{originally post 20th november 2023}
TLDR:
Rumble Arcade is an asynchronous pvp autobattler. Its graphics and animations are simplistic yet engaging.
A huge variety of tournaments and rumblers keeps it fresh.
Embodies "simple to learn hard to master".
Are you ready to rumble?
How to play
Currently open to all, however, some tournaments require discord connection/roles.
The game is playable in browser.
Whilst the team is quick to mention it isn’t optimized for mobile, I play it in Chrome on my mobile with no issues.
Game loop
Your first step is to pick your squad, 8 rumblers [the name of the fighters], from the total pool of rumblers, currently 15.
Each Rumbler has a variety of stats, health, damage per hit, attack cooldown, and special cooldown.
They then have a special ability, which could be an attack or buff or other.
Every rumbler also has an upgrade tree which is unlocked as you play.
Once your squad is selected you need to pick a tournament.
Each tournament has its own rule set, so it is important to consider these when building your squad.
You start with action points. These are spent on select rumblers from the randomized pool on offer.
Each rumbler costs 1 action point, however, if they are merged you can get 2+ tokens for the price of 1.
After spending your action points you place your rumblers on the board. It is important to position them carefully due to how the autobattling pathing works.
You are shown what enemy rumblers you will be facing, which can help with strategy.
At the end of the round, you will get points for the amount of damage you caused the enemy rumblers.
If you were defeated you still get these points but you lose a life.
The next round then refreshes your action points, to buy more Rumbler tokens.
Getting 3 of the same token allows for an upgrade.
As part of this upgrade, you can select an ability or increase for your rumbler. These are randomly selected from a set pool.
The battles are a mixture of set teams and teams created by other players, in an asynchronous pvp.
As you progress the levels get harder, and you continue until you are out of lives.
At the end, your points total is added to a leaderboard.
Game feel
It is very easy to get started playing, but if you want to place well you have to really engage your thinking cap.
The variety of Rumblers and the randomness of those offered during the game keep the game engaging and exciting.
It always gets me anxious waiting to see if I am going to get the correct token to be able to level up.
The sheer variety of tournaments and rule sets stop one meta ruling them all.
The tokens and animations are very simplistic, however, they are still very engaging and it is easy to get immersed in the battle.
The game “remembers” the play state, which means you don’t have to play a full tournament in one sitting. This makes it great to dip in and out of.
The asynchronous pvp allows some friendly competition regardless of your friends' timezone or availability.
I do think it could benefit from some more permanent stats, quests, and profiles to keep it a bit stickier, as currently everything is reset after each tournament run.
It could also benefit from a speed-up button, for those looking to rush through the early levels.
Rating
I don’t play daily but I do play pretty regularly.
Every time I return there seems to be an update to enjoy.
The constant leaderboards with varying game modes always add an extra layer to the game.
I would recommend it to anyone to play, and for anyone that has heard me on an X space, Rumble Arcade is almost my full personality.
Web3 integration
Currently, the game is fully web2 with no web3 integration.
However the studio, @playTriboGames has Flameys as a studio NFT.
Rumble Arcade often runs tournaments that give you the chance to win a Flamey.
The game is going to be on @BuildOnBeam by @MeritCircle_IO when the web3 integration goes live.
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