Drunkn Bar Fight Review

Virtual reality is allowing gamers to play out their wildest fantasies, whether it’s piloting spaceships, exploring abandoned asylums, or duking it out in some bizarre futuristic sport. If you’ve always dreamed of something a little more grounded in reality, like scrapping with meatheads at your local boozer, then PSVR, Vive and Rift have got you covered too.

Drunkn Bar Fight does exactly what it says on the tin, dropping players into their own simulation of a pub brawl. There’s nothing clever or cutting edge going on here, but it’s a stupidly fun, throwaway game that will definitely get a laugh, especially if playing with spectators.

Much of that humour comes from a mixture of janky physics and player freedom. Upon entering the first bar, you’ll notice that there are no clear objectives or information being displayed, just another patron stood minding his own business and an unlimited number of ways to spoil his day.

Engaging in fisticuffs is brutally efficient as you flail towards your opponents with a Move controller in each hand. There’s no depth to the fighting here, no blocks, counters, or special attacks, so victory will often come from whaling on the poor sods until they’re all knocked down.

Of course, this being a VR title, Drunkn Bar Fight encourages players to interact with the environment around them. You’ll quickly find hilarious ways to punish your fellow punters, including launching darts, bottles, and snooker balls while attempting the occasional trickshot. Watching how they react as they awkwardly shuffle towards you with their poorly animated attacks is just as funny, and the fact that you can pick up stunned opponents and use them like ragdolls is the icing on the cake.

There are three bars to tear up in total, each with a certain theme, from you bog standard boozer to a slightly snobbish rooftop terrace. Once you’ve dropped every person in sight at least once, the screen will fade to black and an increasingly tougher wave of targets will appear.

While definitely fun, there’s a lack of basic polish and functionality. Having no menus or any form of on-screen info is by no means a deal breaker, but developer The Munky LLC could have fleshed things out just a little bit more. With only three stages and a dozen or so recurring bar fighters, it’s a sparse offering and doesn’t look particularly flattering. That said, I found the $11.99 price tag to be reasonable after spending a few hours messing around and then watching friends do the same. It won’t have the same effect on everyone and even at the cheaper end of the PSVR spectrum, there’s a growing roster of more intriguing, experimental games.

At first glance, I really wasn’t looking forward to playing this. Drunkn Bar Fight looks like a lazily put together cash grab, the kind of cynical asset flip clogging the bowels of Steam’s online storefront, and yet, despite some glaring rough edges, I’m eager to see what The Munky could do with more time, money, and effort.

Score: 7/10

Version Tested: PlayStation VR