Supercell’s IP-mashing battler Squad Busters entered soft launch yesterday, a potential step towards the Finnish firm’s first global release since Brawl Stars in December 2018.
[UPDATE: Yes, it turns out the game is indeed going global on May 29. The original article continues below, which was written before the news broke]
But has this latest soft launch game got what it takes to go global? The signs out of Supercell are encouraging. Boss Ilkka Paananen said in early 2023 that of the games in development, Squad Busters was “furthest along”. Monster hunting game Mo.Co is also still in development – as far as we’re aware – after a limited US-only beta on Android in October 2023, and may be next in the queue.
There has also been much more noise from Supercell around Squad Busters than there ever was for Everdale, Flood Rush, Clash Quest and Clash Mini, all of which made it into testing but were ultimately axed or reworked into another form.
Supercell’s community team has published several slick teaser videos for Squad Busters, and even joked about ‘breaking the curse’ of Supercell games failing to launch globally. The company also appears to have seeded multiple influencers with access to the game before this week to produce videos in time for the soft launch. It is being promoted at London consumer games show WASD this week, too.
So just after Squad Busters went live in Canada, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Mexico and Singapore this week, we asked several game industry watchers for their observations of this game’s early build.
Game Economist Consulting’s Phillip Black describes Squad Busters as “Supercell’s Super Smash Bros” and says that it has “immense promise”.
“Clash Mini tried to popularise a genre that was never popular, but Squad Busters leans into proven mechanics in an unproven format,” Black tells us. “Roguelikes have dominated Steam. In-round progression has taken off as a mechanic, which includes genres like battle royale. It’s a return to popularising proven mechanics in a new format, with the cancelled Flood Rush as a learning experience. The potential for optimisation is vast, giving Supercell ample room to fine-tune.”
“Gacha depth feels ‘short’ but wide, with 18 characters to unlock compared to Brawl Stars’ 15 in beta,” he continues. “Squad Busters’ economy will be under revision during this period, which is too aggressive on match 3-style streak preservation. Supercell wants to prove it can still launch titles but simultaneously wants to market test products more quickly than before.”
Game designer Jakub Remiar notes that this soft launch version of the game has a new character progression system compared to the limited beta from early 2023, which “fits nicely” with the game’s mechanics.
“Now characters are segmented into four stages which you need to upgrade all in parallel, instead of the previous progression where the bigger the overall upgrade level of a character, the more abilities it unlocked,” he says.
But Remiar has doubts over the incentives to engage in PvP gameplay overall. “PvP itself is very chaotic, especially towards the end of a round where there are big squads of characters against each other,” he continues. “But why even fight in PvP as the reward for PvP are gems and some coins, instead of direct power absorption of your enemy? Of course you get a key which means one free chest, but you need to find that chest and walk to it, which means you are weakened after the fight and vulnerable to other players.”
“This breaks the usual snowball mechanic of consuming your opponents, which then feels like it is not worth it to start the fight at all, as you only get rewards if you kill the last enemy character which is now desperately running from you with all the turbo boosts he has left.”
Fellow game designer Michal Tomcany is particularly impressed by the universe-building in the game. “Squad Busters is a masterclass in adaptation, skillfully blending the core gameplay mechanics of Brawl Stars with a dynamic twist from Crowd City,” he tells us.
“Supercell innovatively merges familiar gameplay with artistic styles and sophisticated progression systems, drawing inspiration from J.K. Rowling’s billion-dollar empire. Much like how the Harry Potter series transcended its original books to become a multifaceted fantasy experienced through films, theme parks, and games, Supercell meticulously crafts and iterates on its themes and characters, preserving the fantasy while expanding proven game mechanics.”
“By avoiding the missteps of industry figures who quickly pivot to other genres for profit, Supercell wisely iterates on progression and battle systems, enriching the player experience and expanding the immersive Supercell-verse.”
