Qubic Games and Sonka’s Astro Bears Party was recently updated with some new content and features for the Nintendo Switch. The competitive party game is a 3D arena title where up to four players are on a planet and must defeat the other players using streams of color.
The concept is very similar to the lightcycle battles in Tron, where competing players rely on trapping their opponents in a light maze until they crash. In this case, the astro bears also stream light out of their behinds but they have the added ability to jump, not unlike the newer lightcycle versions in Tron Legacy. The idea in Astro Bears is to lay down as many light tubes as possible to trick your opponent into either running into the stream or mistakenly jumping into the stream.
You can see what the gameplay is like with the trailer below.
Originally Astro Bears came out back in 2017, but it appears as if it’s been updated with some new modes and improvements to existing modes, specifically the online leaderboards, which is now a standard in most multiplayer games following the premium rendition of the Nintendo Network going live, as well as the cooperative mode for the Jetfish hunting.
There are eight different bears to choose from, each with their own quirks stats, along with HD Rumble support. In the competitive mode up to four players can do battle in split-screen play, or you can go at it alone in the solo mode or with a buddy with the aforementioned Jetfish hunting.
This is one of those simple 3D party games you might pop in when you have some kids over and you need to keep the rugrats occupied while you and their mother take care of business in the bedroom.
Anyway, the new update featuring the 1-on-1 Competitive mode is live, along with the leaderboards, new planets and more. You can grab a digital copy of the competitive PvP game right now by visiting the Nintendo eShop, where Astro Bears is available for just $6.99.