Repulse — Galactic Rivals, a game about throwing boxes at each other (featuring Alex Sharma)
Couch multiplayer. According to the Internet, people like it, but there aren’t many good couch multiplayer games. Or, like me, they just don’t have friends (ironically, I played this game with a friend). So, you’re stuck playing video games with complete strangers, most of which claim to do things that you shouldn’t write about on a respectable blog. Hi, I’m Konstantin’s friend, Alex. This is Alex Sharma, the guy from the title. He does photography. Go check him out. And he is probably the only person in this multiverse who would willingly play video games with me. Ok, let’s go.
But now, let’s talk about Repulse, which is also a couch multiplayer game. Repulse is a game about throwing boxes at each other. You pick who will be which circle, and you go. The gameplay was rather polished and fast-paced. I can agree: for a version of a full game so early, it’s free on itch.io, it’s very well-optimized and polished to the level of a game I’d actually pay money for, if it was on mobile devices. It was quite an original idea, I’ve never seen a game like this before. For a game about throwing boxes, it sure does a lot. It has two modes: Bomb, which is like Hot Potato, where you have to pass the box to the rival before it explodes; and Crush, which is a bit like free-for-all dodgeball, but you don’t get eliminated when hit with a box. The borders of the map are deadly, and you have to knock your rival into them. But no friend will ever replace the pros and the cons!
The Pros
- The game was very polished.
- For a game still in early alpha, it looks pretty good.
- Very well-optimized: it ran with no lag at all on my laptop, and Doom 1 has slight lag on it.
- The buttons on the help screen light up when you press them, which is adorable.
- Just a fun couch multiplayer game overall.
The Cons
- The game is a bit too simple.
- I know it’s just a demo and it will probably be fixed, but the absence of bots will probably move some potential buyers (loners) away from the game.
- At the moment, the Bomb map is literally empty.
