Recent reviews by Are you for real?

This reminds me of many of the old Windows 95 shareware games I'd find while deep diving compilation CDs. At first glance it doesn't look like anything special, but I can tell a lot of care and attention went into the music production (seriously, it's incredible) and the aesthetic. I also appreciate the story that the scrapbook tells.

Gameplay is very much inspired by Lode Runner. Despite the large sprites, everything seems to control well.

Honestly, this game was gifted to me as a joke but I'm taken aback at the talent that was clearly channeled into this one. Only complaint is that occasionally the main menu is a blank white screen, and I'll have to Alt+Enter a couple times to get it to appear.

Worth the 2 bucks

Not yet.

Servers are beyond congested on launch night. I'm more than aware of issues with online games at launch, but it's nonetheless noteworthy

Battle Loungues only support 2 players. It appears to still have King of the Hill functionality by moving the winner to the top of the pile, but .. you know, 2 players. That's it.

No trials for characters either, at least not that I can find. The menus seem to be a bit cluttered and clumsy to navigate (I can only Ready-Up online with my keyboard, not my fightstick for instance).

Speaking of Single Player, if you're having connection issues and wish to play offline, you won't receive any in-game currency for unlocking more stuff. Gotta be logged in for that. No animated cutscenes in Story Mode either, unless you consider a bunch of still frame drawings animated.

The game runs smooth, though. Much smoother than the beta. It even has the option of a 'Low Spec Mode' before you launch, which just automatically defaults the graphics settings to the lowest they can go. I tweaked them up to my liking, then restarted in Low Spec Mode and they were 0 again. It's probably best to find what settings work for you in the standard game so it'll actually save them, unless your computer can't handle anything above the basics.

Look, I'm not trying to crap all over the game, but I can't recommend it right now. There's a deep game in here, sure. It's Street Fighter. But hell if a new player will be able to figure out the nuances without trials. And if you wanna play with a group of friends, prepare to take turns swapping in and out of the 2-player lobbies so you can all get a turn. That's not my idea of a good time.

Maybe in a few weeks some of the stuff that should've been in the game in the first place will be included.