There’s nothing like throwing a gaming party and playing competitive games with your friends or family. To pop in a game that everyone can grasp. From publisher PHL Collective and game developers Coatsink comes a new multiplayer game for the Nintendo Switch, ClusterPuck 99. Here’s a game that will keep everyone entertained for a while.
There isn’t really a story in ClusterPuck 99, the player or players have to gain more points than their opponents by shooting a puck into their goal. It is a simple soccer/hockey game, but the arenas you play in can make it either easy or tricky because each of them has bumpers, speed ups, spikes and other obstacles in the way, so you have to use your skill to maneuver. You have to be careful about what team you pick because once a player selects their team, you are given a random symbol to know what player you are, and when all the players are clustered together fighting over the puck, it can be a bit hard to tell which player is which.
The game handles mobile play excellently, and it keeps up very well on the go, and that is the mode in which I mostly played the game with my friends. This is an 8-player game, and you can play with family and friends, and it’s actually possible to play the game without 8 people by using bots that have 3 variable skill levels. ClusterPuck 99 is mostly a local multiplayer game; however, there is no way to play co-op online, so it kind of lacks in that area. There is a solo challenge mode where the player can earn medals to unlock new cosmetic options and, there’s also an arena creator mode where you can build your own arena, besides having the over 30 arenas that are already in the game. To be honest, the game can lose its appeal more quickly if played alone, and it was designed as a fun party game to be played with friends and family where anyone can pick up a controller and play.
The gameplay for ClusterPuck 99 is easy to grasp, and anyone can pick it up quickly with its easy to grasp controls. You move with the analog stick, move fast and shoot with the A and X buttons, steal the Puck and put up a defensive shield with the Y button, and by holding down the B button you can do a power up shot. However, I found that using a Pro Controller is the best way to play the game since it’s easier to control and maneuver around the obstacles. When I used a Joy-Con, I found there was a slight delay in moving that caused me to lose control of the character, which in turn would make me crash into a spike or another obstacle that would kill me, and those few seconds before I revived were crucial – and were the difference of the enemy gaining the lead or not. Besides that, all of the other controls ran smoothly, and the obstacles make the levels fun and challenging.
ClusterPuck 99 is a fun game while playing with others and can be entertaining for some time for people of all ages. It has easy and simple controls with gameplay that isn’t special but does take skills – for those who want to put in the time. ClusterPuck 99 is an excellent game the more people you play with, although one can lose interest more quickly playing it solo.
Developer: Coatsink
Publisher: PHL Collective
Platform: Nintendo Switch, PC
Release Date: 29th March 2018 (Nintendo Switch), 23rd January 2015 (PC)
