Since it was first released in 2012, Awesomenauts has carved out its own niche in the MOBA genre by combining the excitement of team-based multiplayer with gameplay mechanics inspired by fighting games and classic 2D platformers. If that potent blend piques your interest, there’s no better time to try the game out than right now, as it’s going free-to-play on Steam.
Awesomenauts is all about being awesome — both as an individual and as part of a team. Before a match, two teams of three players pick their characters from a diverse and distinctive roster. From there on out, it’s a race to destroy the opposing force’s Solar Collector deep within their home base, killing off mobs and earning upgrades as you go to make the task a little easier.
For the past several years, Awesomenauts developer Ronimo Games has been transitioning toward a free-to-play model. A multiplayer game like this only gets better when there are more players to compete against, so it benefits the community as a whole to introduce new combatants in this way.
To facilitate the move to free-to-play, the studio will implement a new in-game currency known as Awesomepoints. Awesomepoints are earned simply by playing the game, and they can be used to purchase everything from characters to cosmetic upgrades like custom character portraits and droppods.
Of course, Ronimo isn’t forgetting about the existing player base that made the game what it is today. Anyone that played the game before April 26 has been granted ‘Founder’ status, which grants access to an exclusive portrait and medal. What’s more, anyone that purchased the base game and both expansions before May 24 was granted access to all current and future characters for free.
Here’s some footage of Awesomenauts in action:
Awesomenauts goes free-to-play on PC today, and it’s available via Steam. For more information on this slice of multiplayer madness, head to the game’s official website — and for the lowdown on how to get the most out of each and every character, check out the Official Awesomenauts Wiki.