Challenge your friends to an insane game of cat and mouse involving a treat and some cute animals with guns at DepowerBall.
Mega Power Games is a new contender on the game development block with a lot of potential. Semi-founded in 2017 by Antonio Micelli in Toronto, Canada, after spending almost a decade developing prototypes at his local game jams, he wanted to go for a more professional route in development. The studio’s main claim was born from a love of retro mixed with old-school wrestling; after some more prototyping on Itch.io, Mega Power Games began work and eventually released DepowerBall on 21 August 2023.
DepowerBall is an interesting take on retro gaming with some themes taken from the all too popular Super Smash Bros, and leveraging quite heavily on wacky but fast-paced gameplay, this game has some potential that might have fallen flat due to server issues and zero single-player attractiveness. However, if you have a few friends nearby, DepowerBall can be a ton of fun while sparking some friendly competition.
The first thing to note about DepowerBall is that it’s a game you need to play with friends; unfortunately, this is easier said than done. Even though it says that you can play online through quick matchmaking, the servers seem to always be offline, regardless of the location you choose, rendering online play pointless. Fortunately, local is still an option if you’ve got more than one controller nearby, or you could run with the slightly less fun option, bots. However, going for the semi singleplayer option isn’t nearly as fun and you’ll always be outvoted by the bots.
Starting, you’ll need to choose your game mode and eventually, your character to battle it out in the interestingly built levels. DepowerBall has two game modes – DepowerBall and T.A.G. – DepowerBall is relatively straightforward, and the game’s namesake game mode, the objective is to grab treats and feed them to the Dragon Queen. Each treat you deliver to the Queen will net you a point, and the player with the most points at the 45-second mark wins the round. Winning in Powerball can become a little tedious as you’ll need to win 3 rounds.
T.A.G. is similar to the old Capture The Flag we all know and love, except you’ll need to capture and hold a golden treat. Each second you hold the treat will get you 20 points, and you’ll need to reach 400 points to win, though getting hit means you’ll lose the treat. You’ll need to bounce from platform to platform, stun or shoot other players, and steal the treat back. Then it’s just a matter of dodging and running for your life.
DepowerBall isn’t all running and grabbing treats, and it would be a little boring if that were all. This is where powers and weapons come in to brighten the day. After choosing a game mode and your character, you’ll be greeted by the Power Draft, where you’ll need to vote on several powers, namely – Aerial, Attack, Defense, and Movement. Each category only has 2 powers, but don’t let the lack of options fool you. Your first power, being Aerial, is a vote between Double Jump and Jetpack. Then, for Attack, you’ll get to choose between a Lazor for a rapid-fire weapon and the one-shot Rail Gun.
Then you’ll need to vote on a Defensive power between One Way Shield and Rico-Shield. Your shield, if used properly, can keep you in the lead and help you win rounds. The one-way shield is a permanent shield that can be activated to switch from back to front and vice versa. The Rico-Shield, on the other hand, will cover all your angles and reflect anything shot at you, but it comes with a short duration and a cooldown.
This brings us to the last power to vote on, movement, because your character moves painfully slow without the movement power, since they don’t have legs. You’ll have to vote between Blink and Speed. Blink is great because it’ll let you teleport short distances, while Speed is similar to a sprint burst.
Remember the downside of playing against bots? It’ll also come to bite you here because you’ll always be outvoted by the bots. However, you’ll never be outvoted on a level, at least with levels such as The Pit or the Kitchen and several others; each one brings an interesting twist through mobile platforms and even teleporters. Each level has its perks that you’ll need to leverage to win, though your competition can do the same, so you’ll need to think outside the box and be on your toes if you want victory.
Another fun twist that DepowerBall throws at you comes at the end of each round, and it comes in the form of another round of voting. You’ll get to vote off a power between Weapon, Movement, Defence, and Shield; however, the person who won the round doesn’t get to vote.
This does make things a bit fairer, but it’s also somewhat pointless, as the power getting voted off affects everybody in the match. Once the voting is done, it’s back to another round of chaos involving a treat and then, once again, more voting. You’ll eventually get to a point where there are no more powers, or someone will have won 3 rounds.
DepowerBall relies heavily on its simple but fun 2D design to better incorporate the wilder side of the actual gameplay, so while the game might look like a cartoon game of sorts, it’s a lot faster-paced as well. The character designs might be unique, but they’re also a little bland and can be easily overlooked; meanwhile, it looks like the levels have all the extra work and imagination. As a whole, though, the HUD doesn’t try to hide that it took a few notes from Super Smash Bros. It’s still quite different but might attract some unnecessary attention.
On the sound front for DepowerBall, retro gamers might feel a major sense of nostalgia with the 8-bit soundtrack and simple sounds during rounds. This does transition somewhat to more modern music in between rounds while still maintaining the 8-bit background music, though, which is a nice change of pace. Right from the start, you’ll be greeted with a very upbeat soundtrack that’ll get your blood flowing while hinting that DepowerBall is not for the slower players.
Overall, DepowerBall is a fun little PvP Platformer with nearly endless potential, but it still needs some extra flair to get it off the ground. It’ll be good for an occasional few hours between friends and maybe even some competitive play when the servers are up and running, but it might not stay at the top for as long as it can.
