Beastieball Early Access Review: Nothing But Aces
Which starter would you choose?
Beastieball is the newest game from developer Wishes Unlimited, the creators of Chicory: A Colorful Tale and Wandersong. This game puts the player in the position of a coach, guiding a team of creatures to victory in games of volleyball against other creatures. It diverts from the typical creature-collector in that the creatures are not battling each other directly, but engaging in a friendly, if still competitive, game. Beastieball releases in early access today on Steam, but despite that “Early Access” categorization players can still experience the full story.
Early Access on Steam means that the game is released in an “unfinished” state, but this is typically in the hopes of receiving critical player feedback for the eventual complete release. This has become a common development tool for video games in recent years. Perhaps one of the best examples is last year’s Baldur’s Gate 3, which spent nearly three years in early access. For Beastieball, being in early access means that some sprites will be missing animations until future updates, but the developers can receive valuable feedback about how to improve the game from a much larger playerbase. Also worth noting, the review version of the game that I was playing may not be completely representative of the public release available today.
Personally, I enjoyed getting a glimpse at the gradual process of improving sprites and animations for the game, but I completely understand why this could be an annoyance for other players. Aside from a few missing pieces, Beastieball’s art style is a major highlight of the experience. The character and beastie designs are excellent, the colorful overworld is simple but effective, and the mixing of 2D sprites in a 3D environment is incredibly charming. This game is so fun that when an unfinished sprite came up, it was barely noticeable.
Exploring the overworld involves light platforming challenges, puzzles, and hidden rewards.
Creature-collector is far from a new type of game, in fact, it’s a genre that I would imagine many people are familiar with thanks to games like Pokémon and Palworld. Thankfully, Beastieball revels in taking a different approach. While Pokémon has creatures duking it out until they fall unconscious, and Palworld has famously been referred to as “Pokémon with guns”, the beasties of Beastieball never engage directly in combat. This refreshing change of pace makes this a highlight within the genre, but also an excellent non-violent game in a world full of violent games.
Before a ranked match you have the option to prepare for the game with your team in the locker room.
The subtle ways in which Beastieball treats its creatures are a huge part of why I find the game so charming. Beasties are recruited, not captured. Recruitment varies from beastie to beastie, but the overall idea is that the player needs to impress wild beasties with their skill as a coach before they are ready to join the team. This forces the player to take a more tactical approach to each new encounter and I would often find myself searching through my existing team's plays to find the right move that will help me win over a wild beastie.
Once a beastie does join your team, it is not completely tied to you. A player’s active team of five will follow them around, but any other beastie that is put on reserve will return to their natural habitat. You can actually encounter them in the wild and engage in practice battles. Reserved beasties will live in the wild until called upon to join the active team again. This feels far better than storing them in a box in a computer for any amount of time.
An example of how beasties vary in size and color, though variances can get much more drastic than this.
I could go on for many many more paragraphs about how much love and care went into this game. Beasties are incredibly unique on an individual level, varying in size and color to make every beastie unique even among its own species. Teammates can learn plays from each other and form relationships including rivalries and partnerships that unlock devastating combo plays. And in true sports fashion, beastie stats are divided among three archetypes: Mind, Body, and Spirit. But those are all great things that will be worth exploring on your own. Before I get too long-winded, I do want to talk about the actual gameplay.
I wasn’t sure where to add this, but the lore of Beastieball is that the ball is a fungus that releases spores when hit, so playing beastieball helps the fungus spread to new areas. It sounds so fantastical, but nature has cooked up all kinds of crazy stuff.
Beastieball plays a lot like volleyball. Two beasties play on either side of the net. Each beastie has three plays that can vary from moves used to send the ball to the other side and deplete the opponent’s stamina, to defensive plays used when receiving the ball, and support moves that provide temporary buffs and other effects. Each side of the net is also divided into four quadrants. Receiving a ball in the back half of the court reduces the amount of stamina lost, but spiking a ball from the front row increases the amount of stamina lost by the opponents. If a receiving beastie’s stamina is reduced to zero or the ball hits the ground, that’s one point for the opposing team.
Most plays will target vertically, but a select few can target horizontally to catch the opponent off guard, scoring easy points if they don’t cover their side of the net.
Initially, I wasn’t too sure how complex this volleyball-like gameplay could get. But after playing for a few hours, I started to see the Matrix. Beastieball’s turn-based tactical matches find just the right balance between easy-to-learn and difficult-to-master. Squaring off against other coaches will introduce you to powerful combos, field effects, and strategies you never would have thought of on your own. There was also a high-level invitational tournament hosted by the developers a few weeks ago that’s all on YouTube now. Watching even just a few of those battles showed me just how complex and competitive this game can be when it comes to player versus player.
Finally, I do want to take a moment to appreciate the overall story at the heart of Beastieball. The very beginning of the game where the player chooses their starter takes place in the Rutile Nature Preserve. When this natural sanctuary comes under threat from a stadium construction project, the only way to save the preserve is to climb the ranks of the top-rated beastieball coaches and convince them to stop the project. On the surface, it might seem like a silly game about creatures playing volleyball, but there is a deeper message about preserving space for the natural world, which is something worth fighting for.
Even in Early Access mode, Beastieball still has the potential to be my favorite game of this year. If you have any interest in giving it a try I couldn’t recommend it enough. The most frustrating part of working on this review is that I have to stop playing the game to write all this. I can’t wait to see what else the developers at Wishes Ultd. have in store for future updates, especially when the game eventually leaves early access. I’m also very excited to see if there will be more tournaments and multiplayer availability once the game is released to the public. I’m sure I’ll be writing more about Beastieball as I continue to explore the post-game, multiplayer, and future updates. Thanks to Wishes Ultd. and Klei Publishing for early access to Beastieball for this review! Beastieball is out now on Steam!
What do you think of Beastieball? Will you be checking it out during Early Access or will you wait for the full release? Want to challenge me to a match? Leave a comment below!