Beardbarians

Prepare your hair to attack, smack and knock back anyone who dares oppose you in Beardbarians! Pick from a colourful cast of characters and stunning stages to duke it out with friends or CPUs in the 2-4 player battle mode, or work together to protect your gem from the greedy goblins by upgrading your abilities along the way in the tower defence mode!

Beards

Each character can use their beard to attack, block and grab. Attacks can be aimed in any direction and charged for extra power. Blocking can be used to mitigate any damage, but block too much and it'll destroy your beard, leaving you defenceless for a few seconds. Grabbing (while having less range than attacking) can also be aimed in any direction and ignores blocking from opponents. Grabbing onto them will let you carry them around and throw them away. This combat system works like rock paper scissors where grab beats block, block beats attack and attack beats grab. Beard-based combat will grow on you, we promise! Additionally, you can fight alongside an ally in team battles, so maybe get your friend who’s a little too good at fighting games to carry you to victory!

Abilities

Outside of beard shenanigans, every character can perform your typical run, jump and double jump, but can also dash, wall jump, and use 6 character-specific abilities! These are the key to defeating your opponents, and looking awesome while doing so. Each character has 6 abilities:

Neutral Ability (not holding a direction) Side Ability (holding left or right) Up Ability (holding up) Down Ability (holding down) Block Ability (whilst blocking) Recovery Ability (different button)

The block ability is a primarily defensive move, and the recovery ability is designed for height and distance, perfect to get yourself back on solid ground! Don’t worry if this all seems overwhelming as there is a replayable tutorial to show you the ropes, featuring our favourite teacher, Dummy! Every character’s moveset is uniquely crafted, so you’ll want to learn how they all work to stay on top!

Characters

Dave has a very simple life, he fights for money to fund his gardening hobby. The food he grows enables him to be a vegetarian that eats meat. He loves his pet rock. Dave is a jack-of-all-trades with no glaring strengths or weaknesses who primarily attacks with his shield.

With a hobby for the classic arcade machines (Pac-dude and atmosphere invaders), Transister often needs to repair the frail wiring. During a fix, a minor shock from an arcade machine caused her to be given the ability to conduct electricity and use it to attack people. Transister gets value from her extensive combos and lightning-fast mobility, but is very light and short-ranged.

A true veteran of the ring, The Moustached Muscle is the most famous fighter in the country and a champion for many years. He can struggle to get close to his opponents, but the moment he does, they won’t make it out without at least a couple of bruises, especially if he manages to grab and throw them!

Carla liked to go camping, now with her skills honed in from years of hunting lunch from other people's tents, she is very good at hitting a stationary target. What about a moving target you ask? Well they never did that in practice. Carla does best at medium to long ranges, depending on how good her accuracy is, being able to keep opponents at bay with her quick projectiles, though she might have to get up close and personal to score the kill.

Goaty is quite simple, she is a goat. Probably has underlying anger issues but still a goat. She’s also a speed-demon on the battlefield with devastatingly powerful attacks. However, she will have to recharge her stamina if she goes too crazy.

After years of studying magic, Alakaspam has perfected one spell, FIREBALL. A true universal spell. Thief? FIREBALL. Family gathering? FIREBALL. Taxes? FIREBALL. Sure it’s not perfect but no-one is brave enough to complain. Speaking of, FIREBALLS are the key to winning with this character, alongside his other projectiles. Creating a barrage of spells for your opponent to avoid will destroy them, granted you actually hit them.

Captain Brawnybeard is a traditional pirate; he has a boat despite not being able to pilot it. He has some help from his lover and the old owner of the ship - Shavey Jones - who still occupies the cabin as a ghost. Teamwork makes the dream work as the optimal way to play this character is to control space with a collection of treacherous traps and powerful, but risky, bursts of speed.

An unknown being, similar to an eldritch horror, has changed their form to participate in their favourite competitive sport. To make it fair, Trim Reaper has taken on this persona and will still use some of their weaker godly powers to best their foes. Using a combination of their trusty scythe and unearthly powers, swat opponents away with their superb range.

Kami’s wealthy parents always wanted to give him what he wanted, so when he asked for his first set of gear, they had to give in. Until he lost his first match, Kami had never been told "no" or denied anything so he was understandably rageful. His entire game plan revolves around deception. Sneak up on your opponent, approach from different angles and mix up your timing in order to start powerful combos.

When Beardhoven began his career as a songwriter, he discovered that his songs could attack anyone who hears them, he thought that the cause could be... the songs were awful. He soon realised that his songs were in fact masterpieces when his mum reassured him over the phone, no-one knows what his dad was laughing at while this was happening. Beardhoven’s musical projectiles are tricky as he has the ability to manipulate their speed by adjusting his tempo and smacking them with his lute. Overwhelming opponents with this sheer versatility is the key to victory, and more than makes up for his sluggish mobility.

Once a meteorite, Stalagmight is now a "normal" rock that somehow fights better than a slightly larger rock! Being a rock naturally comes with limitations, namely being slow and almost helpless when there’s no ground to support, but to compensate is VERY heavy and can… manipulate giant meteors and cause global earthquakes? Should this be allowed?

Stages

What’s a beard-based-battle without an epic location to sell the intensity? Run around a variety of stages to initiate or avoid conflict, or if you’re lucky, pick up an item to give yourself a boost (don’t worry, they can be turned off, for all of those more serious matches to take place). From wrestling arenas...

...to outer space...

...and even a giant arcade cabinet!

Every fight will feel just as fresh and exciting as the last! For the more serious players in the crowd, don’t fret! We have 5 basic layouts to allow for unimpeded tests of skill.

Protect the Gem

Tired of fighting each other? In the “Protect the gem” mode you can face off against waves of goblins alone or with a friend. Unlock upgrades as you go to increase your strength or alter the battlefield to your advantage, but watch out, goblins get upgrades too, and they don’t play it fair! Rise to the top of the ranks on the global leaderboard, how long can you hold out?

Online

Play matches online with Quickplay or private lobbies, letting you play with people around the world or have a private match with your friends!

Beard Charms

Spice up your fashionable facial hair with some stylish beard charms, unlocked via in-game achievements. Each achievement unlocked grants you a new wearable beard charm for you to show off up to 3 of your accomplishments. Snazzy!

BBTV

Can’t decide what to have for dinner? Watch four CPUs duke it out for your amusement on Beardbarians TV and use that to decide!

So what are you waiting for? Shave yourself from boredom and play now!