Meet the Matador
If you read my preview for Secret Ponchos, then you already know that I have nothing but good things to say about it. The grit, the guts, the glory- it's fantastic. Switchblade Monkeys have a couple of surprises for us this week- a huge update, and a huge sale to celebrate it.
The big news for the update is a new character- The Matador, as well as a new map and the announcement that they'll be rolling out 4v4 play, and the new Deathmatch mode. Making a mulitplayer-only indie title is a risky endeavor, but SBM have been chumming the waters for the past few weeks to get a bigger crowd in their Early Access pool- and it's been working. About a month ago, I was complaining because I couldn't get any action outside of the peak hours. Today, I got the news about the update at 11 am, hopped on to make myself a fancy new bullfighter, and instantly got connected to a 2v2 match. Getting a match 11 am on a Wednesday was unheard of for me about a month ago.
They must need an even bigger pool of players, because the devs are continuing to throw up sales on Steam like Oprah on a free car binge. Right now, Secret Ponchos is 40% off, and you get a free copy to give to a friend. Both copies come with the Matador for free (She will be a DLC-only character in the future), and will also give you the full game once it leaves Early Access. Two copies of the same game for $8.99. If you can't afford to go halvsies on that with a friend, I worry about your financial stability. The 40% off BOGO sale is going on until August 19th.
I only have a couple of matches with The Matador under my belt, and I already think she might become my new default. She's your typical high damage-low health glass cannon, but she has a few dirty tricks up her sleeve that really mix up gameplay. She has the lowest ammo count of all the characters with only two bandarillas and a melee-only sword, so you need to make her shots count; but if you hit with all three, it's an instant-kill. She's also the only character that can blind other characters to close in for a kill or make a quick escape. She reminds me of my favorite D&D archetype- the Arcane Trickster.
