Disclaimer: I have like 150 hours on the JP Switch version. Ignore my PC playtime.

tl;dr If you can look past the visuals you get one of the best EDF titles, but it lacks the class depth of the mainlines and unlike the others it's a little too self-aware.

I vividly remember thinking this game would suck when it was revealed. "EDF but for kids" sounds like a recipe for disaster and it being headed up by the Iron Rain team (a game I'm not too fond of) made it seem like it was headed for the bargain bin.

Fortunately, Yuke's surprised me. WB is not only excellent, it might be my favourite EDF title.

The first thing you'll likely notice is how different the format is. Mainline EDF gives you 1-4 classes and has a whole mountain of gear, weaponry and vehicles for you to unlock. World Brothers gives you the EDF5 Ranger with a single weapon and tells you to go recruit more people, who each come with one weapon and maybe an accessory. They have recharging abilities like air strikes, tapioca tea and molotov cocktails, and Special moves that recharge upon killing things which have an equally large variety of effects. Rather than unlocking new weapons for a class, you level up that class so they can use other people's weapons (the level cap is 10, which lets you use anything).

It doesn't sound very EDF, does it? But it is. Delightfully so, in fact. If you're familiar with Warriors games, this is to mainline EDF what Warriors Orochi is to Dynasty Warriors. Different framework, but the EDF core of charging into swarms of giant aliens, robots and insects is still intact. The team swapping and build flexibility just give you far more options, and the denseness of the maps (to accommodate the Switch's weaker hardware) honestly makes some later missions MORE chaotic than the mainlines, especially from Hardest onwards. Much like Warriors Orochi, this is also a crossover title, so you get to fight a wide variety of enemies and your favourite class from the other games is guaranteed to be in. There's a bunch of returning maps too, including London, so if you're an abolitionist you can take down Parliament.

There's a lot of replayability too. Around 150 characters to acquire and six difficulties with the mission pack (launching Jun 10th), and that's not factoring in higher level versions of weapons and accessories (up to level 5 with the mission pack). The story is a bit short, only 60 missions (71 with the mission pack), but they're good missions and there's not much filler.

That all said, the game does have a few issues. Despite the lower amount of weapon levels, some higher level variants are a downgrade. Some world brothers/sisters outright suck, and while you can build a team around them, you likely won't be so generous in higher difficulties. Unlike the mainlines, which are corny because they try to be serious, WB tries to be tongue-in-cheek and self-referential. YMMV, but the humour can get old. There are less maps than in other games, so there's a ton of repetition on that front. Some maps have really bad unit placement, which can make grabbing them a pain in the ass. The music gets repetitive FAST and I genuinely recommend disabling it. At the time of writing, the PC version has mouse smoothing that makes turning around a pain in the ass.

Despite these issues though, World Brothers is still my favourite EDF, and I've played all but one of them. The variety and fun on offer is amazing and I don't think we'll ever see anything like it again unless this game shifts millions. Buy it, play it, love it. And hey, if you hate it, you only need an hour to decide if this is for you or not.

Don't buy the season pass though, just get the mission pack in a couple weeks. Unless you REALLY want to play as Sarge from EDF5 or whatever.

I love the EDF games. I had to come give a negative review to try and counter some recent unscrupulous business practices. When this game launched, they sold something called a 'season pass' which was like 25 bucks. Then after two weeks they released the first content update which they want another 15 bucks for and is not included in the season pass. Sure, they're well within their rights to do it probably, but it's shady at best and I recommend keeping your money.

If you loved the old games, you may, like I did at first, boot this thing up and hate it for the first hour.
You have to collect randomly selected characters in every level, meaning you start with just a Ranger and have to wait for luck to give you a Fencer or Air Raider. I didn't get either of those for a long time. Instead, I got a Mexican man that hucked burning Tequila as molotovs and did a Mariachi song as an Ultimate move. Followed by a Dutch woman that threw tulips and set up a turret shaped like a windmill as her Ultimate. The levels were small. The number of enemies were also small. You can only find new weapons when you pick up new characters, and that is all the customizing you can do. Each character has a special and an ultimate, and those cannot be switched out. If you're a fan of airstrikes, you have to wait until you find a character with one.

