There are certainly no shortages of multiplayer brawlers in the gaming scene these days, with multiple different styles being offered to satisfy just about any kind of fighting fan. Some types of fighters are less common than others, however, with physics-based brawlers definitely being in the minority when it comes to the overall fighting landscape.
Developer EP Games is aiming to deliver just that with A Gummy’s Life, which has recently been released on Steam in Early Access form for people to test out. While it certainly takes plenty of influence from games like Gang Beasts with its wacky physics-based gameplay and hazard-filled arenas, it’s still a type of fighting game that isn’t nearly as saturated as many others in the genre. A Gummy’s Life’s spin on the formula is that all of the characters are literally gummys, and their sole purpose in life seems to be to beat up other gummys for the hell of it.
The game has a variety of different gummys for you to choose from, which run the gamut of things like watermelons, sharks and bananas. All of the characters at your disposal are of a similar size and control mostly the same, though each one does feature varying strength and defense stats that would (in theory) set them apart from the rest. At the time of this writing, it doesn’t seem like the stats provide much of a difference between characters, as using all of them felt pretty much the same. This game is in the early stages of its Early Access phase, however, so there’s still plenty of time to iron that out and make these characters feel a bit more unique.
You can choose to battle anywhere from 1 to 15 other characters, which can either be through local multiplayer or against the AI. While the AI seems serviceable at this time with a few different difficulty levels to choose from, this is definitely the type of game that begs to be played against live opponents. There’s currently no online multiplayer option, but the developers do note in their development roadmap that they plan to add that feature in at some point. This will definitely be a must for this kind of a game, as it’s at its best with battles with higher player counts and it will be imperative to be able to group up with many others quickly. While you can get by with a mouse and keyboard for your battles, it is highly recommended that you plug in a controller to make it a far less tiresome experience.
The combat needs work, but the arenas are well-designed and pack a lot of creativity
Once the bouts kick off the game quickly reveals itself to be a hectic and frantic button-masher of a fighting game, with all of the gummys mostly converging into a big pile and smacking the crap out of each other. The moves at your disposal are essentially relegated to left and right punches, jumping and grabbing your opponents, and you’ll mostly be fumbling all over the place in the process. I get that that’s the point in a silly physics-based brawler, but more needs to be done to make the fighting mechanics themselves more polished. Some bouts can feel like a crap shoot at the moment, as you mash buttons and hope that your character isn’t the one to fall down and end up being ganged up on by numerous other characters.
You can tell this game is in the very early stages of development by the fact that there’s some prominent features that are currently unavailable, but have placeholders on the game’s menus. There’s a training mode that there’s an option for as soon as you boot up the game, but it’s unfortunately unavailable at this time. There’s also some settings in the options menu that aren’t available to access yet, such as character profiles and controller configurations. There’s no ETA on when these will be added in, but hopefully they come sooner rather than later.
If there’s one spot to point to as being the unquestionable highlight of what the game has to offer so far, then it is easily the arenas. There are currently 10 arenas for players to choose from, and most of them are very well-designed and feature plenty of unique hazards to set them apart from the rest. An early favorite is a map called Clockwork that has you battling on a watch face, but the watch face’s floor eventually descends and forces you to take refuge on the numbers to avoid falling to your death. However, you then must deal with the spinning clock hands that gradually get faster, forcing you to jump over them as they come barreling towards you. Another great one takes place in a soccer field, with the nets being able to suck you straight out of the arena if you aren’t careful. While some of the arenas are better than others, there’s a lot of creativity that is being displayed so far that will hopefully lead to even more great ones being included as the game’s development continues.
The Road Ahead
A Gummy’s Life needs a decent amount of elbow grease at the moment, but it nevertheless has some serious potential to be a really fun brawler. The biggest issue that the developers need to focus on right now is getting the game’s characters to truly feel unique, and tweaking the fighting mechanics themselves to make the actual combat more enjoyable. They’re definitely on the right track when it comes to the actual arenas, however, as there’s plenty of interesting hazards to watch out for that elevate the experience greatly. Hopefully this will end up being a game that is turned into something truly special as more time is put into it.
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