Super Dungeon Bros

What do you get when you combine a love of killing monsters, rock-n-roll, and the sort of camaraderie only a four-player co-op play extravaganza can inspire? You get Super Dungeon Bros, an Xbox One, Windows 10, and PS4 indie bro-op isometric dungeon crawler by Wired Productions.

It’s easy to see the type of game you’re getting into from the character selection screen: you pick one of four different character archetypes, but they’re not divided by class – rather, they’re separated by personalities and named after one of four different rock legends (Axl, Ozzie, Freddie, and Lars). Who you pick affects the way your character interacts when communicating with the others on the field. After choosing your bro, you pick your weapon. Weapons also fall into four classes: swords, bows, hammers, and wands.

The instrument of destruction you choose (which will more than likely have a music pun for a name) has a drastic effect on how you play the game. Have you and up to three of your bestest bros got your characters and gear ready? Good, because now it’s time to get down to business – thrashing through hordes of the undead in the realm of Rokheim. The dungeons are procedurally generated, so you’ll never quite know what to expect: pendulous swinging axes of doom, swarms of Bonie foes, shifting platforms with tricky jumps… that’s just a taster of what these dark realms have in store. Knowing your weapon is key, since each weapon type is distinctly different in terms of range and moves available.

This isn’t every man for himself, either – since lives are shared as a group, you’ll need to team up whenever possible. Skills like Bro Stacking and the Bro Throw help your crew reach difficult areas and secure maximum loot-collecting potential. When the going gets really rough, a flick of the left trigger activates your limiteduse Bro Move. Bro Moves vary by weapon and power up substantially by getting your other bros to join in. Beating up wimpy enemies for loot gets old after a while, but Super Dungeon Bros ups the ante with some seriously metal, big bad bosses. These guys are no one hit wonders: they’re resilient, they have unique weaknesses, and they’ll thrash you up hard with devastating attacks if you aren’t on your toes.

In our demo session, we fought a fearsome ghost boss named Duke Spookem, who had an absolutely ferocious AOE attack that rained damage all over the field. In order to take him down, we had to work as a team to climb up to higher platforms on the side, where we could wail on his weak points. Of course, a game like this isn’t meant to be a solo act. If you can’t buddy up with other bros locally, you have the option of doing so online. You won’t be restricted by platform, either – Super Dungeon Bros offers cross-platform adventuring. Xbox One players will have the opportunity to rock out with their PC pals, while PC owners can also go on tour with the PS4 crew.

Super Dungeon Bros is shaping up nicely – it’s funny, it’s colorful, it’s accessible, and it’s a great time with a full band to play with. Look forward to becoming a legend of rock later this year.