Supercell’s new hit game Squad Busters is pure dopamine — if you’re 8

Finnish mobile game developer Supercell released Squad Busters yesterday, its first new title in over five years. The game launched alongside an admittedly hilarious promo video featuring the likes of Chris Hemsworth and Ken Jeong. 

At the time of writing, Squad Busters has already been downloaded over 10 million times on Google Play. It was the most downloaded app in 122 countries on Wednesday. 

I gave the new game a whirl to find out what all the fuss was about.

Like Supercell’s other titles, Squad Busters is completely free to play. However, there are plenty of in-app purchases if you want to upgrade faster. 

The aim of the game is to build your squad and gather as many gems as possible. You get gems by eliminating monsters, raiding chests, or destroying other online players and their squads. The more gems you earn, the bigger and more badass your squad will become.

You start out as a lone barbarian, but you can quickly add new members to your squad. These include characters from some of Supercell’s previous hit titles like Clash of Clans and Brawl Stars.   

You run around the map using the touchscreen on your phone. When you want to bash a coin-filled chest, kill a monster, or fight other online players you simply stop running and your character(s) will start brawling. Fight or flight — those are the only controls. 

Our verdict 

Some might see the game’s simplicity as a good thing, but after an hour or so of gameplay I was pretty bored. 

Unlike some of Supercell’s previous titles, which require some strategic thinking, Squad Busters feels unidimensional. The lack of controls is indicative of the broader gameplay — there’s little variety.

Aside from giving overstimulated eight-year-olds a dopamine hit, I can’t see Squad Busters gaining the same level of popularity as Clash of Clans, which remains one of the world’s most popular mobile games by consumer spending. 

Then again, Squad Busters is free so I don’t feel hard done by. It is still a pretty neat little game to kill time — and probably marginally better for your brain cells than endlessly scrolling through social media. 

In the meantime, check out the promo vid for Squad Busters. If nothing else, this, I promise, definitely is worth your time: