Couch Versus

Review

Welcome to Couch Versus. The title is a unique, shared screen competition between two players, with one player controlling the hero and the second player controlling the monster spawns. The hero must avoid the multitude of different monsters that will be spawned with only one desire - to feast on your body. Our hero only has a jump ability and a chargeable shot with three stages of power. The monsters must plan out their attack with strategic placement of their portals, and choose which monsters to take for the match. Let the battle commence!

Released and self-published on Jan 23, 2019, by developer Mubarak AlKhuzaee, this is their first release on Steam. The title is a casual, action, strategy, indie title that has an old-school flavor, with gameplay taking you back 20 years with the nostalgic feeling of a console from the past. It was designed to be a competitive couch potato experience, but it does have single player components to it as well. In it, you can practice as the hero in a level-based play; once you finish it, you will unlock endless mode, where you endure increasingly difficult waves of monsters. This title does require the use of 2 controllers and has full controller support.

As the hero, you must avoid and kill all the monsters that are sent after you to win the round. You can jump, of course - up and down, and from platforms as well. Using your weapon, you can shoot a single shot or power shot, which has 2 additional levels of power. Not knowing how to use these on the advancing forces will be detrimental to your survival. As the monsters, you must try to choose the best set of monsters and place your portals in such a way that you can trap and overwhelm your opponent. With an assortment of monsters to choose from, each has different strengths and weakness. Finding the right combinations can mean the difference between winning and losing. There are two modes you can choose from - a fixed battle or a switch battle.

The game is a cute and fun little couch potato title. I enjoyed the increasing difficulty in the single-player portion of the title and discovering the new monsters as they were introduced; my son and I both practiced in the single-player mode prior to going head-to-head in versus, so we both knew the mechanics of the title. It took a little time to figure out how to set up the monster and portals, as there is no tutorial in the title to help guide you.  The title does not work with the Steam overlay either; pressing f-12 results in the Chrome Developers Tools opening. So, no screenshots to post.
The game has a great old-school feel to it, like stepping back into some Commodore 64 or SNES game-play; with a pixelated graphics style and old-school sound effects, you may feel like you stepped into a time warp.

Review written by DamageInc.for Zeepond.com!