Written by Kris Galvez
Title: Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Overdrive
Developer: MAGES. Inc.
Publisher: MAGES.
Price: $9.99
Genre: Action, Fighting, Arcade
Also Available On: PS4
Nintendo has always been home to retro and old school arcade style beat-em-up titles like Streets of Rage and Double Dragon. These titles have you controlling a bad ass slashing or brawling their way through hordes of street thugs, dinosaurs or any other villain that they need to vanquish. Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Overdrive may not have you be play as tough guys like Guy or Cody (from Final Fight fame) but it does allow you to play as the badass females of MAGES Phantom Breaker series as well as Kurisu Makise (of Steins; Gate fame) and another guest character from Robotic; Notes I am not familiar with.
The game starts with you losing your powers and abilities. You then have to work your way through several levels beating up tons of bad guys using your skills and weapons. The graphics which may seem simple is pleasing to look at. Sprites are clearly rendered and the animation for each character's attacks are wonderful. The enemies themselves are weird as you plow through Japanese looking thugs, stereotypical salary men, monsters, cyborgs and even sumo wrestlers. These phantom possessed baddies swarm you with bombs, motorcycles as you mash your way towards the end. I actually like how wacky each enemy are even if the levels themselves are your typical parks, ports and streets.
As is typical of these kind of games, each level has a boss waiting for you at the end. These bosses roughly has the same flashy skill set as you and they are also challenging. What sets it apart from other beat-em-ups is that your character starts out weak as part of the story. You then collect gemstones to level up and gain skill points. This is where it gets more complicated. You can either place your skill points in actually increasing your stats or regaining your abilities. I actually had the need to balance increasing my stats and carefully choose the ability I need so that I can stand a chance against some of the harder enemies in the game. What's actually a nice touch is that you can always reset the allocated skill points in case things are not working out for you.
The battle system of Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Overdrive is also more complicated than other games in the genre. Even if you can mash the buttons, this is not the best way to kill enemies. There is a certain technique that you need to apply in order to survive a level (not sure if the game is hard or I am not that good). I can even liken it to fighting games where directional presses, correct button timings and chaining combos are important if you want to do well in a level. This is also where allocating the skill points correctly will help you. Other mechanics that can assist you are flashy special attacks, screen clearing special attacks, emergency mode (better survivability in exchange of losing HP) and the titular Overdrive mode which allows you to perform higher damage attacks. It's also a good thing that there is a comprehensive manual that you can access as I still get lost with this games mechanics. As each character has a unique play style, I spent a lot of time building them up and mastering how they are played to efficiently finish levels with them.
Even if it's not a new take on the beat-em-up genre, I still enjoyed what I played. With 6 characters to level and master, tons of levels to complete and a few modes (vs and co-op mode), Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Overdrive is a cheap and enjoyable buy for $10.
Pros:
Cons:
Note: The game was reviewed using a download code provided by the publisher.
Nintendo has always been home to retro and old school arcade style beat-em-up titles like Streets of Rage and Double Dragon. These titles have you controlling a bad ass slashing or brawling their way through hordes of street thugs, dinosaurs or any other villain that they need to vanquish. Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Overdrive may not have you be play as tough guys like Guy or Cody (from Final Fight fame) but it does allow you to play as the badass females of MAGES Phantom Breaker series as well as Kurisu Makise (of Steins; Gate fame) and another guest character from Robotic; Notes I am not familiar with.
The game starts with you losing your powers and abilities. You then have to work your way through several levels beating up tons of bad guys using your skills and weapons. The graphics which may seem simple is pleasing to look at. Sprites are clearly rendered and the animation for each character's attacks are wonderful. The enemies themselves are weird as you plow through Japanese looking thugs, stereotypical salary men, monsters, cyborgs and even sumo wrestlers. These phantom possessed baddies swarm you with bombs, motorcycles as you mash your way towards the end. I actually like how wacky each enemy are even if the levels themselves are your typical parks, ports and streets.
As is typical of these kind of games, each level has a boss waiting for you at the end. These bosses roughly has the same flashy skill set as you and they are also challenging. What sets it apart from other beat-em-ups is that your character starts out weak as part of the story. You then collect gemstones to level up and gain skill points. This is where it gets more complicated. You can either place your skill points in actually increasing your stats or regaining your abilities. I actually had the need to balance increasing my stats and carefully choose the ability I need so that I can stand a chance against some of the harder enemies in the game. What's actually a nice touch is that you can always reset the allocated skill points in case things are not working out for you.
The battle system of Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Overdrive is also more complicated than other games in the genre. Even if you can mash the buttons, this is not the best way to kill enemies. There is a certain technique that you need to apply in order to survive a level (not sure if the game is hard or I am not that good). I can even liken it to fighting games where directional presses, correct button timings and chaining combos are important if you want to do well in a level. This is also where allocating the skill points correctly will help you. Other mechanics that can assist you are flashy special attacks, screen clearing special attacks, emergency mode (better survivability in exchange of losing HP) and the titular Overdrive mode which allows you to perform higher damage attacks. It's also a good thing that there is a comprehensive manual that you can access as I still get lost with this games mechanics. As each character has a unique play style, I spent a lot of time building them up and mastering how they are played to efficiently finish levels with them.
Even if it's not a new take on the beat-em-up genre, I still enjoyed what I played. With 6 characters to level and master, tons of levels to complete and a few modes (vs and co-op mode), Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Overdrive is a cheap and enjoyable buy for $10.
Pros:
- Game is simply fun even if you are just mashing the buttons.
- The combo system is mechanically great and also complicated. Due to this higher level of play is possible.
- 6 total characters with different play styles to master.
- Tons of replayability.
- Game is gorgeous for what it is. Each sprite is wonderfully animated and the art style is pretty unique.
- Only $10 for the volume of content it has.
Cons:
- Game is sometimes unforgiving. Hard enemies come at you even if you are at a lower level.
- Game is only in 2 planes where you can shift with using the R button. Other beat-em-ups has you able to navigate up and down on the background.
- Playing this for a long period of time in portable mode makes my hand ache.
- Even if 60 fps most of the time, the number of enemies in the screen will sometimes cause slow down.
- Not really a con, but this may not be the Battlegrounds title you are expecting.
Score: 7.5/10
Note: The game was reviewed using a download code provided by the publisher.
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