Byte Breakers is a Super Smash Brothers-inspired battle royale game where the goal is to be the last one standing amongst 40 other players. By using various items, gear, and maneuvering around a huge map, players can be one step ahead of the competition as the map gets smaller and smaller. It’s early in development and the game might not even ship depending on how current and future playtests are received. Byte Breakers has such potential and I am hopeful for this creative concept after playing a few rounds. A mash-up of Super Smash Brothers and Fortnite though, can this idea catch on?
Standing Out Above its Predecessors
From the art style to the uniqueness of gameplay, the game feels like a callback to Super Smash Brothers on the Nintendo 3DS. In a similar fashion to “Smash Run” where the whole goal sees the player runs around a map collecting power-ups to use in one big final battle, Byte Breakers extends its formula. How both games relate is by running around a huge map and picking up power-ups and items to get stronger. Where they differ is their goals. Byte Breakers focuses on potential encounters with other players and situations, whereas Smash Run focuses on a big final battle after the time limit is up with varying conditions.
What Smash Run does better than Byte Breakers is found in its variety of items, but Byte Breakers has a better utility over said items. For example, Smash Run has the Super Scope which can be used rapidly yet has an ammo limit. Whereas Byte Breakers has a glove item that fires projectiles as well, but has unlimited ammo and gets stronger the further the bullet goes. I like the variety of items but wish there were more of them. One of them, like the giant snowball, slows and damages players within a radius, felt underwhelming to use considering it is one of the rarer items. Also, the shock grenade that blows everyone away a certain distance is a rarity. Both feel like they can use more power to make them a viable option. However, choosing certain characters, like Juliette, and combining their playstyle with items like money armor and coin stack gloves grants a huge bump in damage, ending fights very fast.
Instead of there being four to eight players, there are 40 fighting it out for victory. When I first realized there would be 40, I thought it was the perfect number and still do after playing., If there were 60 or even 100 characters on the screen some players’ computers could be struggling. Not that it’s graphically hefty or requires a beefy PC to play, but having multiple players can be laggy, especially for a game so early in development. Plus having 40 players is perfect for the current map as there are enough kinetic elements to attend to before trying to actively engage with players.
What I also enjoy about the game is the variety of playstyles a player can have. There are seven characters currently and each of them are very distinct from one another. My favorite and most played was Juliette. She is fast and nimble in the air and on ground making her incredibly dangerous but has heft compared to the glass cannon Aimi. Luna was one who I encountered a decent number of times during the playtest. She utilizes gadgets with a focus on spacing out with projectiles. She has a lot of good counters for the speedy Aimi and Juliette as those characters are very melee focused.
Matchmaker Make me a Match
In the playtest we only got to check out the duos matchmaking. I would assume there will be squads and trios when and if the game is released. There is also an offline mode where players can practice their abilities and skills in a map that houses all the elements in the game such as healing and damaging items, armor, and environmental mechanics.
The map was huge at first, but after growing familiar with the terrain, I could go across it in no time. I love the duos mode but what I really want is a solo mode, having an epic 1v1 battle once all the 38 players are gone, the stakes are raised and can be made higher by various aspects like location. I would like to see more party game modes like a prop hunt mode, a capture the flag style mode (I.E the original gameplay pitch for PlayStation All-stars Battle Royale fun fact!), and king of the hill.
Left up to the Players
Overall, Byte Breakers is a promising game with loads of mechanics and unique gameplay that will hold a lot of players’ attention. What I loved most about the game was the concept. I am a huge Super Smash Brothers fan, and I enjoyed Smash 3DS’s Smash Run a lot, which this feels like a spiritual successor to in a way. I feel like I am getting more from a concept that can be developed further. Despite the low amount of characters, I love the designs, each of them felt unique and distinct to where there was no feeling of reused moves or clone character traits. An area that needs improvement has got to be with some of the items. We’ll have to wait and see the future of Byte Breakers but for the time being, I am very excited to see what comes next from Odyssey Interactive.
