Platform: iOS and Android

Developer: Joyride

Premise: Super Champ’s Bullet League is a 2D battle royale with gameplay similar to Contra and Metal Slug. Twenty to thirty chibis battle it out in team or solo mode.

The Hook: If you hate aiming on a mobile phone, then SCBL might be your entry into the battle royale genre. The choice to use an external gamepad is a nice touch, though the touch screens are not nearly as intrusive as PUBG and Fortnite.

Graphics: Simple and cartoony. The giant map is broken into quadrants that represent different biomes. Character models are repetitive as you will see the same blonde kid, brunette kid, and witch girl in every match.

Sound: This battle royale is 1/4 of the rizz of popular competitors in the genre. No voice acting, booming soundtrack, or iconic sounds. It’s ho-hum.

Playing a Round: The game spawns you on a part of the giant map. You will quickly find your weapons and grenades and that will lead you to hunting all the bots. Even with the gigantic map to explore, the circle grid closes in fast and I guarantee you don’t need to travel very far to get what you need.

Variety: Usually, you can expect 30 different weapons, mods, modes, and challenges in this kind of game, but SCBL is very bare. Only a handful of weapons are on the battlefield, and 40% are machine guns. There are no character upgrades other than leveling up your guns. There’s not a lot to do once you are on the battlefield. Find your weapons, find your shield, and blast the bots easily.

Like Minecraft, the game has a building mechanic, but it is an afterthought. You can place blocks in front of you to climb or block yourself. Climbing high places is unnecessary because your double jump gets you where you need to go and the gameplay is too fast for strategic use of the blocks.

Different play modes like deathmatch and zone control are locked behind an in-game currency. You will be lucky to afford 1-2 matches with the modes.

Multiplayer: I can safely say after 3-4 hours of dominating battle royale modes, this game has little to no human players. My teammates are bots, my opponents are bots, and even when I am in the PREMIUM BR mode, the game is dominated by bots. These bots are easy to kill ensuring that you will always feel like a champion.

Paywall: Everything is “free” when playing the team and solo BR modes. You have to earn trophies to unlock prizes and refills, you need to earn keys to get weapon upgrades, and you need skull points to advance on the progress track (I don’t get it either). Every so often, the game will bless you with a few extra coins and you can try death match or zone control.

Like every other P2W game on mobile, there is a premium track subscription for players who want to advance quicker. The premium track gives you extra weapon upgrades and costumes (I don’t see the bots ever use them). The game rewards you for challenges, but you can’t access all your rewards without the premium track.

Final: The 2D gameplay and having a gamepad are a breath of fresh air, but once those two conveniences are spent, there is little life in SCBL. No fun tournaments, exciting skill trees, or challenges. This game will make BR newbies feel like champions, but it is not a compelling reason to fall in love with the genre.

Score: 4/10