Lethal League Blaze is a springy, frenetic future-sport played by an underground league of robots, skaters, mercenaries and a sentient boombox. Imagine baseball, but then strip away all the parts that don’t involve whacking a ball, replacing them with violent duels between two to four brawlers. In these duels, the baseball is the sole weapon. That might be underselling it. The ball is a relentless, physics-defying missile that, at full force, can almost be everywhere at once. Few other games make hitting things, either balls or people, this immensely satisfying.
]]>An indirectly fought Smash Bros? Perhaps an extreme sports pong for up to four players? Team Reptile's Lethal League is still a multiplayer fave in many circles. Its sequel, Lethal League Blaze, launched today replacing sprites with 3D models, fleshing out its world with a branching single-player story mode and bulking out its local and online multiplayer with new options. Below, a trailer with some funky fresh beats, a peek at how intense high-level play can be, and some quick thoughts from the preview build I've been in the batting cage with.
]]>It's the weekend for a lot of you already, so here's a little something free for the next few days. Four somethings, even. Five, if you've got a VR setup. There's probably a few more lurking around that I've missed, but there's a bundle of free weekends running concurrently on Steam right now: RTS spinoff Halo Wars: Definitive Edition, baseball fighter Lethal League, physics puzzler Crazy Machines 3, co-op hack n' slasher Eden Rising: Supremacy and for VR gunslingers, Hover Junkers, all accompanied by steep discounts.
]]>Baseball is not usually my sport of choice, though I suppose everyone has to wear very tight trousers, so that’s nice. Lethal League, on the other hand, is very much my cup of tea, combining the smacking of baseballs with the smacking of humans, lizards and robots. And now it’s getting a semi-sequel in the form of [Lethal League Blaze, which ups the roster of playable characters, adds new modes and improves the graphics. See this blend of fighting game and brutal sports game in action below.
]]>Humble Bundles come every fortnight nowadays but the Humble Indie Bundle is still a rare treat, something a bit fancier than the rest - the flagship bundle. Numero diecisiete is now upon us (I know - diecisiete already! but it has been six years of HIBs), a pay-what-you-want bundle of games including Lethal League, The Beginner's Guide, Super Time Force Ultra, Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, and Nuclear Throne.
]]>I've grown immune to the draw of bundles as the number of them has increased, but the Indie Legends 4 Bundle has a good enough haul that it reminds of the early days of Humble. For €3.15 (around £2.62/$3.51) you get Viscera Cleanup Detail (with DLC), Door Kickers, Skullgirls, Sir, You Are Being Hunted, Reus, Lethal League, Party Hard, and Another World. I haven't played Sir or You Are Being Hunted, but I'd pay that much for Door Kickers alone.
]]>What are the best Steam Summer Sale deals? Each day for the duration of the sale, we'll be offering our picks - based on price, what we like, and what we think more people should play. Read on for the five best deals from day 3 of the sale.
]]>Reptile Games' last game was Megabyte Punch, an absolutely excellent Smash Bros.-inspired robot beat 'em up. It got me very excited last year and rather interested in what the team would do next. Lethal League is that, a competitive "projectile fighting game" that uses an anti-gravity ball to knock out other players. The prototype has been available for some time and over the past few months they've shown it off at EVO and other fighting game tournaments. They've now made a new trailer to accompany their announcement that the game will be out on Steam on August 27th.
]]>Sports hooliganism seems inefficient: if you're going to behave so childishly, why not build that violence into the competition in the first place? Rollerball, The Running Man, Death Race 2000, the Thunderdome... we have countless examples of it going just dandy for everyone involved. Megabyte Punch developers Reptile Games understand this, and are combining baseball with fighting in Lethal League.
It's a delightful little sport whereby up to four competitors attempt to smash a baseball into their opponents' faces. A fighting game where you're aiming for the ball rather than your opponent, bouncing it off the walls and floor and using special moves to cause terrible violence.
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