. I have fun playing strategy games, RPGs, shooters, sandboxes, the whole shebang! Every game provides an experience whether it strikes you as profound, mundane, or someplace in between. I'd like to weigh in my two cents before you spend a single penny.

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