I rolled my eyes at the stereotypes, lamented everything that seemed to be missing, and seriously considered refunding this game and going back to EDF 5.

But eventually, it grew on me. As I gathered more characters and the new weapons they carried, I realized that the real fun in this game is in making whatever goofy 4-person team your heart desires and kill ants with them. Want to make a classic combo with the Ranger, Wing Diver, and all the rest? Go for it. You want to make all fliers, with not only the Wing Divers, but the Pale Wings and Jet Armor guys from the old-old games? They have them, and you can do that. Wanna go full anime and have a team of E-girls, Cat Maids, and Pop Idols? Have at it, you freaks. Hell, go full Halloween insano-town like I did and go with Cowboys, Pirates, actual Dracula, and a Canadian Bear Furry with a minigun.

When you get your team of people you like, and the EDF fan armor is broken through, you may start to warm up to all the good things about this game. You notice that, for the bazillion and one characters you will pick up, the acting for them is done with heart and energy. You notice that when you switch characters, the stage music changes to match them (like when you switch to Dracula, you hear an organ start up). You may notice that the writing starts to get real laughs out of you. The levels, while short and small compared to the Sandlot games, are consistently fun. You remember those endless underground levels in EDF 4 and 5 where you got lost all the time and Air Raiders became useless and you're just traveling through tunnels where nothing happens until you get killed and you realize there were no checkpoints and you have to start all over again? This game doesn't have those. When you get everything from characters (of which there are only 3 per level), there's no more grinding for weapon and armor pickups.

This is the LEGO Star Wars of EDF. It's a simple parody that's missing some of what's good about the old material, and a lot of what's bad. The less you take it seriously, the better it gets and the more it surprises you with its quality. Old fans, give this one a shot.

The game itself is fine, but trying to sell me a $15 mission pack less than two weeks after the game was released is just plain greedy. I love buying a new game just to find out that I was not sold the entire game, and the rest is hidden behind another paywall.

In the first level alone, I recruited an English royal guard complete with the bushy hat who fights for the Queen, an "Amigo Brother" wearing a sombrero, and a Hollander woman whose superpower is a small windmill that shoots tornados.

They were quickly joined in the next few missions by an American cowboy whose cows were kidnapped by aliens, and a time travelling Japanese Ninja very concerned with eating Miso Soup and Honor. Later, an enterprising Dim Sum Sister named Pao was found and immediately attempted to harvest giant spider webs.

All of these character engage in banter and drop random country factoids in the broadest of 90's anime and cartoon ways. The dialog is a perpetual mix of being so stupid it's funny and making me grin like an idiot, and being so painful it makes me mute the voices in second hand embarrassment.

As a lover of EDF, cheesy things, and "so bad it's good things" I can only give this game's writing and atmosphere the highest of thumbs up.



It’s classic EDF gameplay, and I mean that in the best way. Giant insects and robots attack, and you blast ‘em. Carriers, anthills, and even boss fights are here, done like main EDF games, not IA or IR. No crystals or credits.

Respectably large maps, destructible buildings, and the ability to destroy even voxelly clouds makes this a pretty solid and familiar playing EDF installment despite its unusual look. Features music, emblems, characters, and weapons from all previous EDF games, from EDF1 to Iron Rain and the original "brothers" in this game.

The "team" mechanic might throw you off, but it basically translates to having 4 weapons, abilities, and lives. Each team member can be equipped with a weapon, has a built-in unswappable ability (dodge roll, sprint, etc...), a rechargeable Special ability (healing, air strikes, buffs) and can have an accessory that boosts stats.

It's new but not shockingly new, just gives you a few extra options and can let you avoid the nasty surprise of having only short range weapons for flying Ravager drones, saving you a restart.

Regarding the team being 'Lives': Losing all your health on the active soldier knocks that team member out, and it works like classic EDF multiplayer - you need health to revive them. So be careful, it's not consequence free like other TPS games.

Switching active teammates swaps your current member with another in the exact same spot you are in. The other teammates are still fighting even when not active, though they do seem to do less damage than when you are controlling them. They can also take damage when inactive, though again, seemingly much reduced than when under your control. Some cases like being completely surrounded by Bosses or being caught in an Air Raider's Special Airstrike will still kill them, and they can still whittle down trash if given heavy damage weapons like the Lysander sniper rifle.

