First Impressions: Super Treasure Arena

Super Treasure Arena
Developer: Vennril
Publisher: Headup Games

DISCLAIMER: This game is still in Early Access. All thoughts and opinions therein are related to the game during its development state. Features/content are subject to change and not a final representation of the game.

I am a huge sucker for four player local/online co-op games, I love them. From Towerfall, Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, Duck Game, and most recently Overcooked, these are all games that I have enjoyed immensely for many different reasons. From the distribution of tasks in Overcooked and Lovers, to the utter chaos in Duck game and Towerfall. These games all manage to bring a unique flavor and idea to the four player setting while drastically being different from each other.

For the most part, Super Treasure Arena has all the right ideas. Collect gold, kill your friends/npcs using a variety of weapons/classes. Whoever at the end of the round with the most gold wins. Sounds simple enough but that is where I find fault with the game. It is rather too simplistic, what you see is what you get, there is nothing really that separates this from the rest and makes it shine on its own. It's a chaos = fun equation that you see in these types of game.


That being said what currently is in the game is made rather well. You have five adorable pixel classes, two game modes, six levels with varied designs. The graphics are rather smooth and animations, explosions, effects all seem fluid and colorful. The UI is super simplistic and the game does feature controller support, although I found aiming a tad bit easier with my keyboard/mouse. Additionally the game does feature online support and local support which is no small and easy feature to include. (Multiplayer is scary to program)

Sadly, I didn't get to play any online matches as the community is still growing. The game does have Bots that you can use in the place of players. So I got a basic idea of how chaotic things can get. Of course that is the linchpin with these types of games, if you can't find a match or have four reliable friends to play with your not getting maximum enjoyment out of the game. Your mileage may vary and that is true with all games in the genre.



At the end of the day, I just want more out of this game. More classes, more game modes(CTF, Team matches, co-op, horde mode, etc), perhaps customization of our sprites, more weapons, you get the idea. The Steam page does make mention of more content in the future. What that content is and when it is released is yet to be seen. The core of the game is in place now it just needs to pull ahead and define itself.