The current spate of party games has a common theme. Overcooked!, Tools Up! and Catastronauts! all end their names with an exclamation mark, sure, but it is more than that. There is an element of organised chaos. Movements and actions are slightly imprecise in a way that makes things unpredictable. The way those mechanics mess with co-op, and induce yells of urgency amongst friends is the core to their delight.

Mastery of the unpredictability or, at least, the nous to role with the punches when things inevitably go wrong is how to excel in these games.
Bish Bash Bots lacks the exclamation of its peers, but it very much understands the rest of the, arguably more important, ethos.
The gameplay is a co-op tower defence game, each level is a single screen from a top down angle. The player is tasked with protecing an EMP from a deluge of robots.
The player takes control of one of four characters, portrayed in a CalArts style, with a wobbly gait (their arms flail around them as they walk and swing their hammers). Each character has a unique ability (extra speed, damage) and this can be supplemented with gadgets (mines, shock damage etc) with further tools unlocking as campaign progresses. Additionally, there are also turrets that can be built, these cost cogs that can be collected from the debris of destroyed robots. The turrets are standard with gun, rocket, sniper variants for damage, and then turrets that generate fields that slow down robot progress, or that must be hit to force burrowing robots to the surface. An interesting spin on tower defence is that the turrets can be upgraded just by hitting them, or by finding upgrade cubes, rather than spending cogs which introduces some interesting tactics.
The levels are all really varied, with each new level introducing a mechanic – for example early on a crane is provided that can be used to dispatch heavily armoured robots, another has a giant robot Kraken that will randomly destroy turrets. This encourages employing new tactics on each one and that keeps the campaign very fresh.
I mentioned the looseness of the controls that seems integral to these types of games and Bish Bash Bots manifests this in the combat. Turrets will deal a fair bit of damage, but the player will have to hit robots with their hammer to help. The swinging of the weapon is unwieldy and lining it up so that you don’t accidentally knock the robots closer to the EMP is a challenge in itself. When in co-op these awkward swings will send other players flying. So, someone might mean well but end up making a situation worse if they run into a fracas without considering where they are swinging (for those that haven’t figured it out this is me putting my wife on blast).

Another thing that is clear is that Bish Bash Bots is meant as a multiplayer game. I struggled through the first 5-6 areas finding it challenging to mitigate building turrets, upgrading them, and also fighting robots. It just wasn’t engaging, but as soon as an extra player was added, strategies could be planned, disasters could be averted (or hilarious mishaps induced) and the levels really started to flow. I’ve not tried with more than 2 locally, but I think that extra players will only improve the experience.
There is a private game lobby option available, but as of now I have not had the chance to experiment with this. I am glad this is available as getting everyone locally would be a stretch.
Bish Bash Bots is excellent fun, the variety of levels and possible tactics have been well thought out. It doesn’t quite reach the heights of some of its peers, but it is great time to be had and a wonderful spin on tower defense games.
Conclusion
Bish Bash Bots is tight, smartly put together game. A single screen tower defence game, with the wobbly controls of a party game. Well worth the price of admission with plenty of variety in each level.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.