Awesomenauts turns a MOBA into a side-view action platformer. You and up to two friends can join the same online party for a three-player team, or share one PC in local split-screen. The standard online friend match is competitive: your team and three opponents race to destroy the other base. Awesomenauts also has AI practice and local bot matches. AI practice and local bot matches are separate from competitive online play.
Each match opens on a cartoon space battlefield with two bases at opposite ends. Your base sends small droids along the map’s lanes; the other team’s droids come toward yours. Your heroes can fight those units, collect Solar, and attack the enemy’s defenses while trying to keep your own base safe. The aim is to break through the rival turrets and destroy its solar drill. Taking out an opposing hero matters because it can slow a push and give your team room, but the match is decided by the base objective rather than a kill score.
The whole thing moves across a 2D platforming space. You jump between floors, drop through openings, ride jump pads, and chase opponents around turrets and droid waves. A clash can start on one level while a droid line keeps moving below it. That gives the match a different rhythm from a top-down MOBA: the same open path is also a platforming route, and a ledge, wall, or jump pad can change who reaches the fight first.
A shared push through turrets and lanes
The droids give each team a moving front line. They advance toward the enemy base and draw turret fire, while heroes can clear the opposing wave or harass the enemy team. Droids can absorb turret shots, so their position changes when heroes can pressure a structure; clearing a wave pauses that push until the next units arrive. The map has multiple routes between the bases, with platforms, gaps, and short passages shaping how quickly characters can move between lanes. Your friends are working toward the same base objective, but the other side is actively trying to interrupt every step forward.
Solar is the match currency. You gather it during the fight and spend it on upgrades for your chosen hero. Some upgrades improve an attack, while others change an ability or improve durability. These choices happen during the match, so a character’s toolkit develops as the game moves on. The same Awesomenaut can lean into different upgrades from one battle to the next, and the available choices can alter how a familiar ability behaves.
That growth is temporary and tied to the match. A new round gives you another hero selection and another set of upgrade decisions. There is no long campaign in which your team carries a build from mission to mission; the shared progression is the push toward the opposing drill core, with upgrades bought along the way. This makes each match self-contained, while the range of heroes and skill upgrades give repeat games room to vary.
The battlefield includes neutral creatures and map hazards as well as enemy heroes and defenses. Creatures can offer health or create a distraction; environmental elements can interrupt an approach or force characters onto another route. A neutral creature can provide health during a clash, while a detour to reach it can pull a hero away from the turret push. Hazards also turn a direct chase into another route, changing how quickly allies can rejoin the same fight. The exact layout depends on the map. Some areas have stacked platforms and openings that bring both teams into close quarters, while others give flying or long-range characters more space. Familiar goals remain in place even as those spaces change how you reach them. Solar also appears in collectible cubes across the map, and defeating droids, turrets, or enemy heroes can add more to your team’s spending pool. A hero who is knocked out returns after a brief respawn period, but the droid wave and turret damage keep moving in the meantime. Those short absences can leave a lane exposed and shift the pace of a push.
Distinct heroes change the shape of a fight
Awesomenauts are a roster of cartoon mercenaries with different movement, attacks, and abilities. The cast ranges from a jetpack-equipped monkey to a hulking robot and a lizard assassin. Their differences are visible as soon as a match starts: one hero may fly over a gap, another can leap between platforms, and another can pull an opponent into close range. Each has a basic attack and abilities that make the same lane feel different depending on who is crossing it.
The game does not lock heroes into rigid roles such as healer or tank. Their upgrade choices let a character shift emphasis during a match. A robot can build around staying power or invest in explosive attacks; another hero might trade a straightforward damage upgrade for a trickier ability that changes how they enter a fight. Those decisions are made with Solar earned during the action, so the shop is part of the live match rather than a loadout screen before it.
Team composition comes from how those different kits meet. A hero with vertical movement can reach opponents above the lane, while a close-range fighter has to get near them. Ranged attacks can pressure a turret or a character from farther away; mobility skills can bring an otherwise distant hero into the same confrontation. Because you see allies and opponents on the same compact battlefield, the way a friend’s chosen character moves and attacks is easy to read even while droids keep advancing. The roster includes the original lineup as well as characters from the Starstorm and Overdrive expansions. That gives your group a wider choice of heroes, while each person still learns one kit at a time. The same character can feel different when its upgrade path emphasizes an alternate skill, so picking a familiar hero does not make every round identical.
Each character also has a distinctive cartoon presentation, theme music, and cosmetic options. The bright colors, character animations, and exaggerated attacks make the action legible, while the cast’s jokes and space-western oddities keep the setting light. The match itself can still become frantic: characters respawn, droids continue to march, and a turret begins taking damage as soon as the front line reaches it. The cheerful art does not soften the competitive objective; the other team is trying to finish the same push first.
Bot practice and online matches serve different groups
Awesomenauts has AI-controlled opponents in practice and local matches, which lets you learn the movement and upgrade menus without a full lobby of human competitors. Online friends join a competitive 3v3 match as one team against the opposing team. Bot practice and local bot matches are separate from that standard online mode. The status of a dedicated online Co-op vs. Bots queue remains unclear.
A group can also play on one PC with up to three local players. Full controller support makes multiple gamepads a straightforward split-screen setup. The display is divided among the characters, so each person follows a smaller part of the same battlefield. Steam Remote Play Together can stream that local session to friends who join remotely; it shares the local mode rather than creating a separate game type.
Online matches are competitive 3v3: you and up to two friends form one team against three opponents. Standard online matches use matchmaking. Each hero brings distinct movement, attacks, and abilities, and Solar earned during a round can be spent on hero-specific upgrades. The shop operates during play rather than as a pre-match loadout, so upgrades can change a character’s attacks, defenses, or special abilities before the match ends. Droids advance along lanes toward each base and attack turrets; turrets protect the route to those bases. The Windows PC release supports full controller input.
Connection quality can vary from match to match. Maps include neutral creatures that can restore health and hazards that affect movement or routes; some arenas stack platforms above their lanes. Hero movement abilities determine which sections a character can reach. These features change the setting of a fight, but the objective stays the same: destroy the opposing base in competitive PvP.
A colorful match with a competitive center
The appeal is the mix of familiar MOBA goals and platform-game movement. You gather Solar and improve a hero while droids push the lanes, turrets block the route, and the enemy team fights for the same ground. One skirmish may scatter characters between platforms; moments later the droids can reach a turret and turn the focus back to the base. Your group is not only trying to defeat the other heroes. It is trying to make space for its advancing units and reach the drill core.
The short, repeatable match structure suits friends who want a team-versus-team session with movement and character builds inside the same game. There is room to change heroes and upgrades between rounds, but the underlying objective stays clear. Friends who want a co-op story or a sequence of missions should look elsewhere. Awesomenauts is best understood as a competitive 3v3 platforming MOBA that also offers local play and AI practice.