What happens if, instead of being a squid kid, you’re a Roomba whose only goal is to paint the turf? Splatterbot answers that question in this fast-paced arena splatfest.

You control a cleaning robot, but instead of cleaning, you’re messing up the joint. It feels like upfront I should be clear that Splatterbot isn’t a big game, very much by design.

The main and only focus of this game is to cover as much of the arena in your colour paint. You do this by leaving a trail of paint behind wherever you zoom. With 2 to 4 robots racing to cover the most space, it’s as simple as the player with the most paint on the floor wins. There are no big season passes or mountains of unlockables here; it wouldn’t work for a smaller scale game such as this. As you play more matches, you unlock cosmetic items, either something to wear on your bot or a new trail that follows your bot (while still leaving paint behind).

To keep it interesting, there are also power-ups that show up across the arena, with four different kinds to avoid overcomplicating it. There’s a speed boost, size increase, splatter (which explodes paint out around you), and Ball, which creates a paintball of your colour to knock around the arena. The power-ups have a pretty big impact in the matches, with some robots becoming giant splattering powerhouses as they knock everyone out of the way. While it can be fun being the powered-up robot, to an extent the power-ups can really unbalance a match early on. Some of the power-up placements really favour certain parts of the arena, which can lead to the nearby robot becoming a force to be reckoned with.

Now, of course, it’s fun to be the giant robot travelling at high speed as you knock around additional paintballs around the arena and wipe the floor with your opponent. It is much less fun spending a good minute or more hoping a power-up spawns near you while you’re lagging behind the powered-up opponent. Across the matches, it never felt like any one person would manage to monopolise every time, and there were enough times that it felt more balanced across everyone getting some power-ups. There are six arenas, each with a different layout and obstacles/gimmick.

Plaza is more straightforward, navigating around bushes. Factory involves contending with moving conveyor belts that keep the power-ups moving around the edge of the arena. Dock has two main areas, with shipping containers as the only way to get across the two. Hexagon is a nice open space with no obstacles in the arena, but there are ropes along the edge like a wrestling ring to bounce you around. Seaport takes the action across two boats, where the jump/dash is required to hop between the boats to make a mess. Office has more contained spaces with cubicles and windows forcing the Splatterbots to bounce around small areas (until you smash the windows).

While there are only six arenas, they all do a good job distilling all the different types of layouts to have without complicating it. They’re all fun enough to return to. It’s a shame there isn’t a competition mode to play through each arena or the option to select a random arena to keep momentum going if you want to play a few rounds.

It is a local multiplayer game for up to four players. If you don’t have four people around, the CPU can step in and help raise the stakes. There’s a Free For All mode or Teams, covering you for either everyone for themselves or if you want to team up. It’s always nice to have CPU players as an option for a game where you can’t play online; here they’re competent enough when they don’t get stuck in the arena on the odd occasion.

There is a colour blind mode and the ability to change the length of the matches or what power-ups you want on or off. As I don’t have colour blindness, I am unsure how effective it is, but you can tell which paint is yours; there are different shape patterns in each trail.

Splatterbot is a fun, brief multiplayer game solely developed by a one-person team at Hey! Kookaburra. The game works best in short bursts with friends, and it never presents itself as anything grander. Sometimes it’s nice to have a solid party game that’s easy to pick up and play.

Rating: 3.5/5