Game Review: Awesomenauts

Awesomenauts is a side-scrolling, multiplayer brawler that mishandles its genre. Instead of a quick blast of action, it’s an excruciatingly slow slog. Matches are three vs three, with six character classes to choose from, and artificial intelligence providing cannon-fodder grunts. Humans and AI on each side attack the opponent’s turrets, slowly wearing them down before charging forward to hack away at the enemy’s “drillcore” to win the match. In the same way Battlefield puts you in the middle of an overwhelming fire-fight with tanks exploding around you, Awesomenauts puts you in the middle of a Tower Defense game with dumpy robots bumping up against turrets. Ronimo have created an interesting take on multiplayer deathmatches, but a tedious one.

The premise -- mercenaries and robots playing tower defense for control of mineral resources -- is dry and somewhat at odds with the ‘80s kids’ cartoon theme, and schlocky electronic music full of bright synthesisers, electronic drums, and distorted guitars.