Lethal League has been bouncing around the PC world for a while, receiving praise from the many, but now Dutch based developers Team Reptile have decided it’s time for the next-gen consoles to get a taste of its ball smashing, fighting antics. Is a projectile infused beat-em-up something us console gamers have been lacking all this time, or could it simply be an overhyped, albeit extreme, incarnation of dodgeball that nobody wants?
I know the answer to that, but I’ll let you decide for yourself in due course.
The main aim of Lethal League is to hit an anti-gravity ball, in the hope of it hitting one of your opposition to deplete their health bar. After whacking the ball, it becomes your colour and in this state it can be lethal to anyone else in its path; until someone else hits it and then it becomes tagged by them. Each and every contact made with the ball increases the speed at which it moves, making it all the more tricky to perform a return.  Once all bars of the opponent are gone, that’s game over and you win.
There’s another variation to the play which sees a target placed on each side of the arena for the opposite team to hit – giving your faces a well earned break. The first team to score a set amount of points by hitting the correct target, wins, it’s a simple as that.
It can be played with up to four players, either online or locally, in Team battles, Strikers mode, or simply a Free-For-All. What’s good is that bots of varying skill levels are available to be thrown in to make up the numbers offline, because let’s face it, not everyone has four controllers at their disposal, or indeed three other willing participants. But even convincing your friends to play online is a tough ask. Why is that?
Well, you see, all you’re really doing is hitting a ball at someone and hoping they don’t hit it back, and if a rally actually occurs to create a momentary intensity, there are few people with the reactions and focus required to respond to the sheer speed of what’s happening – except maybe Barry Allen, a.k.a. The Flash. Hence almost every round is over in seconds and the standard ten minute time limit for the entire match is barely touched, which gets rather boring.
In fairness though, Lethal League makes it very easy to grasp the basics, with just a jump button, a hit button and a button to bunt the ball. The bunt move does add a more tactical edge to the mix too, by teeing it up and slowing it down for a second, before you inevitably smash it once more. There are even a couple of different directions to hit the ball – using up, down or forward on the stick – but even this can’t save the gameplay from becoming monotonous in record time.
Maybe the character variation can help matters?
Despite having only six zany looking characters present, with different coloured attires to unlock, each has a little something to set them apart from the rest; the most important and noticeable aspect being the special abilities. Once charged up, by hitting the anti-gravity ball enough times in a single round, these can be unleashed and most times end up as a match winning manoeuvre. Raptor, the human with a metal baseball bat is able to double hit the ball to increase the velocity faster, whereas the mutant human Candyman can send the ball through one surface and out the opposite side, truly catching the opponent off-guard. I do like these abilities, but you wouldn’t believe how few times I had built up enough shots and then was able to perform them.
Although Lethal League is geared up for four players, the relatively small arenas/stages combined with the fast paced action results in a chaotic mess, where it’s too tough to see what’s going on. Not to mention the online matches which saw a fair few connection issues adding to the problems; there are no servers, hence any iffy connections will affect everyone in that game.
There is a solo Challenge mode to get stuck into, featuring ten different match ups, ranging from 1vs1 to 2vs2. I rarely get further than about the third match and then I’m decimated by the far superior CPU. I’m glad they added something for gamers to play when it’s not possible to get others to play alongside you.
Aesthetically the characters are vibrant, with the stages offering a more simplistic art style to not detract from the action, taking players to the likes of the sewers and a padded cell. The soundtrack brings a decent selection of blood pumping beats to try and get you hyped up, and it really accompanies the game well.
Lethal League tries to take dodgeball to the extreme, turning it into a fighting game which runs at a ruthless pace. If you’re happy to play rounds that generally last for a few hits at a time, then you’re in luck, but anyone like me will grow bored of the ‘whack, whack, next round’ procedure over and over again. Allowing for slight variation in hits and having special abilities helps to a certain degree, but for there to be any longevity, one must distinguish what’s going on when the pace quickens to get the most out of it.
Who could’ve known that smashing balls into people’s faces wouldn’t be that enjoyable after all?
