Bell Ringer Review

Ever since Smash Brothers we tasted great arena brawler action. Over time we have had many clones and many sequels to Super Smash Brothers as possible. A good game usually keeps to the format and keeps things familiar and close to home, while adding their own terms to the style they portray. Bell Ringer is one of those kind of games where it plays it quite safe. Too safe? We were given a stack of codes by Night Node Software to have a chance to sit down and play this brawler. While listening to Rock of Ages on loop.

The setting is quite simple. You are one of five fighters all having their own play styles. We all played with gamepads as it was preferred. It is sort of like how with the Wii U Smash Brothers you MUST play with the gamecube controller. It just feels so much better that way. The game does not really play out too much detail other then you have five characters to tackle around with. Which is not a big deal, gameplay is key here after all for a beat-em-up kind of game. After a few hours of gameplay the game left some positive impressions across our minds. Controls are tight and worked as we seen fit, aside from a few of “dude you cheated!” remarks. Which was still pretty funny to hear. Still feeling wholesome like a old glove. Though the more we track back the games history in development. Seemingly they were originally going to make a Diablo like game? With a inventory system and the whole lot. Which confused me. I mean the final outcome is pretty enjoyable. Still I ponder what if. The strong what if they went through with the whole Diablo like platformer. Maybe just toying around with the engine before settling with a simple to pick up and play game like this. The game is fun, but with some draw backs. What kind of draw backs? Well it only sticks to a peer to peer style of match making. Where there is not a server based server for the game to brace off of. So that means you need to know of others who play it or make some new friends to branch out a game of others to kick around with. Which sure I can get the idea of how Smash Brothers was originally. I did not see a online mode for that game via Nintendo 64 period. You had to have some friends on the couch with you or you are playing with yourself. With this game there is no playing with yourself however. Meaning you must have another to play with. Or you are sitting alone. In a menu over looking five characters.  So it is minatory to know of others or you are not going to be playing anything.

Graphically the game is using a sexy unreal 4 engine coat of paint. It offers a charming array of chibi like characters. Which were the right size on the screen along with all of the action.  Animations and the lot were pretty flashy and good.

In Closing:

Bell Ringer is a charming little gem. Offering what the genre it represents proudly. Its lack of dedicated servers for players to randomly pair up and play. Instead has a old school emulated lan server for players to batch up and toss knuckles around. The game itself is plenty fun. If you do not mind taking the extra time pairing up a game with others via forums or some sort of community out there some where then this is a pretty solid Smash Brothers style clone. The idea that plagues me about its previous seeming development still haunts me but is dismissed. I can say this much about the game it is a pleasure to play. If you are willing to over look the work to get it up and running, give it a go!

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