REVIEW – Guilt Battle Arena (Switch)

Have you ever needed a game that can cause hatred between you and your friends? Guilt Battle Arena might just be the thing you want. This frantic, local multiplayer, party game will have you engaging against your friends or the computer AI in several game modes to find out who will end up on top. But should end up on the top of your list for Nintendo Switch games?

When controlling your character, of which there are 63 available costumes, you can move left or right with those corresponding buttons. You can also jump and either double-jump or dive while in the air. Your weapon is a gun, but you only have one bullet. So after you shoot, you have to go grab your bullet to reload and shoot again, which definitely adds a challenge to the game.

Battle Arena pits you against your friends or the AI bots to fight it out to the death in one of seven modes. For instance, you can play a traditional Last Man Standing, or you can play Hot Potato with a bomb. You can also play Predator, where only the predator can deal damage, so you must shoot him to become the predator. Rocket Man has you leading a rocket right toward your opponents. Maybe, instead, you would rather play Capture the Flag or run away from invincible chickens in Chicken Rain. Perhaps you would, instead, like to stun your friends and make cats explode in Cat Mania.

All these options above are available, but you can also create a custom matches with several modifiers. You can turn any of the following modes on or off based on your preference: ghosts, multi-bullets, speed-up, jetpacks, trampoline, and invisibility. Messing around with these options creates even more craziness for your next battle.

The game also features replays at the end of each round, which isn’t needed, but it does help when you win and want to rub it in your friend’s face. This especially comes in handy with the ability to capture video on the Switch, so you can also share that fantastic replay on your Twitter or Facebook profile for the world to see.

For those who prefer an adventure, there is also Horde, which allows you to either play by yourself or with one friend to face waves of minions sent by the Dreadful Judge. Basically, you just keep playing to see how long you can last. Up until the recent updates, this was pretty much the only mode you could enjoy when playing by yourself. It’s definitely challenging, but it got old fairly quickly, and I wanted to go back and play the other modes with friends.

Speaking of updates, the developers continue to support and improve the game. Here are a few examples from the version 2.0 update:

• You can now play all the competitive modes with or without your friends by enabling bots.
• There is a new Battle Arena option where players can vote for what mode comes next.
• Previously, if your friends die in co-op, it would end the match. Now, he or she will just turn into a ghost.

Guilt Battle Arena is very much a multiplayer-first game. If you have one or, better yet, three other friends, you are certainly going to have a great time for at least a few hours. If not, you will probably want to skip over this one. Still, at its full price of $9.99, it is hard to recommend. If it ever goes on sale, though, and you want to have a chaos-filled game night with friends, this game will definitely provide such an evening.

GAME: Guilt Battle Arena
MSRP: $9.99 US
RATING: E10+ for Everyone 10+
OBTAINED: Code provided by developers/publishers for press purposes

GAMEPLAY TRAILER:

Steve Cullum

Steve is the Senior Editor of NintendoFuse and co-host of the NintendoFuse Podcast. He’s been a Nintendo gamer since age 6 and has been on staff with NintendoFuse since 2008.