Donut Arena

Um roguelike very weird, by the way, you control an obese character who fights in arenas to get reward donuts. Not to mention that you start the game naked, yes, the game is strange and that is indisputable, but it also has several qualities and future plans that I will discuss here. This is Donut Arena. A Brazilian game that was present at the BGS 2022. I briefly commented on it in another post, but I believe that a full review of this title is worth it.

Donut Arena mechanics

The game is based on 3 main points, donuts, underwear and the arenas. Each arena has its particularity and each underwear and donut has its effect. The game only starts after the player moves, so there is no lack of time to decide the order in which you want to attack the enemies.

Arenas

The game has a total of 3 arenas. The first being the simplest, having only 3 enemies. being the first arena you will face, including in the tutorial. In this arena as a reward the audience will always throw an item. As you progress through the game more items are unlocked, thus expanding the usefulness of fighting in the first arena. However, if you fight it too many times, the king will be enraged and throw you into the last arena.

The second arena already brings donuts as a reward, but they are not normal donuts, each donut given in this arena has a unique effect, which will be active in the next battle. In other words, some donuts will be able to help you in the next arena, however, if you keep fighting in it too much, you will start receiving donuts that do not count for points, because they are spoiled, forcing you to advance from the arena to receive points again.

The third arena is the most difficult, having 6 to 8 enemies, the amount increases as you advance in the game. This arena is the one that makes the king happy, so if you win it consecutively your reward will get bigger and bigger. Receiving normal prize donuts, starting with 2 and increasing progressively. The best arena to join scores, but without a doubt the most complicated of the 3.

Underpants

The game has a sequence of different underwear, being released as you reach scoring milestones. Getting more score guarantees more underwear. Thus expanding the strategies you can use. The player can change underwear at the end of each battle or at the beginning of the game, that is, you can change underwear as needed. For example wearing underwear that only grants a benefit in arena 2 only in it, and then changing to one that grants a benefit only in arena 3. Below you will find all the underwear in the game, in the order they are released.

Pampered: The audience can reward you in the most difficult arenas as well. The chance is lower the harder the arena.

Genie: Keeps the effect of the current equipped helmet active even after it breaks, until you change your underwear or equip another helmet.

Alien: Greatly increases the chance of being rewarded with the Space donut by the king of the second arena.

Pig: You can activate an effect once per round that gives you a brief speed boost and cancels any interruptions. Press [SPACEBAR] during combat to activate.

Sexy: Increases your sexiness level with each round you win, randomly affecting more enemies. Affected enemies are stunned and remain stunned for twice as long, regardless of the source of the stun. The sensuality level does not decrease even after changing the underwear.

Shown: Kings happiness level increases even more when you win rounds in the third arena and decreases less when you win rounds outside of it.

Fairy: All the Delicious donuts you eat will have random effects. Effects can also be stored in Space donut slots.

Donuts

Each Donut has its own unique effect, being activated in the next battle after its collection, they are a vital part of the strategy to face more difficult battles. With its special effects, if combined with the special Donut, it can result in a lot of points in the last arena.

Delicious: Has no effect. The happier the kings are, the more and better Delicious donuts will be thrown at you.

Herbal: Produces smoke that slows enemies chasing you and doubles the score gain for eating donuts.

Sugary: Allows you to disarm enemies when you are out of weapons. The effect lasts until a different effect is activated.

Rusty: Regenerates damaged armor and all crowd rewarded items that break while the effect is active.

Organic: After taking a fatal blow, you will get up and fight again. The audience will reward you for your bravery.

Cerebral: Destroys all enemy protections, including shields, heavy armor, and stakes.

Rotten: The king of the second arena only rewards you with the Rotten donut when he is angry. He's so indigestible that it doesn't raise his donut score.

Spatial: Allows you to store donut effects for future use. You can increase the space limit by eating multiple donuts in the same round. You have a chance to be rewarded with the Space donut by the king of the second arena. The chance increases as your donut score increases.

Powerful: There is a chance each round to transform the ordinary armor you are wearing into a powerful one. It resists 1 extra hit and allows you to carry 2 weapons at the same time. You have a chance to be rewarded with the Mighty Donut by the king of the third arena by eating lots of Delicious donuts in consecutive rounds.

Magic: Allows you to transform stored items and donut effects into other random types of the same rarity once per round. You have a chance to find the Magic Donut every time you activate a Rotten Donut. The chance increases as your donut score increases.

Donut Arena gameplay

In this regard, I believe that there are some points that can be modified, the game has fixed controls and would benefit from a customization menu. Another point that can improve is the fact that it is not possible to control the volume of the game, having to be done from the outside by the windows audio manager. A last point is also the fact of having to equip the underwear again the whole round, I believe it would be a point that would make life easier to leave by default the last one that the player used. however, the developer accepts the public's suggestions, so probably this type of improvement will be implemented in the future. Feedback can be sent via game discord

On the keyboard the mouse I didn't face any major problems if not with the aim, the game has long-distance weapons and the possibility of throwing your weapon, which ends up complicating a little just aiming for the WASD, other than that, nothing beyond the commented. So, what I believe is the best experience for this game is playing through the controller. Having a joystick solves the aim problem, greatly improving the gameplay, so I recommend the controller if you want to have a complete experience.

Updates

Talking to Mario Ariano, the game's solo developer, I asked what he intends to do in the future of the game, and the answer I got was this: “The goal now is to collect all the feedback from the players and improve the game based on them. The idea, as for new content, is to release separate expansions that implement the base game experience.” That is, what we can expect in the future for Donut Arena are gameplay improvements and then we will start to see DLCs, such as the one he also mentioned next: “for the next expansion I intend to present a new tournament that would take place in the skies, organized by the gods of flavors, bringing new arenas that would work with different dynamics than seen in the current game.”

Conclusion, my opinion and price of Donut Arena

The game is very simple, it was developed by just one person and it has a lot of strategy involved, overall I really liked the game. Possessing a very attractive price, Donut Arena is available at Steam for Windows for R$ 5,99 or 3 dollars and is also expected to be released in the future for PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch. Despite having few reviews at the moment, only 10, the game has 100% positive reviews on Steam. So what I conclude is, is the game weird? Yes, I've said that before. But it is very interesting and cheap, I believe it is worth the experience for those who like the genre and especially those who want to challenge themselves. Because the game is not easy.