Developer: The Munky
Publisher: The Munky
Release Date: Out Now
Platform(s): PlayStation VR (Reviewed), Oculus Rift, HTC Vive
You know, I think it’s good to have a video game that offers pointless, stupid fun. It’s essential to unwind sometimes and not think about some epic quest, some damsel in distress, or a mighty war that needs fighting – sometimes you just need to get drunk and beat some guys up (all in a video game, of course).
Enter Drunkn Bar Fight: a virtual reality brawler that lives up to its name perfectly by putting the player in a series of bar fights against total strangers. It’s utterly ridiculous and its physics are pretty broken, but it’s also a heck of a lot of fun to play.
It’s worth noting immediately that this isn’t some deep game that’s going to keep you hooked in for hours on end. Drunkn Bar Fight is designed to be played in short bursts; you know, something to laugh at now and again. You can easily see everything that the game has to offer in well under an hour, and besides fighting there’s not much else for you to do. It’s how the game was designed, so it’s hardly something it can be criticised for – at $11.99 though, you might expect a bit more bang for your buck.
So the whole point of Drunkn Bar Fight is to drink alcohol and beat up the other patrons of whatever fine establishment you find yourself in. Simple, right? You can beat them up with a myriad of items, be it a stool, darts, glasses, a pool cue, a fire extinguisher – if you can see it, you can pick it up and beat someone over the head with it. Once you’re engaged in a fight, this stranger you’ve decided to smash over the skull will keep coming at you throwing punches until one of you is knocked out. The physics of the game are all over the shop so you’ll see characters and weapons launching all over the place, but hey, it works. You rinse and repeat this constant barrage of beatdowns, until eventually everyone is knocked out and you’re deemed the metaphorical ‘king of the bar’. Yay.
You’ll do this across three different bars: a traditional modern bar, a rooftop bar, and a saloon. There isn’t a whole lot of variety between them from a gameplay perspective, but they’re all decent settings for some beer-fuelled showdowns. Oh, you can throw people off the roof on the rooftop bar though, which it’d be criminal for me to not mention.
Everything is controlled with the Move controllers, with each one used to control one of your hands. You’ll need a fair bit of space around you when playing though, because you’ll be doing a lot of swinging and moving around. You grab items by simply pressing the trigger, whilst hitting enemies requires you to get up close and land a clean swing. Enemies will try to dodge you, though they’re not the smartest of foes you’ll face off against.
Oddly, you’re not actually able to turn in the game, which made for some really awkward situations. Whilst the bars aren’t huge, they’re spacious enough that turning is essential – it also makes it difficult to grab some of those hard to reach weapons. In fairness, the developers have said that a patch is in the works and turning is coming to the game soon, but right now its omission is a pretty baffling one.
If you’re feeling sociable, you can play Drunkn Bar Fight with friends in local multiplayer. Obviously, they don’t play in virtual reality, but instead take on some of the bar’s patrons by using Dual-Shock controllers. It’s pretty broken, but in one of those satisfying ways where you’re able to have fun with it anyway thanks to the stupidity of the game.
