Potato Arena is another Partygame attempt. Similar to Rubber Royale, Potato Arena hasn't released yet, but published on Steam a Multiplayer Prologue for players to try out the game. The Prologue includes 4 of the planned 10 minigames for the launch. Potato Arena got its name due to Potato people being the protagonists of the game. The cutscenes of the trailer highlight this and are also somewhat entertaining. That being said, it's not like the Potato characters would be anything special and ingame you can't really see any difference to the hundreds of other games with supposedly cute mascot characters.
Every match of Potato Arena is limited to 4 players. The game, to its credit, gives you a lot of options, how you want to play. You can play with Bots, in local multiplayer on the same PC, in random online lobbies or private online lobbies with friends. Bots can also be used to fill up those matches, if you got less than 4 humans around. I could play online with a friend, but I had no luck in finding random players. The developers have also been writing about multiple multiplayer issues. It's just the prologue, but it would be important to fix those issues for the full launch.
Before we take a closer look at the Minigames of the Prologue, I would just like to point out, that around half of them seem to have been ripped straight out of Crash Bash. It's not like they are just slightly inspired by the game. It's more of a copy paste attempt. This can only be excused if they are at least nearly as good as the original, which (Spoiler alert) they aren't.
'Crazy Painting' is a blatant rip-off of the 'Pogo Pandemonium' stages from Crash Bash. Players jump on fields to mark them with their colour and have to collect a flagstick to secure points. There are special power-ups to move faster or attack other players. We have seen all of that in Pogo Pandemonium first, just better looking and controlling.
'Water Wrestle' on the other hand is the Potato version of the 'Polar Push' stages from Crash Bash. Players have to bash each other from a tilting platform. Water Wrestle however misses the awesome Polar Bears, the players should be riding upon. In contrast to the original, the controls also feel far more lackluster. The stages in Polar Push were obviously very slippery, but players were nonetheless always in control of their movement. In Water Wrestle movement feels more random and lame.
The other 2 stages of the Multiplayer Prologue are more original, or at least they didn't copy Crash Bash. Calling them unique however would be an obvious lie. 'Funball' is a football stage with 2 teams of 2 players. There is a stun power-up and a barricade item, that can protect your goal for a limited time. Nonetheless, this minigame isn't so great either. Shooting and Moving feel once again pretty clunky. This is closer to some awkward table football attempt, than a real football minigame. 'Water Mill' however might be the most interesting minigame so far. Players are walking on two opposite spinning wheels and have to hit each other off the map with fishes they can catch. It is certainly no 'Kung Fu Chaos', but there is some fun to be had in trying to stay on top of the Mill for the longest time or trying to survive a punch. Nonetheless, this stage is also plagued by imprecise controls, which can give the combat a lackluster feeling.
So let't take a brief look on the other future minigames. 'Nippon Goal' will be another rip-off of the 'Ballistix' stages from Crash Bash. You can only move on your goal line and have to block balls from entering your goal. Instead, you have to shoot them into the goals of the other players. The other stages are thankfully not just stolen by Crash Bash, but also quite minimalistic and nothing we haven't already seen either in other forgettable games, or done much better. In 'Snake Sabotage' you have to try not to get eliminated by fire snakes in a grass field. In 'Slide Fest' players have to run from left to right while avoiding angry village inhabitants. There are a lot of mediocre runner mobile games with similar stages. The cinematic trailer certainly made this stage look cooler than the gameplay looks. 'Cliff Arena' looks like a bad 2D Brawler and 'Dog Fight' seems to be a tiny plane combat stage. The map looks way too small to host plane fights. The best one probably is 'Ice Breaker', where players have to throw bombs at each other, but also slowly destroy the ice platforms they are standing upon. Nothing great, but at least it looks better than the rest.
Result:
The Multiplayer Prologue is obviously not the finished product, but at this point I would be shocked, if Potato Arena would become a really good game. There are some positive aspects here, like the availability of local and online Multiplayer, plus full Bot implementation. Otherwise, however the game is at best mediocre and often even worse than that. The visuals are quite simple and the potato people nothing really memorable. The stages from Crash Bash only make you miss the original, much better versions and the more original Potato levels are rather insignificant and boring. Online Multiplayer problems, clunky movement and weird menu controls without mouse support don't help the game either.
3.5/10
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