Being a Queen has never been so murderous. In Killer Queen Black by Liquid Bit and BumbleBear Games, two lucky players will take the guise of a Queen Bee-like character intent on ensuring a sound victory over each other through three different objectives. Is Killer Queen Black a raucously good time or will it have players buzzing to the next game? Find out in our Killer Queen Black switch review.
Killer Queen Black is a solid mix of a 2D action-strategy arena-style game. The game can be drilled down into a small set of repeatable arenas. Where the game really excels is in the way each match plays out, and the deceptive simplicity of the tasks. Every match is broken down into three potential ways to win. You can win Militarily by killing the opposing queen 3 times. You can win economically by recovering enough berries. Lastly, you can win by snail. Winning by snail essentially requires you to ride a very slow snail across a finish line, thereby making it the “golden snitch” of Killer Queen Black. One snail wins it all, nothing else matters if you achieve that.
Players have the chance to choose two different characters, a worker and the queen. Only one queen per team can be chosen per round, so if you end up as a worker, you are limited to the tasks only a worker can perform. These are, either riding the snail or retrieving the berries. A worker with a berry can head on over to a weapon distribution machine, input the berry, and retrieve one of several offensive or defensive weapons, turning the worker into a soldier. The weapons can then aid players in killing other workers or queens or providing a shield for workers that are excited at the notion of riding the snail.
Matches rarely last long, and each team is required to win 3 matches to be declared the winner. Whether you win or lose is little consequence, as you can be placed into matchmaking again immediately and the fun begins again. Killer Queen Black isn’t graphically impressive, it isn’t complex, but there is a lot of excitement and strategy to play out in such a small arena of pixelated bee-people. One of Killer Queen Black’s best features also happens to be the ability to play cross-platform. This bodes well for players wondering whether or not they will be able to find a match. My wait times for each match are generally under 1 minute, with most of them ranging in the 30 – 40-second range.
When it comes to quick fun in the action-strategy genre, you really can’t go wrong with Killer Queen Black. With the ability for ranked and unranked matches, custom matches, and local wireless play on Switch, there are many different options to keep you buzzing around for some quick fun. While I did run into some minor issues, such as getting stuck in the menu when attempting to return from a match, the majority of the game runs smooth. If you’re looking for a 2D arena game that won’t sting your wallet, Killer Queen Black could fit the bill nicely.
