Title: Lethal League Blaze
Platform: Nintendo Switch eShop
Developer: Team Reptile
Publisher: Team Reptile
Release Date: July 12th, 2019 (NA)
File Size: 631MB
Review copy provided by Team Reptile
Here’s something with style and grace that features a yellow guy with a funny face! This is a cel-shaded “fighting” game that’s very much inspired by the Dreamcast. The team even got former Sega composer Hideki Naganuma on board to contribute a single track; Ain’t Nothing Like A Funky Beat! This is certainly a unique game. Let’s take a look shall we?
The main menu.
Lethal League Blaze is not exactly a fighting game. It’s competitive of course, but the more precise way to call it is a good old game of dodge ball. Literally, the only way to hit your opponent is with the ball. How it works is that you hit the ball, and you just have to whack your foe with it. That’s really it. But it’s not that simple exactly.
A look at a cutscene in the game, these are all still images.
To elaborate, the game is a 2.5D game that takes place in arenas where you and your opponent have to again hit each other by hitting this one ball back and forth and hope the opposing player gets hit. You hit with the Y button, and the neat thing is, is that the ball moves faster the more you hit it. The bars and number on the bottom of the screen increases as you hit the ball more so you get a better idea of the intensity.
A battle in the game.
After a couple of smacks, the ball will eventually be lightning fast. The faster it moves, the more damage the ball will inflict on the opponent. Sometimes a sort of ball will appear on the ceiling of the arena, and the one who sends the ball to it will get a bonus. These are special power-ups that allow the regular ball to be used in new ways for a limited time. Examples include a remote control ball, or you can do a fast diagonal rain of the ball in a portal-like fashion that’s hard to dodge (it pops back to the top after hitting the bottom repeatedly), that sort of thing.
Hitting a power-up ball.
There’s a story mode where it plays out in singular matches. Most of the time there’s two characters, naturally, but the funny thing is, is that you have to play as both characters in separate matches to complete the stage. You’ll receive a check-mark on the story’s stage icon to show this. Sometimes you’ll be placed in a sort of mini-game. Example is one where you play as the handy Candyman in a target hitting match. This is more comparable with air hockey. Just hit the opponents target that’s behind them enough times to win.
He thought you were calling for the Candyman!
Visually it’s quite good. It’s not pushing the hardware to its limits, but it’s got a crazy style to it. It’s deliberately taking cues from Jet Set Radio with the visuals and it pays off. It runs in a mostly smooth 60fps in docked mode from what I can tell. However it drops to a mostly 30fps in portable mode. Resolution seems a tad low and jagged. I couldn’t tell you what it is. Though it’s evidently sub-native 720p in portable mode judging by screens I took to compare the two modes. Apparently all console ports were handled by one person each (it originated on PC), so it’s not a huge deal. Hopefully they patch in any fixes they can after getting more time with the game. They are adding a 1-vs-1 queue function online on Switch so they are doing some fixes.
One of the mini-game challenges.
Audio-wise is VERY cool. Even though Hideki Naganuma only did one track (it’s played in the credits BTW), the other artists (and there’s a lot of them) contributed their own tracks. I really dig the menu theme myself as well. Speaking of. You can earn sparks as currency in the game for winning or losing matches. These can be used to buy things such as more music tracks that play in the menu, as well as new characters and costumes, etc. Some things will need to be unlocked first before you can buy them however.
Say hi to Team Reptile! You can freely check out the credits in the main menu!
Overall I had fun with the game. It’s pretty cheap at only $20 USD/$25.19 CDN. There’s also an online mode so folks will get a lot of mileage I’d imagine from that. I gave the online multiplayer a couple of tests, and I’m happy to report that it ran flawlessly! The wait to find an opponent was pretty minimal, and matches ran without a hitch. I legit was very surprised! Hell the game seems more built for an online competitive community (eSports?). So if you’re into that sort of thing, you may really enjoy this. As far as the game itself goes, it’s quite fun and extremely stylish. Very enjoyable character designs and they all have English voices (well, unless they’re not supposed to like a robot you fight). Definitely recommended.
You’ll Love:
+ It’s got a cool visual style. It’s like a modern Dreamcast game. It also runs at a mostly smooth 60fps in docked mode.
+ The gameplay is fun with the back and forth mechanic. It’s super satisfying to hit the ball when it’s blazing fast, only to make it go even faster. It’s insane.
+ Character designs are very cool. Personal highlights are of course the Candyman and Alligator/Crocodile named Latch, but they all look awesome! They’re also all voiced in English (if at all) during gameplay.
+ VERY funky soundtrack with different artists contributing, including ex-Sega mastermind Hideki Naganuma of Jet Set Radio and Sonic Rush fame.
+ Online multiplayer ran flawlessly, was VERY surprised by that.
+ Has screenshot and video capture support.
You’ll Hate:
– The game drops to 30fps more or less in portable mode. It’s also a bit jagged no matter which mode you’re in. Hard to say what resolution it’s at, but seemingly not native in either mode.
– The game may take adjusting to, especially with trying to actually hit the ball when it’s super fast. Kind of feels a bit like luck at that point.
– There’s no voice-acting during the cutscenes, and all cutscenes seem to be just in still images.
Score: 8/10
