Just when you think tower-defense games have run out of new ideas, along comes Bish Bash Bots. This title will definitely appeal to fans of the genre with its engaging cooperative and single-player gameplay. With numerous regions to explore and bots to destroy, Bish Bash Bots shares a similar chaotic energy with popular Team17 games like Moving Out and Overcooked. However, it carves out its own identity with unique mechanics, ensuring it won’t disappoint players looking for something fresh.
The gameplay concept of Bish Bash Bots is straightforward: use your hammer to bash bots and upgrade your turrets to win. While this is the core of the game, there’s a wide selection of turrets, each with unique abilities suited to different environments. For example, the sniper turret is perfect for long-range attacks, while the Tesla turret slows down enemies with electricity.
Each region, from deserts to rainforests and volcanoes, presents its own challenges. In the desert, you’ll need to drink water to prevent dehydration, while in the rainforest, slimes appear that can either heal bots or disable your turrets.
As you play, bots will drop orange gears, which are essential for upgrading. You’ll collect more at the beginning of a level, but they become scarcer as you progress. Your objective is to charge the battery shown in the top corner to 100% and then hit the main base to complete the level. The enemy waves also vary, forcing you to carefully plan your turret placements to counter different types of bots.
To add more depth beyond simple bot-bashing, Bish Bash Bots offers a variety of special skills, with each of the four playable characters having unique perks. You can use a shield to repel enemies, plant an explosive mine, or create a cube that upgrades your turrets.
The characters are distinguished by color, and each has a specific advantage:
While this concept is well-executed and adds to the fun, some characters are more useful than others, which can feel imbalanced. The game also includes various cosmetic items, which you can unlock by completing challenges unique to each level. These challenges might include preventing any bots from entering the base, building only a specific type of turret, or throwing bots into a pit.
While the levels are interesting, the gameplay can sometimes be frustrating. Upgrading turrets by hitting them with your hammer takes a significant amount of time. Since turrets have five upgrade levels, you’ll rarely reach the final one because it’s usually more efficient to build more turrets than to spend so long upgrading a single one. Although some bots drop upgrade cubes, it can still feel tedious to spend eight minutes hammering a single turret.
Tactics are crucial in Bish Bash Bots. You need to carefully choose which turret to place and make the most of your environment. However, the game lacks an arrow or marker to show where bots are moving, which is a big issue on levels that change during gameplay. It’s frustrating when bot paths suddenly shift and you have no clear indication of where to go.
Another questionable design choice is the ability to hit other players. While this might be intended to encourage thoughtful play, a simple accidental hit can send a teammate flying ten feet away, which disrupts the flow of the game for no good reason.
While it’s possible to beat the game solo, there isn’t much difference in difficulty between single-player and multiplayer modes. The developers didn’t seem to balance the levels for solo players, often requiring you to manage multiple bot waves from different directions simultaneously.
For example, some levels force you to handle attacks from both the left and right while being slowed down by the environment, making it nearly impossible to keep up. Playing solo is much more demanding, often requiring you to restart levels until you memorize enemy spawn points.
In multiplayer, things are much easier since you don’t have to manage everything on your own. However, one of the most frustrating aspects of the game is the slow pace of combat. Turrets deal very little damage, and certain flying bots can only be destroyed by a specific turret type, leading to chaotic and frustrating moments if you aren’t prepared.
Bish Bash Bots is a game that keeps you on your toes with non-stop action, which is a big plus. The controls are well-designed for both PC and console, though the character movements can be a bit clumsy. This can sometimes lead to you accidentally falling into a pit instead of the bots. While you won’t be following a deep story, the game’s fresh approach comes from its unique and varied challenges and levels, each offering a distinct experience.
Review copy provided by the publisher
3.8
