Super Dungeon Bros (PlayStation 4) Review

Super Dungeon Bros allows you and up to three friends to battle it out across three distinct offline dungeons. Well, they're not distinct in that they look different. In fact, most of the dungeon layouts look remarkably similar, at least across multiple floors. There's a feeling of procedural generation to the makeup, but every floor generally has a similar layout. Sometimes, two floors can be almost identical.

Combat is handled through use of the R1 button for strong attacks, and R2 for light attacks. This all works well enough, and with a special move thrown onto Triangle, there's a decent amount of options for when the hordes come. They come in heavy also, as sometimes the players may find themselves surrounded by 10 or 15 enemies at a time.

Hanging around an area for a while builds a threat gauge, as does other activities. Jumping, for instance, builds it up, and it's clear in the world of Super Dungeon Bros that a lot can be seen as a threat. As this meter increases, new waves of enemies befall the hero. This, of course, is supposed to give the player a sense of urgency, not that any area has enough stuff in it to make them feel like hanging around. It would also probably be most effective if enemies weren't so poorly balanced.

After the first 10 minutes in a dungeon, enemies seem to just get a lot easier. Of course, they can still surround the hero and beat them to death with their bare hands, but most enemies fall in a single blow. With three different dungeons, this might stave off your hunger for a challenge for a little while, but in general it feels like the player is too strong too early. It's annoying that enemies are basically just fodder for the sword, or hammer, or whatever weapon the hero has. None are remarkable, and come out like popcorn, ready to drown the protagonist in defeat. When the player does finally become overwhelmed and dies, it feels cheap, like they would've survived if they had companions or just ran away.

Super Dungeon Bros has a sense of humour, but not a very broad one. The jokes are all about bro culture, whatever that means, and listening to the dialogue runs thin very quickly. Commands can be given to team mates, and all of these are written as humorous little bits of dialogue that grow tiresome before the first floor is over.

In the interest of full disclosure, no online gaming was played for this review. There's just no online community, or at least not enough of one to get a match together in any reasonable time. This is not to fault the game too heavily, as obviously there's not a lot the developer can do to get people to play online. It does point out a heavy truth about Super Dungeon Bros that can't be ignored, though.

The single-player experience here is very boring. Between dying suddenly for no real reason that can be guessed, to feeling like every enemy is made of half melted butter, there's not a lot to enjoy in the basic experience. With a group of friends, or perhaps even online, this is a slightly better experience overall.

Now, there's a degree of so called "dumb" fun to be had here, but nothing that feels meaningful after it's over. As a multiplayer game, there's enough here to make for a decent party experience, but even then, it feels more like it's trolling the group. Sure, it's funny that you can toss a fellow explorer to their doom, but is that why everyone came over? To be laughed at? Playing with friends just leaves the watered-down experience in the hands of more people at once, and doesn't make the ordeal that much more enjoyable.

Mix this rather dull gameplay with an impressively barebones levelling system, and generic daily challenges, and the player is likely to feel more than a little underwhelmed. That's really what Super Dungeon Bros is when the day comes to an end. It's an underwhelming experience that will stave off any dungeon crawler cravings just long enough to remember they're there.