2024 has so far been a solid year for gaming, marked by big titles likeHelldivers 2,Palworld,Final Fantasy VII Rebirth,Dragon’s Dogma 2and more. While I enjoy pouring 100+ hours into a massive online game or open-world RPG as much as the next person, sometimes you just want to kick back, relax, and play something silly where you can run around and punch goofy characters in the head for half an hour. If that sounds like your cup of tea, allow me to introduce you toRumble Club.
Rumble Clubis a Battle Royale where twenty cutesy goop people punch each other senselessly inside a constantly shrinking arena filled with all manner of traps and hazards. Since simply punching things in the face tends to get old after a while, the developers were kind enough to also add a variety of gadgets that enable you to take down opponents in more creative ways.
Battle Royale Lite
Rumble Cluboffers a more simplified version of the traditional Battle Royale formula where there’s little need to worry about where to land or what to loot. The arenas are small enough to where you can get a good bird’s eye view of the entire thing in the handful of seconds it takes you to land after jumping from the skyship. There’s a good variety of maps here, but the basic gist will be immediately familiar to anyone who’s ever played a Battle Royale game before: you land, start punching people left and right, and try to be the last one standing.
Having said that,Rumble Clubdoes attempt to keep things interesting by including a couple of modes that deviate from the traditional BR formula. The regular BR mode is called Punch Royale and it’s self-explanatory. There’s no blue zone, but the arena does get progressively smaller as the game goes on, forcing players into tighter quarters as they try to push each other off the map.
There are also a few other modes like King of the Hill, Sugar Rush, Goop Cube and more. The game encourages you to try every mode by rotating them at regular intervals, but I mostly found myself sticking to the classic Punch Royale. Modes like King of the Hill and Sugar Rush where you have to stand in specific zones or collect cupcakes to win are a nice change of pace, but they tend to lose their appeal after a while.
Gadgets are present in every mode, ranging from things like mailboxes and umbrellas to boomboxes, drones and even an alien spaceship. These are essentially power-ups that will greatly increase your chances of knocking down foes, albeit only for short periods. Over time, you can level up gadgets to make them last longer. Some of these gadgets are wonky and difficult to aim, but they can still come in handy nevertheless. At the very least, I found them to be good tools for intimidation as some players were hesitant to approach me while I was using one of the bigger gadgets.
Rumble Club: The New Physics-Based PVP Party Game Hits PC, Mobile This April
Rumble Club is poised to become a new favorite in the party game genre.
Much like Fall Guys, Among Us or other similar party games, Rumble Club is best enjoyed with friends in co-op. Playing solo is reasonably fun, but queuing up for trios adds an extra layer of enjoyment. Co-op works particularly well with modes like Goop Cube where you can attempt to prevent vulnerable allies that are encased in goop from being thrown off the map by opposing teams. Co-op in other modes is just sort of…there. Due to the hectic nature of the game, it’s often hard to properly coordinate with teammates, especially if you’re playing with randos.
Fashion Punch
Gameplay aside, it’s worth taking some time to talk about the customization because that’s a big part of the game.Rumble Clubfeatures a wide range of skins, accessories, paints and emotes to collect. All of these are purely cosmetic and can be unlocked by either simply playing the game or by purchasing virtual currency with IRL money that you can then exchange for various bundles and individual items. Needless to say, one of these methods is significantly more efficient than the other for growing your collection.
Rumble Clubis a free-to-play game, so expect plenty of microtransactions. All in all, I’d say the monetization is standard for a game like this. I didn’t find the monetization to be particularly egregious and the game doesn’t try to put pressure on you to buy anything. At least that’s the impression I got from the pre-release build I played over the past few days. You get free loot boxes a couple of times a day and there are occasionally other freebies in the shop, making it easy to gain a fair amount of cosmetic items even if you don’t buy bundles or season passes. It’s worth noting that Rumble Club is also available on iOS and Android where games tend to be more aggressive about monetization.
As far as the PC version ofRumble Clubis concerned, I’m happy to report that it doesn’t feel like a mobile port, which is always a plus in my book. I didn’t have any issues while playing either with a mouse and keyboard or a controller, but you may easily remap all the buttons if you don’t like the default bindings for one reason or another. In terms of video options, you can expect all the standard ones for a game like this. You’ve got your presets, resolution scaling, framerate limiter and a couple of other things. Nothing too fancy, but you don’t really need anything else.
Closing Comments:
Rumble Clubis in many ways your typical casual multiplayer game that relies on simple mechanics and slapstick comedy to provide players with good old-fashioned fun. There isn’t necessarily anything groundbreaking here, but the game does have an undeniable charm and the fun factor is there. Punching cartoony characters unconscious and throwing them into goop does have a certain appeal to it, even if it can get somewhat repetitive after a while. The multitude of modes, maps and customization options are enough to keep you hooked for a while, butRumble Clubfeels like the type of game whose fate will be dictated by influencers and streamers, for better or worse. These types of games rarely do well with hardcore gamers, but they can sometimes reach mainstream success with casual gamers if they can get some good buzz on social media and streaming sites like Twitch. Personally, I don’t see myself sticking with the game for the long haul, but then again, I’m not the target audience for it.
