Well I did NOT expect to be here, picking a Supercell game for Game of the Week. Don’t get me wrong, Supercell is a great company with a library of unimaginably popular games, and they do their particular brand of mobile games just about better than anyone out there. But I’ve just never been one of those people who got into a Supercell game. Clash of Clans, Clash Royale, Hay Day, Boom Beach… they just didn’t do it for me.
I did have some fun with Brawl Stars when that first came out, probably because it was a little more “actiony" than their other games and that’s more my style. Well, perhaps that’s what is speaking to me about Squad Busters, Supercell’s new game that just launched globally this week after getting quite the positive reception during its various soft launch phases. Is this the Supercell game that will finally stick with me, or am I just hung up in this honeymoon phase?
I can’t answer that, as I’ve only spent a very short amount of time with Squad Busters so far, but I can say a couple of things for certain. One is that Supercell is known for very aggressively testing and iterating a game for sometimes years before finally releasing it to the world, and as such their library of actually released games is somewhat small, but all the games they do end up releasing have always felt like they were at the top tier of polish and production values. Squad Busters absolutely fits that bill.
The second thing is that whatever the heck this blend of genres is called, it’s incredibly fun and makes for a really tight game loop. I guess Squad Busters is kind of MOBA-ish? Sort of, I don’t know, I’m not expert. Basically your goal is to roam around a map fighting enemies, destroying objects, and opening chests in order to collect various riches. Gems are the main thing you’ll need, as whoever has the most gems at the end of a round will be the winning team, and there’s other teams on the map alongside you who are all battling to collect treasures just as you are. There are also coins which allow you to open the chests around the map and thus add a new member to your squad.
Rounds are only a few minutes each, and for the first couple of those minutes you’re doing as I described above: Building up your squad and collecting resources. You’re also likely coming across other teams and trying to diminish their numbers a bit if you can. For the last minute of the round though, a giant mine in the middle of the map starts spewing out gems, and from that point it becomes something of a territory battle as your squad tries to collect as many of those gems as you can while preventing other squads from doing the same.
It’s frantic, strategic, and a whole lot of fun. There are loads of unit types, all with evolution paths as you level them up, and which units you have unlocked and who you add to your squad during games adds a key element of strategy to the mix. There’s also a bunch of modifier items that can spice up a round, and more things to unlock and upgrade in the game than you can shake a stick at. You know how these things go, yeah? So it’s hard at this point to tell how things will play out long term, as right now I’m still enamored with the bright lights and happy sounds of being an early player as new items and unlocks flow like wine.
Perhaps that all changes down the road. Even if that’s the case, though, Squad Busters is well worth giving some time to as I think it’s an incredibly clever blend of genres that works super well on mobile. There’s also seemingly a huge player base already as I haven’t had any trouble finding matches in just a few seconds, and it’s fun to go up against teams that you can tell have formulated some good strategies or built up some impressive squads. For free, even if it doesn’t end up being something that sticks around long term, Squad Busters has provided me with plenty of entertainment so far and hopefully this is one that will continue being entertaining for some time to come.
