A colorful and addicting arcade game. Battery Jam is a competitive territorial mayhem game where you can play up to 4 players in a battle arena. You compete with other opponents by capturing tiles, and you’ll earn points for every tiles you claim. Shoot down your opponents with a gun or use the Boombox to smash them into pieces. You may also use the tiles to make traps or either use it to create obstacles for your opponents. Once the timer ends, the players or team who dominate the arena and gets the highest score will be the winner!
For those who haven’t known, Battery Jam has been in development since 2015. It was developed by a college student from Savannah College of Art and Design where it was supposed to be a student project. From that time, the game has continued to develop and polish. They also collaborate with other studios for making the sound track and animations of the game. The team is now named Halseo.
Battery Jam is currently available on Steam for $9.99 and soon to be released on other platforms like Nintendo Switch.
In the Lobby
You start with a two modes. Classic Jam or Team Jam; The Classic Jam is a free-for-all mode where you’ll be playing against other players, like playing a death-match game. The Team Jam is a solo, duo or trio mode, where you can freely select a player whom you want to be in your team, and you can also pick the opponent you wish to. You can play up to 4 players; you can assign bot as your allies or foes. Or play with friends as well, this is by adding a game controller to your PC.
There are currently four playable character in the game, named Turbo, Rocket, Slug, and Love. However, selecting these playable character doesn’t affect the battle as all of them have the same abilities and power; It’s all cosmetics and player preferences. Honestly, my favorite character was Love because of its the cute smiley face.
Before starting the round, you’ll also have to pick a game level. There are currently six levels to choose from; these are Skyline, NightShift, Hydro, Cryo, Plant, Slag, Nebula and Satellite. Some of the levels have a smaller battle arena in which it will be difficult to beat down enemies especially when playing with the bots, while the more massive arena are less hard as you can capture more tiles and plan your strategy. Other levels, also have more obstacles which a player can use it for cover.
Some levels also have an additional special animation effect when the timer rounds reach 30 seconds that adds thrill in the game; it turns the background arena into a new environment like a flood, moving platform or a winter storm.
Gameplay
The elements of the gameplay are simple: You walk on the gray tiles to claim the tile, and each tile earn you 1 points. Shoot your opponents to stun them or hit the wall tiles to lower it. If you get stunned by other players, you press B to recover.
The Boombox refers to the exploding cubes that keeps spawning in the game, which quickly explodes every time it is hit. When it blows, it will destroy the tiles covering its radius, leaving a deadly molten lava. The Boombox can also be friendly: when you hit your opponents with the cube, your opponents will be smashed to pieces and the cube will turn to your side’s color, and it can be used to capture more tiles from its explosion. It can also be a traitor, as other opponents can fire this cube back in your direction.
Each player has a four charging slots under the character, which can be used to lower or raise the tile. Raising the tiles can block other players from passing to it, while dropping the tiles will delete the color and it will turn into molting lava. It can also be used to trap other players or block the Boombox.
Dash, the dash abilities, will let you claim a tile that is in molten lava. But it will not be easy, as it only claims the third tiles, skipping the second. As such, you need some excellent pattern to effectively claim each tile using the dash abilities.
Respawn, every time you’re hit by the Boombox or fall to death in the molten lava. You will respawn in a few seconds. The consequences of getting killed is that you’ll give your opponents score advantages.
Each round ends in two minutes. However, this timer can be changed in the settings.
Playing the game with bots is challenging. The bots are very smart and actually difficult to beat, it’s like playing a real player of the game. They even have their own strategy that is not predictable. You can actually learn a lot of strategy from them.
The local multiplayer game is a blast when it comes to playing with friends. This is the type of game which you can play on a coach or at a party with a bunch of your friends. The game strategy and 4 player modes are some of the key components of the game, which you and your friends can enjoy and compete with each other in for long hours.
Game Controls
The game can be played with keyboard and mouse. Since this is an arcade game, it is best to use GamePads for an optimal experience. Multiplayer mode also requires gamepad in order to play locally.
Graphics
The game’s graphics are stunning! It is one of the best arcade games that you’ll see in the Steam market, given it is an indie game. The developer really puts efforts into adding details in every inch of the game; the backgrounds, arena, effects and even the far objects are in great details. Comparing the graphics quality with other game, it is somewhat similar to the graphics of the game, the ARMS or Bomberman from Nintendo.
Conclusion
This game is excellent, fun, colorful and very fun to play! The overall game atheistic is gorgeous with a quality of game equivalent to triple-A titles. It’s a great game to play with your family, friends or even in solo! I promise you’ll not get bored playing this game even you play it multiple times!
Though it has lacks online multiplayer and game progression, this game deserves a high score!