Beastieball merges the monster-taming and sports video game genres, resulting in a fresh, original game that stands apart from the rest. Teambuilding is absolutely essential, and the story is charming and makes sense for a world with quirky creatures that really like volleyball. It takes full advantage of its fun and unique premise to create an inventive battle system centered around popular 2v2 battles.
After creating your player character, you start the game in the Wildlife Preserve near your hometown with your childhood friend, Riley. You decide to play a game of Beastieball together, finding some eager Beasties to join you. You pick your starter and play a fun and short tutorial that introduces you to the game’s mechanics and world. After the tutorial battle and timeskip, Beastieball doesn’t waste time setting up the main plot: construction workers come to your hometown to build a new Beastieball Stadium in the Wildlife Preserve.
You and Riley work together to join the Beastieball League so you can gain the recognition and clout necessary to stop them. Your goal in Beastieball matters. You become a coach to protect the Wildlife Preserve; you aren’t just going for a fancy title. Beastieball also adds another interesting layer by presenting the sport as a popular, but now fading, trend. Your battles with other coaches often involve bringing that spark and joy back to the game, giving the fans a reason to care about the sport again, and getting the league to notice you. And it’s through its fun and inventive sports game system that Beastieball really shines.
In Beastieball, you play a modified version of volleyball. Two Beasties are out on the field at a time, while your remaining three are in reserve. You have the familiar volleyball plays: sets, digs, and blocks. But your Beasties can also learn a variety of moves that can apply buffs and debuffs, or reposition your Beastie. Beasties have four moves they can make in matches, which you can swap out freely, making it incredibly convenient to try new ones or adjust your strategy for individual battles. In addition, your Beasties can teach each other new moves, so you’re encouraged to rotate them so they can play with different team members and learn new skills.
These gameplay features are much appreciated and reinforce Beastieball’s emphasis on teamwork and the evolving tactics necessary in any sport. Your Beastie’s personality traits and their relationships actively change up battles in interesting ways. Each of your Beasties can become Rivals, Besties, Partners, or even Sweethearts, and these relationships dictate the combo moves they can have with each other. These powerful combos range from offensive attacks to defense boosts, and even group healing. The randomization adds a ton of replayability to the game, as each run will inevitably be different based on these factors. It’s a joy to try new combinations and see how your Beasties will get along.
Beasties love a good game of volleyball, and they want to play all the time, either in the wild or with their coaches. Your team follows along behind you as you travel, and if you throw a volleyball to your Beasties, they’ll pass it back and forth to each other (it’s very cute). In-universe, Beastieball matches are treated as the sports events they are, and they emphasize the importance of teambuilding. To assemble your team, you can recruit Beasties by fulfilling certain battle conditions, such as reaching a certain damage threshold or applying multiple buffs. Once the battle ends, you can recruit a Beastie by giving it a jersey. Depending on their level, you’ll need certain jerseys to bring them on board.
There are a couple of ways to earn points in a Beastieball game; you can score a point by shooting the ball on an open grid or reducing an opponent Beastie’s HP. Despite having a couple of options for earning points, battles in Beastieball are not easy. It isn’t about how hard you can hit your opponents. What makes teambuilding in Beastieball most effective is finding synergy in your Beasties and building your team around their skills and abilities.
Whether you want to build your team around a tank to divert and absorb incoming plays, or boost your team with a Rhythm field for increased damage and healing, Beastieball is designed so that every Beastie, and any approach, is viable. My primary strategy involved blocking opponents so I could whittle down their HP with my Vultoxin’s passive ability and Nettle move. If I encountered Beasties immune to that strategy, my backup plan revolved around Illugus applying multiple field effects and Bandicraft providing team member buffs. I was invested in every match in Beastieball because of how rewarding it feels to win a particularly tough game with the team I put together.
Pokémon’s popularity means that any game in the monster-taming genre, including Beastieball, will be compared to the franchise behemoth. It’s an unfortunate inevitability. Nintendo and GameFreak have monopolized the genre, and yet they have done little to innovate or enhance the genre in recent years. Pokémon is ubiquitous for monster-taming games, and yet, the formula has become stale and thoroughly run into the ground. Nintendo’s complacency, though, has left the door open for new experiences and innovation. Much of Beastieball takes familiar concepts from Pokémon and reimagines them into something far better.
Beastieball proves there is space for the genre to be different and unique, making it the Pokémon game I’ve wanted for years. It has everything I loved about the early Pokémon games while bringing something new and innovative to the table. The genre has room to be so much more than just cheap imitations or nostalgia traps. The genre is more than just the “Pokémon experience.” Beastieball cleverly innovates on the formula that inspired it, resulting in a genuinely delightful, unique, and enjoyable game. The story is interesting, the worldbuilding is thoughtful, and the game’s mechanics are an absolute blast to play. I can’t recommend it enough.
Beastieball is currently in Early Access and available on Windows PC and MacOS via Steam.
The Mhelting Pot 