The multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) genre of games is incredibly popular right now. After the massive success of League and Legends and DOTA 2, lots of other companies are making MOBAs with a twist. Bandai-Namco‘s forthcoming MOBA Supernova is one of those.
At first glance Supernova looks a lot like other MOBAs. You play as a human or cyborg commander in a team with four other players. The goal is to push the other team back and capture its bases. Supernova is different in that it doesn’t contain random minions that move to fight the enemy at a set time interval. The minions in this game are a variety of different minions that you can command to do your will. Want some of them to attack the enemy? That’s fine. Want some of them to hang back and defend your base? You can do that, too. This aspect of gameplay is usually found in Real Time Strategy (RTS) games like Starcraft. The addition of this element adds a layer of complexity to the game.
Despite some RTS elements, Supernova doesn’t stand out in the MOBA genre.
Supernova is definitely targeted at people who are already familiar with MOBA gameplay, but at the same time certain aspects of the game are simplified to make things a bit easier. Supernova contains an auto-update feature where the game will take away that sort of management from the player if they don’t want it. Of course, this feature can be turned off for players who want to have control over everything.
When I played Supernova, it didn’t feel very different from League of Legends. I got the chance to customize an army of minions, but I don’t feel like that’s a big enough addition to make this game truly stand out in its genre. The auto-update feature is nice and is something I would definitely take advantage of as an amateur MOBA player. Unfortunately Supernova feels like one more game in an over-saturated market.