Various accessories can be found and equipped to alter active and non-active stats such as speed, reload, damage, health recovery. You can also summon them for apparently no cost to your location, which can help in some situations such as saving inactive team members from area effects or a boss stomping through an area. Usually not necessary but helpful in specific situations like cramped caves or huge bosses stomping through.

Rescuing teammates replaces scrounging weapon and armor boxes. There are only so many on a map, and who you rescued is randomized each mission, along with a possible weapon and accessory.

Rescuing teammates adds them to an empty slot on your team if you have one, and rescuing a teammate you already have on your team results in Skill Points. Levelling up teammate Skill Points lets them use different classes of weapons. So, Ninja Brother can only use Hanzo Steel at first, but if you repeatedly rescue Ninja Brother from levels, he can eventually use Pig Disgusting Gaijin Guns.

Note that this only applies to weapons. You can’t ever swap a Ninja’s Dash ability for a Trooper’s Dodge Roll, or swap speed and armor stats. All characters have their own speed, ability recharge speed, jump, and SP recharge stats, influenced only by accessories.

Max HP/Armor points increase simply by completing levels with teammates you assigned from the start of the mission. Maps are notably bigger than what I recall in Iron Rain and Insect Armageddon, quite confident they're as big and as vertical as EDF 4 and 5.

Computer performance on an RTX 2060 has been flawless with everything at maximum at 2560 x 1080. Though admittedly I've been mostly doing Solo Story mode, so I can't speak for what happens if everyone has the Genocide Gun at the same time.

Uh... No, it's a fun EDF Game but still has some inherent jankiness and flaws, like everyone's favorite bug that has lasted the entire series, "An Ant has disappeared into another dimension while climbing wall geometry in a deep cave mission and no amount of explosions can hit it." Trapped enemies eventually die/disappear so you can't softlock, but you will be very confused if this is your first EDF.

Tonewise, if you're expecting this game to have the same tone as EDF 5 where Earth was basically facing genocide at the hands of aliens, you might be in for a mood whiplash. On the other hand, the EDF has yet to confuse giant frogs as creatures that look "Just like us" over ten missions in.

Completionists are in for a hard time, as well.

First off, Hardest and Inferno are not immediately unlocked. Hard is the max at first, and it doesn't seem to count lower difficulties as completed if you beat a mission on Hard. As the game is notably less murderous at the start than other entries, I would have appreciated the chance to see what Inferno was like. You may be frustrated with having to get to higher difficulties than simply having them at the start.

Second, you aren't going to find as many weapons, as weapons are attached to the EDF members you rescue in missions. While you can absolutely switch weapons on characters, what TYPE of weapon is severely limited until you level up your members and you rescue some duplicates, and categories only unlock one at a time. You will have to spend some time if you want to make the ninja equip assault rifles. It's not immediately apparent what weapon type the next Skill Level will unlock either.

The upside is that you don't need to purchase weapons, it's all EDF rescued members and drops.

Completionist issues aside, the team system and maps also have some flaws.

The team system can make multiplayer kind of excessively hectic, though friendly fire is scaled by difficulty.

While running all Air Raiders and making everything explode all the time is fun at first, you may want to consult with your teammates on what they want from you in order to progress. Or, you know, not melt your computer.

There are some unusual map features in this one, namely being able to fall off the edge of the world. This isn't fatal, and teleports you LOTZ style back to the nearest landmass you were on, but shamefully informs everyone of your humiliation in chat. You can't swim, which frankly isn't much of a loss considering how irritating going swimming for weapon boxes used to be. Still, if you were hoping to retreat into the ocean from a hail of explosions, you can't do that, so be aware.

None of the enemies look like humans this time around

CDawgVA is in this game

Our forces are prepared for any alien threats.
The Navy launches ships, the Air force sends their jets,
and nothing can withstand our fixed bayonets!
The EDF deploys!

it's a neat concept, but not $60 neat. you're better off with EDF 4 or 5

Too much DLC - Yes, it's not the only one, but this is 59.99$...with 14.99$ for levels they stripped away...Could you get your money's worth? Yes, but that means it offers reduced value.