‘Beastieball’ Proves You Gotta Fight for Your Right to Volley (Early Access Impressions)

Creature collecting is in my blood. Some of my earliest gaming memories involve the Pokemon franchise, and the love of catching ’em all has followed me into my adulthood. While marveling at the technical failures of Pokemon Scarlet & Violet during my 200+ hours with them, a major part of me longed for the feeling of playing a good creature collector again. Little did I know, only two years later, I would finally find that perfect replacement. Beastieball isn’t afraid to forge its own identity while clinging onto the things that made us fall in love with the genre in the first place.

Ball is Life and Life is Ball in ‘Beastieball’

The world of Beastieball is warm, colorful, and inviting. The world has a beautiful design. With each zone offering vibes upon vibes. A poppy chiptune soundtrack laid funky beats within my ears everywhere I went. Quirky and charming writing had me audibly laughing more than I’d like to admit.

Beastieball is also a bit dorky, and not afraid to be that way. It’s incredibly charming and rather endearing throughout. The interactions I could have with my Beastie Besties helped me form quite a bond with them. Watching my Beasties form bonds with one another, moving up the rungs of the friendship ladder? Adorable. Wonderful. Give me more of that, please, and thank you.

The better my team worked together, the more moves they learned. These could be strung together into combos that could fundamentally bring the match to an end in just a moment. Or, they may just restore some of the Stamina to a particularly drained Beastie on the field. Whatever works.

Beastieball is a way of life for these critters, and getting to see the finer intricacies of what makes them tick helps the world come alive. Facing off against Beastieball Coaches and their team, seeing their dynamics, and needing to strategize on the fly made every battle exciting and worth my time. It wasn’t about “who has the strongest monsters here”. While that’s important, it’s all about how I played the game. If I wasn’t stronger than them, I could at least be smarter than them and take home the W.

Sublime Moment-to-Moment Gameplay Makes ‘Beastieball’ a Beast of Its Own

While I grew up under the guiding wings of Red and Blue on their creature-catching adventures, returning to these games is an exercise in frustration. If the newer Pokemon games have mastered one thing, it’s movement — as long as I’m not phasing through the ground. Beastieball is a joy to control no matter where I was in the story, and that’s a blessing that will give it the longevity it deserves.

No matter if I’m just running with the exaggerated swagger of a Pizza Tower/Sonic the Hedgehog-esque character, or if I am heading off on the ocean blue in a Cruise Ship, Beastieball‘s art style always hits. It’s the same team behind other beautiful indie titles such as Wandersong and Chicory, so expect the same level of care and attention poured into every facet of the world.

From the fully customizable character sprite to the wonderfully designed Beasties that are roaming the world, these are some of the best designs I’ve ever witnessed. Every Beastie is given a detailed sprite that stands out, each with a variety of colors available to find in the wild. It made the hunt for my favorite creature all the more enthralling throughout my playtime.

Every battle, no matter how small, is a battle of wits and power. It didn’t matter if I was facing off against a leader, or a creature in the woods. I could easily be trounced if I wasn’t using my head. My confidence before entering the first gym was sky-high. I thought I couldn’t be beaten, due to the extreme power of my Beasties. Well, after five attempts, I finally proved that theory right.

This Game Makes Creature Capturing Interesting Again

It didn’t matter only about the power of my creatures, but how I was playing the game. Something I haven’t had to worry about in the Creature Collection genre for quite a long time. The strategy needed to complete a battle was sublime and made every match more tense than the last.

Rather than being able to ‘recruit’ or ‘capture’ a Beastie to add to my team, I first need to research them. Learn about these Beasties. Defeat them in a battle of wits and volleyball. Only then after learning everything I can do I have the chance to recruit them. It isn’t about being stronger than my opponents, it’s about outplaying them in any possible way.

Certain Beasties can only be recruited after winning a match by landing a sideways shot. Every Beastie has a unique recruitment requirement that must be met before I can hand over a jersey and add it to the team. The level of strategy that is required for each Beastieball battle is stellar and makes a convincing case to drop the standard capture method completely.

Plus, the fact that these creatures can level up in the middle of a match after scoring a point? Way to keep things exciting. I could enter a match under-leveled and find myself on even playing ground before the match was done. Each point scored, either by a technical knockout or by outplaying the opponent, gave me a chance to push my relationship with my Beasties to the next level.

Gotta Bump ‘Em All, ‘Beastieball’

There are a few things that did annoy me during my time with Beastieball, however. Some of the descriptions, especially for combos, could be needlessly complex. Refining these explanations and making them as cut-and-dry as possible without simplifying them can go a long way.

Some of the Beasties also feature requirement rules that are a little too extreme for what the Beastie is worth. In the mid-game, for example, there were a few Beasties that I quickly eliminated with the power of my team, but they required multiple movements during a match. If I could have only kept those Beasties alive for longer, I would have happily fulfilled their request.

Outside of those little issues, however? There’s not much bad I can say about Beastieball. It’s a visually stunning experience, with an extremely satisfying gameplay loop, and offers some of the best designs outside of the house of the Yellow Mouse. It’s just an unapologetically exciting game that freshens up one of the most tried-and-true genres around.

If you’ve found yourself tired of the monster-collecting genre after all this time, I get it. I completely understand. So many of these games follow the same basic formula and expect different results. That’s why I walked away so impressed with Beastieball. Sure, it’s not the perfect game and has some little issues. But it’s so refreshing that I’m willing to look past them to dive into another match against creatures that are beyond my wildest dreams.

Verdict: Strongly Recommended

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Beastieball is available now on Steam in Early Access. A code was provided by the publisher for the sake of impressions/review. Played on PC.