One of the main selling points of upcoming hero shooter Legend Power Brawl is its diverse, colorful roster of over 100 characters, each with its own unique playstyle. This comes much to the chagrin of game director Jackie Patterson, who for some reason is adamant that the ambitious roster size will benefit rather than hinder the final product. It’s a strange choice given that the fate of Patterson’s indie studio, Jetpack Jackrabbit, may be riding on the success—or failure—of this game.
“Basically, every playstyle imaginable is featured in our game,” Patterson reports, explaining the reasoning behind such a dizzying volume of characters. “You want a shadowy rogue who sneaks around and assassinates key targets? We’ve got that. An arcane caster who bombards opponents from long range? Of course! What about a rowdy frontline warrior who disrupts enemy formations? His name is Bronson and he has a Russian accent. There’s no limit to how you can express yourself through your play, and we’ve got even more legends in the works, which means your choices will become even more unlimited. Preorders are available now.”
Such a colossal abundance of playable heroes is unprecedented at a game’s launch, usually creeping up over the course of numerous years. Players have expressed numerous concerns about the roster size, speculating on potential problems such as thematic overlap, daunting learning curves, growing inaccessibility to new players, and older characters becoming obsolete over time. “At least it’s not a gacha game,” comments one skeptical Reddit user, “wherein the addition of new characters only serves to put further strain on the player’s already-starved collection.” Regardless, devs have confirmed that unlocking the full roster will require either several years of consistent play or approximately $625 USD.
While it’s too early to say for certain, it’s possible that the gaming community just isn’t ready for such a crowded catalog of heroes, no matter how flashy, polished, and well-designed they may be.
At press time, Jetpack Jackrabbit has reportedly been granted special permission by the US government to actually print its own money.
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