The elevator pitch for GigaBash is an enchanting one. It is a game that allows you to play as gigantic monsters and mighty heroes as they compete against each other in a variety of highly destructible environments. And Passion Republic Games has largely delivered on its promises, albeit with a few notable flaws. In its current state, however, GigaBash is truly a one-trick pony and lacks the depth and variety that many of its competitors offer.
GigaBash is an arena fighter along the lines of something like Power Stone, and your goal is to knock your opponent down with hard hitting attacks, eventually sending them flying miles away from the arena. Immediately on startup GigaBash, you will be greeted with a detailed tutorial that will take you through the basics of fighting as these giant monsters. The square and triangular buttons are used to unleash normal and special attacks, and holding them will unleash a stronger variant of these attacks. You can also perform variations of these attacks by pressing them in the air.
“GigaBash is an arena fighter along the lines of something like Power Stone, and your goal is to knock your opponent down with hard hitting attacks, eventually sending them flying miles away from the arena.“
The left trigger is used to block and parry moves and can be chained with the attack buttons to unleash defensive attacks. The right trigger performs a quick sprint, which can be coupled with attacks to charge towards an enemy. Last but not least, you can also grab your opponents with a press of the circle button and hit or throw them, or better yet, pick buildings and structures from the battlefield like a flower and crush your opponents with it.
While that may all sound overwhelming at first, it doesn’t take much to get the hang of it – and soon you’ll be stringing together heavy and light moves, dodging attacks, and intuitively following fast attacks. The combat system is great overall, but one major issue I had was the lack of a lock-on mechanic. I often found myself attacking into thin air when my opponent was only an arm’s reach away, as some characters and attacks can have very short ranges and attacks don’t magically connect to your opponents. This becomes even more of a problem when there are 3 or 4 fighters on screen and you need to target your attacks on a single enemy, but you end up clumsily hitting nothing like a joker.
Satisfying, GigaBash’s The number of characters is modest, but has enough variety to keep the fights interesting. Take, for example, Gorogong – an angry beast that excels at close quarters combat because it uses its heavy fists and bases to make short work of its opponents. This is very different from Pipijuras, a giant alien crab that uses its projectile beams to keep its opponents at bay. Then there’s Woolley, an adorable giant Yeti who can swallow opponents or engulf them in a rolling snowball and send them flying to the edge of an arena.
“GigaBash’s The number of characters is modest, but has enough variety to keep the fights interesting.“
There are only 10 characters to speak of (some of which need to be unlocked by playing) – which is a bit disappointing when competitors (like MultiVersus) contain dozens of different characters. Furthermore, they also lack the charm that, for example, Mario or Bugs Bunny do have. During my limited time with the game, I found the balance to be hit and miss – as some tactics work particularly well against some opponents that can and will be abused endlessly for cheap wins.
GigaBash features 2 main options for couch play: a free-to-play brawl mode that can have up to 4 players and a 2v2 team fight. If you deal damage to your opponents or destroy the environment during these battles, you get a special currency called GigaEnergy. Once that reaches a certain threshold, you can transform into an enlarged version of the character, the S-class Titan. While your moves and mobility options remain the same, your attacks will deal more damage and take less damage from opponents during this buffed period.
In addition, you can also grab a power-up that unleashes a devastating Ultimate Attack on your opponents. Therefore, you must balance your focus between inflicting damage on your opponents and collecting as much GigaEnergy as quickly as possible. Still, understanding when to transform and having some synergy between teammates is key to winning battles because that can easily turn the tide of battle in or against your favor. Overall, GigaBash strikes a good balance between skill and strategy while remaining accessible to newcomers to the genre.
“GigaBash strikes a good balance between skill and strategy while remaining accessible to newcomers to the genre.“
There are a lot of arenas where you can compete against your friends or the CPU and they range from an old tribal village to a generic training area to the center of a bustling metropolis. Some of these arenas have their own tricks, such as a river dividing the arena into two halves or a sandstorm that periodically erupts, obscuring your view of the arena and the enemy. Others are pretty standard in comparison, but the sheer destructibility of the environments makes them different every time you fight. For example, you can use the abundant buildings as cover at the start of a battle, but if the cover is destroyed you may need to get up close and personal with your opponents.
There’s also a Mayhem mode with a variety of minigames, but since it can only be played in couch co-op without the option to invite friends via online play – so I couldn’t experience what that mode has to offer. On the single player front, GigaBash features 4 short storylines around 4 of the characters in the roster. It’s not really engaging, but it’s a good way to get comfortable playing these characters, as you face different opponents who need different strategies to overcome.
With the exception of the story and Mayhem mode, Team Battle and Free-For-All can also be played online. In addition, you can also play an unranked 1v1 battle in the online mode. But in my dozen attempts to find a match over a period of about a week, both pre-launch and post-launch, I have yet to play an online match on the PS5. Hilarious enough, while writing this review, I’m even looking for an online match, to no avail.
“But in my dozen attempts to find a match over a period of about a week, both pre-launch and post-launch, I have yet to play an online match on the PS5.“
But even if you rule out the horrendous matchmaking experience, it’s hard to get past the fact that GigaBash is very light in content. You get XP for completing matches, but that only unlocks extras such as additional knowledge information or background music. Playing as a specific character also collects some Titan points, but that didn’t seem to have any significant effects on the actual playing experience. There are no battle passes or character upgrades to pursue or online ranking systems, or really anything that would keep you coming back for more.
In its current state, GigaBash is really something that would serve you well for a few hours as a good time with friends, but no more than that. Which is a shame, because the basics are a lot of fun, and with some big updates (both gameplay and content) and better online infrastructure – GigaBash has the potential to become something special.
This game has been reviewed on the PlayStation 5.
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