Big Crown Showdown Review

The holidays often bring friends and family together for celebration. But catching up can only last so long, and eventually you might want something to do together that isn’t just talking or watching a sports event everyone will forget about in no time. Hyper Luminal has presented us with their party brawler, Big Crown: Showdown. Is this a four-player party game worth your time and money? The answer may surprise you in our Big Crown: Showdown review.

Easy to Get

Controls in Big Crown: Showdown are very easy to grasp. Players run around using the left analog stick, jump with cross, block with R2, and punch with square. Punching other players is allowed, which sends characters flying. Blocking a punch allows for most of the punch’s energy to be returned to the assaulting player, while the blocker only gets pushed back slightly. Most people will come to terms with the controls in no time, as they jump from platform to platform, avoiding obstacles and other players in a quest to not die.

Not dying is the main goal here, after all. Each life remaining at the end of the level is worth one point, as is punching another player off the level and to their death. The first player to reach a target score, or the player with the highest score over the target in the event of a tie, is deemed the winner. There are treasure chests at certain locations on each level, which must be punched to open. These chests always contain four coins, which can be used at the “swag” shop to unlock new helmets. If a helmet is unlocked for one player, it is unlocked for all players. That’s it for unlockables, though, and customization stops there. Players can’t even select their color: player one is always blue, player two is always red, player three is always green, and player four is always purple.

Easy to Choose

There are two game modes, each of which are available locally and online. Quick match plays through all 15 of the game’s maps, seemingly at random. Players are given five lives per level, and the first to score 20 wins. Creating a game allows for player one to set the rules, such as number of lives per level, point goal to win the game, camera speed, and even “Regicide bonus,” or number of points to award each time a player knocks the current leader off the level. The leader is denoted by wearing a crown, hence the name of the bonus. The pool of possible levels can also be hand-picked, so if everyone hates the desert levels, they don’t have to be played at all.

Those expecting a ton of additional features should look elsewhere. Big Crown: Showdown keeps things extremely simple, which means that custom games don’t have too many possibilities. Outside of chasing trophies and unlocking new helmets, the main reason for replaying would have to be bragging rights against friends and family. There’s a basic story introduced at the startup of the game, but it isn’t expanded upon much beyond loading screen “facts” about the game’s world.

Easy to Run

The Unity engine powers Big Crown: Showdown. The lightweight graphics and simple gameplay allow the game to run without issue, even with up to four local players all running around the level. There is the occasional collision issue which will cause players to become stuck between objects on a level, but thankfully players don’t fall through the level at any point. Surprisingly, the DualShock 4 controller speaker is used to make each player “speak,” as they grunt when jumping, and groan when dying. It’s a nice platform-specific feature which some people may get a kick out of.

Big Crown: Showdown is a safe bet for party games to play that most people will enjoy. A large variety of maps helps to avoid tedium, but the core gameplay mechanics may be a bit too simple to sink into for much more than an hour at a time. There’s nothing wrong with this, and Big Crown: Showdown is perfect for playing with friends, family, and frenemies, especially those who don’t play games very often.

Big Crown: Showdown review code provided by publisher. Version 1.00 reviewed on a PS4 Pro. For more information on scoring please see our Review Policy.