Super Treasure Arena

How it plays

You pick from five characters (Warrior, Rogue, Mage, Mystic, Ninja), each with a special ability, and drop into tight top-down arenas full of monsters and loose treasure. The basic idea is simple and a little mean: grab coins, then take them from whoever else grabbed them first. Weapons like bows, magic staffs, bombs, and rockets are scattered around the maps, so fights rarely stay static, someone with a rocket launcher can turn a losing position into a win in seconds. There are two ways to play it. Classic has you farming coins off monsters and chests and then beating rivals down to steal theirs, while Treasure Run turns it into an escort mission where you have to keep a loot-filled chest alive on the way back to your base. Both modes support up to four players, and you can fill empty slots with AI bots if you don’t have a full group.

Who it’s for

This is a couch co-op game first. If you’ve got friends or family around and a controller or two handy, split-screen brawlers like this earn their keep fast, especially with a format that rewards chaos over precision. Fans of old-school arena shooters and score-attack party games will recognize the rhythm immediately. It’s less suited to people hunting a single-player campaign or a deep, evolving competitive scene, since the appeal here is short, scrappy rounds rather than long-term progression. If you mostly play solo and don’t lean on bots to fill out a match, it’s going to feel thinner than it does with actual people in the room.

Is it worth grabbing?

For what it is, a small-scale multiplayer arena game with two modes and a handful of characters, it’s an easy thing to add to a library, especially if it ever comes free. It’s not going to replace your main multiplayer game, but as a side dish for game nights or a quick four-player scrap, it does the job without asking much of your time or your PC. The people who’ll get the most out of it are those who already have a regular local co-op group, since online numbers on a smaller indie title can thin out over time. Worst case, it sits in your library for the next time friends come over with controllers in hand.

Quick facts

Genre: Action, Indie. Developer/Publisher: Vennril. Platform: PC (Steam). Released: December 24, 2018.