If you love playing multiplayer couch games with your friends and family, GigaBash is just right for you.
GigaBash is one of the popular games made by Malaysians, with multiple awards attained throughout its release back in 2022. The team behind this title, Passion Republic Games, has been known for their outsourcing services for AAA developers & publishers worldwide, including The Last of Us 2 and Ghost of Tsushima.
GigaBash is the first game officially developed and published by the company, making it one of their most talked-about achievements, even to the point we see it on their official homepage.
The game was free on Epic Games store sometime in December 2023, and I decided to give it a try. I honestly have to say — I dig it.
‘Fun’ is not Even the Right Word for It
At launch, you’ll be met with three main modes: Couch Play, Online, and Story. There are different game modes for both couch play and online modes: arcade, onslaught, free-for-all, team battle, mayhem — basically the standard party game modes you see in a couch multiplayer game like Super Mario games or One Piece: Pirates Carnival.
In Couch Play, you can opt to play solo and fight with CPU, or with three other members of your likings, be it friends or family. Provided you have three controllers at the very least, that is — playing the game with four people on the keyboard doesn’t sound too thrilling. Or you can just hop online and play with your friends in the same lobby. That works too.
Regardless, the fun lasts from the beginning to the end. It never stops. From the moment you jump into the game, and the moment the countdown reaches zero and the word ‘FIGHT’ appears on the screen, you know you’re either about to rock, or get rocked. Or both.
The chaos ensued just never ends. Especially since that the game technically is simple in terms of combat mechanics, you tend to either cheese whatever character you’re playing, or get cheesed by your friend pulling the same move again and again. It’s frustrating, but it’s that pure chaos that makes this game addicting to play with friends.
I assure you, if you love playing party games with friends, this game is definitely right up your alley.
The Story Mode Covers All the Main Characters
There are four main characters introduced in the story mode — Gorogong, P.P.J.U.R.A.S., Woolley, and Thundatross — with each unlocked after playing the previous character story respectively. The stories are just simple, however — nothing too convoluted to understand. They generally have one main objective to complete in the story, and there are obstacles that they need to overcome to reach their end goal.
Gorogong is the first you get to play. Without going too much into the details, Gorogong’s objective is to protect the Luana Island, and the ‘artifact’ stored within. After completing Gorogong’s story, you’d unlock P.P.J.U.R.A.S.’s, with its objectives being to just, conquer and cause mayhem. Something along the lines of being the apex Kaiju, I’m not sure.
Then the next character story is unlocked — Woolley’s, my favourite. The soft, cuddly Yeti that just so happens to accidentally wander off from its habitat in Siberia following military planes in the sky and has to find its way back home.
Right after completing Woolley’s story, Thundatross’ story would be unlocked. It entails a Titan-hunting mecha (think of it like Gundam) controlled by the son of a genius scientist, who is tasked to protect the city from the destructive Kaijus such as Gorogong and P.P.J.U.R.A.S. by the military general Dr. Reiner (who apparently has hidden agenda behind the powerful creation of the mecha).
The cutscenes and visual-novel-like storytelling in the stories have their charms in briefing the players about each of the main characters’ backgrounds as well as keeping the hype up to avoid taking the players’ attention away from the gameplay.
Sometimes, simplicity works best when utilised correctly. And the story mode in GigaBash does just that.
Trivials
In the base game, there are 10 playable characters, some of which are unlocked upon completing the story mode. As the game made awards and reached global success, the game has expanded further into more characters and stages as DLCs, including Ultraman and Godzilla character packs, totalling up to 18 characters to play in GigaBash.
So if you’d like to see the original Ultraman and Ultraman Tiga fighting against Alien Baltan and Camearra, you could go for the Ultraman character pack. Likewise, if you’re a Godzilla fan, the Godzilla character pack is for you.
GigaBash also introduces bonus content in the base game that is unlocked when you play the story. It includes lore of the characters, gallery, music, and badges to unlock. It’s like playing an old game all over again, with all the unlockable bonus content to delve further into the history of the game; something that games nowadays need to take a note of. Even something trivial like concept arts in the gallery is very well appreciated.
If you’re interested in the game, it’s available on Steam and Epic Games for roughly RM60-RM70. Or you could wait for a seasonal sale on Steam to get a better bargain. Steam also provides a demo version of the game, so feel free to try it out to get a feel of the game before making a purchase.
Needless to say, I’m genuinely surprised to see that the game that caught my attention and interest is made by fellow Malaysians. Kudos to them for making such an addicting and genuinely fun game to play with friends, and something that doesn’t require extreme hours of grinding to get good for once.
Apart from GigaBash, I enjoyed playing Stray as well; a game dedicated to feline lovers that enjoys adventure-driven storytelling. I wrote about my take on it here if you want to check it out. Otherwise, I have a whole list of articles for you to browse and read as well. I’ll see you next time!
