LifeisXbox’s Killer Queen Black review | Killer Queen Black is 4-v-4 multiplayer game that focuses on quick thinking and precise platforming controls. Up to eight players can battle it out online or locally and with it included in Xbox Gamepass, you can try it out “for free”. The best possible experience you can have with this though, is if you invite a few friends over to play on the same screen, though that’s admittedly not really an option right now.
We played Killer Queen Black for 5 hours on Xbox Series X. This game is also available on PC and the Nintendo Switch
What we liked!
- The Three Ways To win: You can win each game in three different ways:
– The first and most common, is the Military victory, kill the opponents queen 3 times with either your own queen or a drone turned warrior.
– The second method, the Economic Victory, you get by collecting enough berries and carrying them to your own base. Only the drones can do this, but you have 3 drones on your team so if they focus on this task, it can be achieved quickly (it seems to be the rarest method to win though).
– And last, but certainly not least, is the Snail Victory, you ride a slow-moving snail to your own finish line. It’s fun if you can go unnoticed and win this way, but most online players know to keep an eye out. It’s still my preferred method to win though. - Controls: Killer Queen Black has a variety of levels with “open sides” meaning you can jump down the bottom and drop back in from the top, or walk right and emerge on the left. Combine this with a few tactically placed platforms and it’ll make a world of difference if you master the tight controls. You’ll soon discover a few tricks like throwing berries at your base instead of walking there, or using the Queens attack to sneak into the enemy base from the first seconds.
- Quick sessions: Each game has 5 levels, but it’s a “first to win three” set-up. With some games only lasting around a minute, you can quickly get in a few games each day without getting bored.
- Local & online co-op: You can have 3 friends join you in your living room or you can team up online and you’ll pretty much massacre the competition. Having vocal communication helps a great deal because you can discuss strategies.
- Pixel graphics: Killer Queen Black’s visuals are pretty charming and evoke nostalgic feelings for the days of playing games like this with friends in the arcades. All the important elements are clearly visible and the entire action takes place in one unmoving screen, so you always have all the visual info you need at any time.
Somewhere between
- Your starting location: Because the drones look alike and often die at pretty much the same time, I often had an issue where I wasn’t sure where I was spawning or if it was me or another team-mate that died. It’s a minor gripe and probably more of a personal issue than something that Killer Queen Black could fix with a change.
- The Achievements: There are a few fun achievements like throwing the berries into one of the holes of your hive or riding the snail for X amount of pixels across the screen, but some of them are a real grind as well, like playing 10 hours as the Queen or 10 hours as a drone. Don’t expect a quick 1000G if you’re playing this one, it’ll have to be earned!
What we disliked
- Not easy to get a full human match-up: Multiplayer games usually benefit from being on Xbox Gamepass and have a ton of online players, but for some reason I never managed to get an online match going in Killer Queen Black with more than 2-3 real players. Luckily the AI bots are pretty smart and behave well enough. Except for when they don’t.
- You can trick bots: A trick I’ve discovered early on, that is useful if the opponent has bots on their team, is throwing a berry right below the small gap between your base and the opponents. It’s not present in all levels, but when you succeed, 1 or 2 AI drones from the opponent’s team will get stuck trying to pick it up. It’s a cheap way to get an advantage, but very effective so I’ve seen some players resort to this (as have I).
CONCLUSION
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Robby lives and breathes video games. When he’s not playing them, he’s talking about them on social media or convincing other people to pick up a controller themselves. He’s online so often, he could practically list the internet as his legal domicile. Belgian games-industry know-it-all.
