I think it’s fair to say that with the name “Bronana”, you’re trying to at least draw comparisons to Blobfish’s potato-stuffed auto-shooter, Brotato. So, let’s just get the obvious bit out of the way first:
Is Bronana a bit like Brotato? Yes, yes it is, but not as much as you’d necessarily think. Is Bronana as good as Brotato? No, no it’s not, but it’s not as bad as you might think, either.
When you put Brotato and Bronana next to each other for the sake of comparison, there is only one winner. However, while there are several tonal similarities and the titles are strikingly similar, there are also things that differentiate one from the other.
Banana vs Potato
Let’s start with what the games have in common. Both are auto-shooters.. Both take place in compact arenas. Both have you controlling a piece of food with a face. And finally, both games have you arm your culinary friend so that you can destroy all who stand before you with extreme prejudice.
Bronana gives you two weapons to hold, one in each hand. These can be melee, ranged, or one of each if you’re feeling saucy. The build variety can be further reinforced by the gear you grab along the way. The in-game items can affect the stats of your little yellow friend and there are quite a few to be discovered, however the actual number of weapons is kept relatively modest, which is noteworthy in a genre where it’s not unusual to have six or more weapons at once.
Bronana operates a room system much like the ones in Tiny Rogues and Hades, where you get to pick which direction you head in and therefore what kind of reward you’ll receive when you get there. The rooms themselves appear to have a bit about them at first glance, but the scenery is just there for show and makes no difference to the gameplay, which felt like an opportunity missed.
Bruised Banana
As mentioned, there are loads of items that boost and reduce your stats. More fun are the different costume pieces that you can equip, and this feature I liked because you can see what you’re wearing at any given time. Some of the gear looks somewhat similar, but at the end of the day, it’s fun to see your fruity soldier running around with goggles, a jacket, and twin pistols, blasting left, right, and centre.
I also quite enjoyed the enemy designs, which stick to the culinary theme. You’ll be attacked by biscuits, sandwiches, and rampant tubs of popcorn, and that’s just in the first couple of rounds. Later on you’ll encounter big boss battles that take the culinary concept to the max. Some were tougher than others, but pretty much all of the enemies I encountered did a good job feeding into the theme. Ba-dum-tss.
Bronana is a full release and not a particularly expensive one, but to me it still feels like it could have done with a bit of time in early access. I experienced one corrupted run, and it’s clear that there hasn’t been a lot of polishing, as evidenced by the poor translation and ill-fitting text boxes. The visuals look decent for the most part, but there are still some rough edges if you look closely.
There is a relatively modest selection of banana-skins to unlock, and the meta-progression felt somewhat limited, too. The main variety comes from the action-roguelite gameplay loop, wherein your builds can be steered by a range of more than 200 items and nearly 40 weapons. Each new run is another chance to create an interesting character with any tools offered, and I think there are just enough moving parts to facilitate some meaningful experimentation.
While I did find things to admire, including responsive, tactile action and plenty of humour, it doesn’t feel like Bronana has quite as much tactical flexibility as the potato-based game that inspired it. On top of that, I’d also argue that it doesn’t have the level of polish that you tend to find in the best games in the genre, and that holds it back from higher praise.
Bronana is out now on PC (Win) and I played the game via access kindly provided by the developer and their publishing friends.
