Squad Busters: messy in a good way

Like several million others, i've been playing Squad Busters. So here is the 437th opinion on Supercell's next global launch.

May 03, 2024

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Squad Busters is gloriously messy, isn’t it? Not in terms of presentation, of course; everything you see and hear in Squad Busters is as polished and bouncy and slick as you’d expect from Supercell. I mean the matches themselves.

The sense of escalation is terrific. Plodding around whacking chests to grow your squad in the early moments of a round feels pretty serene compared to what you’ll be doing a few minutes later, which is often either running directly into or away from combat.

It gets really crowded and chaotic in those final moments, and if your team is getting a real pounding, the constant tap-tap-tap of haptic feedback really adds to the sense of mayhem.

Clocking a rival squad and deciding whether to fight or take flight in a split second is not an exact science; if you’re engaged in an almighty throwdown in the middle of the arena it’s actually quite tricky to parse who’s winning, losing or somewhere in between. Players who like the precision of a slower, more deliberate strategy-like game might not like the pace and uncertainty here, but it works for me.

You can potter around the edges upgrading your squad right until the end to simply survive if you like, but that’s no fun; I found myself running up to larger, obviously more powerful squads just to land a quick jab on them before dashing away again. The chase sequences that ensue are also hilarious, as are the mad scrambles right at the end between a handful of survivors.

I’m not a monetisation expert – you can find plenty of takes on all that on LinkedIn and indeed on the site – so i’ve no real idea of how effective the meta will be in terms of generating cash.

But as a player I know for sure that Squad Busters has got its hooks in me. It is perhaps not quite as moreish as Clash Royale and Brawl Stars were when they launched, but still: Squad Busters’ draw is powerful enough that I found myself playing it until 1.30am last night until all the blood had drained from my hands and they started to feel weird.

Stick that quote in your marketing materials, Supercell, I dare you.

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