Squad Busters mixes all of Supercell‘s universe into one fun PvP party game. If you’re a fan of any of the Clash games, Brawl Stars, or even Hay Day, chances are you’ll find familiar faces in Squad Busters. How it fares compared to the contemporary mobile games or Supercell’s games, we’ll dive deep into that in this Squad Busters review.
Squad Busters received 40 million pre-registrations which is probably one of the biggest (if not the biggest) pre-registrations number for a mobile game. The community that Supercell nurtures showed its loyalty during the pre-registration phase, but why am I even talking about that in this Squad Busters review? I think it’s important to know the background and expectations and cross-check that with the actual delivery.
The Launch Crisis
Squad Busters launched on mobile with a bang. Supercell invested a hefty amount to create a fun commercial with Chris Hemsworth, Ken Jeong, Auli’i Cravalho, etc, and delivered an amazing launch. It turned out to be one of the biggest launches for the company, but at the same time, it became the worst launch for the community.
Plenty of bugs, server disconnections, lag issues, heavy pay-to-win mechanics, and more. It became the worst game for the community with the lowest-ever ratings on Google Play and App Store from Supercell for a short time. For the store ratings part, Squad Busters has recovered already. The pay-to-win mechanisms are partially tackled but it is still far from an experience that the community expects from Supercell.
Squad Busters has a fun core gameplay loop
In Squad Busters, you’re matched with 9 other players on an arena-type map for a 4-minute match. The main objective is to collect gems as well as to survive against the other players and NPCs. Based on the number of gems collected, the results are shown at the end of the match. However, more game modes are being introduced with new updates. But the core experience remains pretty much the same.
This core gameplay for Squad Busters is very fun. But that being said, there are plenty of problems. Technical issues such as game freezing, being stuck on the loading screen, stuck inside an area from where you can’t get out are some of the common problems players often face, on top of the frequent network issues. While Supercell is trying its best, the technicalities remain a challenge for the community.
Squad Busters’ great character selection is commendable. The game picks some of the favorite characters from different Supercell games. This makes the players relate to the game even though it is a brand-new game. Imagine playing Hay Day and then playing with Greg and Chieckn in Squad Busters. yes, the experience on this part is really fun!
The short matches are perfect for quicker play sessions. It has been a formula for Supercell for a long time now. The short matches are one of the major driving factors for high engagement in games like Clash Royale, Brawl Stars, etc where you just open the game and enter a match right away without wasting much time.
Squad Busters falls short of content
Another thing worth mentioning in this Squad Busters review is the battle mods, which are more like game modes. The game currently offers over 25 battle mods divided into different words such as Green World, Desert World, Beach World, etc.
Even though the number of battle mods is plenty, the game does not differ much. It is the same thing you need to play over and over. And even with the newly introduced game modes, the offering does not change much.
From my experience, I can already feel that. I used to play 4+ hours every day for the first month when the game soft launched. However, the experience has faded away over the last month due to a lack of content. I have noticed the same sentiments in the overall Squad Busters community and among my friends. The game has become a chore rather than a fun experience.
Social features are missing
Clans, Alliances, and Clubs are a big part of Supercell’s games. For a game like Squad Busters, it’s a must. I am pretty sure this feature is on Supercell’s to-do list but at the time of writing this review, Squad Busters does not have any clan or similar feature. I feel this should have been present from the global launch day.
There is still no in-game chat option in Squad Busters. There is a party option where you can team up with players. But the irony is, it’s of no use except for the duo mode. I mean, what’s the use of being in a party where you can still kill each other? There’s no party chat either, except for some emojis.
The game brings back the Pinata Festival every week, a quick event where you need to form a team of five members to work towards collecting Pinata sticks from the matches. Now how do you recruit people for your event if there’s no chat? Players are forced to go to third-party communities such as Reddit, Discord, Facebook groups, etc for that and spam their links. This can be a very good event for clans but for individuals, this is a headache.
Is Squad Busters a pay-to-win game
Squad Busters was heavily pay-to-win at the launch. But since its June 2024 update, the game has stabilized more toward a better free-to-play experience. I understand making money is important to sustain the business, but it should not come at the cost where the experience becomes worse.
In Squad Busters, you can refresh the shop as many times as you want to buy out all the characters and max your account if you’re willing to spend money. This is similar to Clash Royale except that you a get a chest in Clash Royale.
One thing that is new this time, the game only features one single currency – Gold. You can earn gold just by playing regularly, however, it is not enough to buy characters from the shop regularly. So whales or heavy spenders would get a significant advantage if they want to max the account overnight!
Star Chests are another headache for low-spenders where it is very hard to accumulate the 500 Star Tokens, giving the money spenders a significant advantage to upgrade their roster.
Final Verdict
After waiting to write this Squad Busters review many months after the game’s launch, I could say that the game still has potential. However, the problem is with the state of the game and the time it requires to implement the highly requested community features to improve the quality of life. Supercell of course knows the business, possibly one of the best in the mobile games industry, still Squad Busters is falling short of maintaining a healthy player base and community engagement.
As a game for a quick session, or for a very casual player, you may find Squad Busters a decent choice. But if you want to invest your time regularly and make this one of your main go-to mobile games, I’d say Squad Busters is not quite there yet.
Gameplay Mechanics – 9
Character and Environment Design – 9
Graphics and Music – 9
Controls and UI – 9
Replayablity – 5
Free-to-Play Elements – 7
8
Good
Squad Busters is a fun PvP game with a great core gameplay loop for casual players. While it has the potential to replicate Brawl Stars’ success, Squad Busters has a long road to go!
That’s all from us for the Squad Busters Review! Did you find our Squad Busters Review helpful? Let us know in the comments below!
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