Let’s take a look at perhaps one of the shortest-lived apps in recent times; Sword Art Online: Variant Showdown. It was originally released back in November 2022, before bad reviews and a lot of issues caused the developers to take it down in September 2023, less than a year later. 

The management team released a statement offering their apologies and plans to take it offline and perform “extensive maintenance”. It is an admirable move to admit your failings and then work to correct them, instead of dropping the app entirely. Now we can see if the effort was worth it, with the re-release of Variant Showdown. 

If you never played it back during its first stint, then good quite frankly, it sounds like you dodged a bullet. Variant Shodown is an action game that focuses on fast-paced arena combat. You choose a battle, load in, and proceed to rain hell down on enemies using characters and moves from the beloved series.

This extended maintenance has led to a few new features being added, as well as a host of general tweaks to make it actually playable. To start with, the main story is fully voiced, allowing you to follow the adventures of Kirito and pals. Chronologically, it is set after the latest anime episodes, so you will see the likes of Alice popping up. 

Completing stages will result in armour drops, so you can get stronger through challenging battles. The more difficult the fight, the more powerful the armour you get. A great way to convince players to keep trying the more fearsome bosses. If you simply can’t manage alone then don’t fret. You can team up with other players in Multiplayer Battle. Forming teams of three, you will be able to take on the game's hardest challenges with friends beside you.

Sword Art Online: Variant Showdown is available to download from the App Store and Google Play.