#IDARB (Xbox One) Review

In terms of general gameplay, #IDARB is a very innovative game. It starts off as a simple football match, with two teams trying to shoot a ball into the opposite team's goal. However, it soon becomes a crazy, all-out brawl with no real rules except to win by all means necessary. One aspect that is really unique is the Twitter and Twitch tie-in. The game has an option to scan the Twitch chat of a chosen stream for "hashbombs," meant to spice the game up a bit, such as #ricky, in which the popular internet meme "Rick Roll" dances across the screen, and #bomb, where the ball is turned into a bomb, sending anyone caught in the blast to the penalty box. There are plenty more, and the easiest way to find them all is to play the game and encounter them as they come. However, once they're all seen, the game sort of loses its wondrous lustre, and it becomes a standard soccer game with the occasional twist on the match.

There isn't much to say about graphics and sound, as #IDARB takes the form of a classic 8-bit arcade platformer, even going so far as to put the all-too-well-remembered, "Winners Don't Use Drugs" screen at the beginning. The sounds reflect this, being the sort of low quality, hard-to-make-out voices that would be heard in arcade cabinets such as Mortal Kombat and Pole Position. It really brings back some memories of being in the arcade as a kid, playing games with friends.

#IDARB implements a cool feature, which is the ability to create custom characters. With this, the player draws pixel art of whichever character they want to use, and can put those characters on a team, complete with music and a logo that they can make in the same way. This provides a unique experience tailored to whatever the player is looking for. There's even a "Trading Post" feature where the player can trade characters, logos, and songs with their friends. If a Kinect is owned, QR codes of various songs and characters can be scanned for an easier customised game.