Battleblock Theater Hands-On

Even at this stage in development BattleBlock Theater has a lot to offer; I did not get all of the time I desired (eternity would be nice) with this game because after I had my first go at all of the modes (available) The Behemoth's booth lost power. I feel like something this cooky is something that would only happen at their booth (and it did only happen at their booth).

Speaking of nutty things, the game's story is as nuts as the trailer makes it sound:


This is the official description of the game from The Behemoth's site:

Having shipwrecked on a mysterious island you find yourself both betrayed by your best friend Hatty and captured by the locals. All of this is happening while being forced into deadly performances. This however, is just the start of your problems.

All of forms that this game manifests itself in are mini-games. I did not get my hands on all of the modes that have been announced but here are the descriptions and what I thought of each one:

• There is a block painting mode where the player simply has to run over, touch, bump into blocks and turn them their teams color. Whichever team has the most blocks at the end of the round wins. I enjoyed this mode but in all three rounds played my team was decimated by the AI.
• The second mini-game is one in which you must collect golden coins from a golden whale and deposit them into a winged safe. My partner and I did exceptionally well in this mode but alas we did not finish because the booth lost power.
• The first mini-game mode that I played I did not understand until it was explained to me. You have to kill or get the other team killed by pushing them into hazards. This releases their soul (in the form of a balloon?!) which you then grab for points! You can hold onto that persons soul until they avenge themselves or you are killed by a hazard. This mode was bizarre and by the time I figured out what I was doing it was too late.

All of the stages have hazards in the form of: spikes, what looked like exhaust pipes that shot flames, water, crumbling blocks, etc. Each stage that I played was played in a 2 vs. 2 scenario (2 humans vs. 2 AI).

I was skeptical on this game before I got my hands on it and I am not yet 100 percent sold but this is The Behemoth we are talking about and I am sure they will get the benefit of the doubt when it comes to spending my 15 bucks (that it is likely to cost) later this year. Something about being pitted into "deadly performances" by cats sounds intriguing to me.