The Showdown Effect Critic Reviews

It's a game that deserves to be played, however, and it's one that's a hilarious spectacle to watch too -- something that Arrowhead clearly realizes and is keen to exploit with its Twitch.tv integration.

The price is low and the game is good, but The Showdown Effect needs more maps and some balance.

Fast, fun and skill based. The Showdown effect has all the elements to be one of the most relevant competitive game of the season.

The Showdown Effect won't disappoint, either as a popcorn game you play when you're in the mood or the new found focus of your hardcore energy.

The Showdown Effect is a good game, and if you're a fan of platform-based competitive online, it's one of the best offerings available today.

Quotation forthcoming.

An old school arcade, well-implemented and at low price. You should give it a try.

Paradox seems to publish fast multiplayer games with comical settings more often nowadays, aside from their deep strategy games. The Showdown Effect is pretty successful in that respect, but lacks finesse.

The Showdown Effect requires some time to be tamed, but its gore action, thrilling pace and voluntarily stupid tone will probably help you forget the tears of your initial failures. Then, you'll be one more to psychology torture the noobs and veto their right to existence. It's a game that's designed for short bursts of action, a few games at a time before your brain melts down.

Should you buy it? Maybe, as it is cheap. Will you be playing it in a month? Probably not, unless you really get into it. Is it good value if purchased and played with friends? Definitely, it’s at its best. Are there enough people playing to sustain it in the long term? Doubtful.

A cheap and cheerful action game that won’t win any awards, but provides solid knockabout laughs.

The Showdown Effect offers fast paced and fun multiplayer action for a low price of admission. Unfortunately the price point is also evident in the amount of content. However it clearly succeeds as a bite-sized game of frantic, skill based killing.

Until you get bored with characters and arenas, fun can be had. Updates will decide whether The Showdown Effect stays with us for longer.

Following Magicka’s bad example, we have the same formula. Fun gameplay, miserable connection problems.

Some will fall in love with its goofy adolescent humour and sink-or-swim gameplay. If you can wade through those early matches long enough to make peace with the controls, and find yourself in a match with like-minded players (or better yet, actual friends), it can be ridiculously good fun. It too often feels, however, that praise is due more to the game The Showdown Effect is trying to be rather than game it currently is.

The Showdown Effect isn't a bad way to kill some hours, and the developer is clearly intent on supporting the game with new content. We also didn't have many problems finding matches. But while this is a promising start, the game doesn't quite scratch that multiplayer itch just yet.

There are nice customization options and the game has some personality, but even still, these concepts don’t feel fully realized. That’s the main and final problem with The Showdown Effect: it tries hard to be something folks want, but it comes up short, and needed to try a little harder.

For just about ten bucks you get a nice little multiplayer game, which could have done with a few more maps out of the box. It's enjoyable enough to slice, bash and shoot your way through hordes of other players, even though beginners see themselves in way out of their heads in the first hours of play. The tutorial doesn't really help and you have to get all your practice in real matches. As soon as you're over this steep hill, it is decent fun. For this to grow into a lasting success, though, the game would need much more content – and some fine-tuning regarding the player movement would be appreciated as well.

The Showdown Effect isn't all style and no substance, but it's definitely weighed disproportionately in favor of the former. On the upside, that means heaps of enticing potential, but it also leaves plenty of room for improvement. As is, Showdown Effect feels rough and unfinished.

There’s a satisfying Shadow Complex-meets-Smash-Bros. style romp somewhere in The Showdown Effect, but it’s buried beneath gameplay mechanics that interfere with the joys its premise suggests, and there are currently stability issues with the servers that demand some urgent attention.