Rubber Royale is a round-based Battle Royale Game, that hasn't released yet. The release date is in fact completely unknown. Rubber Royale is being published and developed by Flashbulb Games, which are known for their previous games Trailmakers and Rubber Bandits. Trailmakers is a vehicle building sandbox game and Rubber Bandits is a goofy multiplayer brawler game. Rubber Bandits is probably also the source of inspiration for Rubber Royale, because they share a similar visual style and physics model. To me it seems like Rubber Royale is supposed to be a Battle Royale spin-off of Rubber Bandits.
Rubber Royale published a Demo in Fall of 2023 and a standalone version called 'Rubber Royale - Holiday Prologue' in Winter 2023, which replaced the previous levels of the Demo with Christmas inspired ones. Since a few days Holiday Prologue is no longer playable anymore (release on the 5th of December 2023, shutdown on the 16th of January 2024). Rubber Bandits used before its release a very similar strategy, with a Christmas Prologue and Summer Prologue as free playable Demos for all players.
Rubber Bandits uses an isometric visual style and is a Brawler Party Game for 4 players with a variety of different gamemodes. The 4 players are trying to rob a bank, but are not only fighting against each other, but also against the security and police. Only one player can be the ultimate Heist Champion after multiple rounds. Rubber Bandits can be played via local multiplayer or online, including full crossplay. The wacky movement and weapons are an important part of the DNA of the game.
Rubber Royale on the other hand is a round based Battle Royale game. I don't want to compare every round-based Battle Royale with Minigames to Fall Guys, but that is probably the game outside of Rubber Bandits that feels the most similar. In contrast to Fall Guys however combat takes a much bigger role in Rubber Royale. Nearly every item can be picked up from the ground and thrown, including other players. The two demos so far only featured 3 different rounds, which were part of every match. The full game is supposed to have many more rounds and 16 instead of 8 players maximum in every match. I was nonetheless a bit disappointed that the 3 levels in both demos were, aside from the Holiday reskin, identical. I would have expected at least one or two new levels for the Christmas edition.
So let's talk a bit about the 3 stages. The first stage is a classic race stage, in where players have to run and combat through a parkour level to reach a goal area. The constant combat possibilities give it a different vibe than Fall Guys Racing levels for example have. I understand that ragdoll is an important part of the Rubber games, but movement and combat nonetheless feel a bit stiff and clunky. You can certainly get used to it and I can't deny that there is some fun to be had, if you stop your competitors from getting ahead. Nonetheless, the gameplay is certainly not going to be to everybody's liking. The second and third levels are combat stages. Players are trapped on small islands and have to battle it out. On the second stage the water level is constantly rising, which brings a bit of tension. Players don't have to preserve their lives here, but instead get points for hitting the other contestants, which is rewarding an offensive playstyle instead of a run away survival strategy. On the third stage players have to first hit and than throw the other competitors of the island. Parts of the island are also breaking off into the sea, which prevents the round from dragging on. The general clunkiness of the gameplay affects Round 2 and 3 as well. These 3 stages are overall all fine, but after a couple of matches you will definitely want some much needed variety, which unfortunately wasn't part of the Holiday Prologue.
Since Rubber Royale is using a classic 3D perspective there will probably not be any local multiplayer, like in Rubber Bandits. Bandits released outside of Steam also on PS4/PS5 and Xbox One/Series X. It will be interesting to see whether Rubber Royale is going to be doing that as well. Rubber Bandits is also, even though cheap in price, a Buy-to-Play game. The player peaks for the Rubber Royale Demo (83) and the Holiday Prologue (144) were significantly lower than those of the Rubber Bandits Christmas Prologue (1496) and Summer Prologue (2696). Rubber Bandits seems to have found a small, but existent niche for itself. If Rubber Royale will release on consoles, with full crossplay and perhaps a free-to-play model, it might have a chance. If it however releases as a Buy-to-Play game, or only on PC, than I am unfortunately a lot more sceptical of its potential.
Result:
Rubber Royale has some potential as a silly ragdoll physics based Minigame Battle Royale. The constant combat possibilities help to differentiate it from games like Fall Guys or Stumble Guys. The game however definitely still needs some proper polish and much more variety of stages. Admittedly this was just a Demo, but I have to judge what we got. Even though I appreciated the Christmas touch on all levels and skins, I was disappointed by the similarity with the previous Demo. As its own game the Holiday Prologue gets a 5.5/10 from me. With the proper adjustments and development however I could easily see the full game becoming a 6 or 7.
5.5/10
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