The League of Metal Men

LAN parties are no longer very popular amongst gamers, mainly because everything requires an Internet connection nowadays, and the speeds are nice enough to allow high-quality voice communication at the same time. On the other hand, brawlers and fighting games such as Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat are still very enjoyable while sharing the same screen.

The League of Metal Men is a 2D brawler in which you can compete with three other friends for supremacy, while kicking and punching each other as much as possible. The characters are actually huge mechs, although you wouldn’t be able to tell from the looks of it. Naturally, everything is designed to appear simple and childish, but that doesn’t make the gameplay any less fun under the right circumstances.

The game has its fair share of problems as well, but given the fact that it is an indie production, it’s only natural to need some polishing. There are four characters to choose from, which is way too few for a game of this type. To make matters worse, only two levels are available, so that’s yet one more reason to be disappointed. More content would be a great way to improve the quality of the game in the long run.

Each mech has a few special moves you can use to deal damage, but they are far from impressive. Kicks, punches and specials almost look the same in a few cases, and it’s even hard to tell when a combo is achieved. You can also grow in size after collecting enough gear, and the second level unleashed a powerful move that can downright kill everyone on the map instantly.

The animations are in dire need of improvement as well, mainly because you cannot tell when your punch or kick has reached the opponent. It is possible to just look at everyone’s HP and figure it out that way, but the atmosphere also suffers when your kicks don’t have any visible effect on the target. Other than that, the actual graphics are pretty nice, as long as you do not mind the game’s simplicity.

All things considered, The League of Metal Men just doesn’t seem very complete as of right now, and there are many things that need to be fixed. However, with a bit of effort and dedication, the game has the potential to turn into something quite fun and entertaining.