From Namco Bandai's official announcement, "Set in the distant, space-faring future Supernova takes an innovative approach to the multiplayer online battle arena genre by adding real-time strategy elements." That's kind of like innovating a peanut butter sandwich by adding jelly.
The MOBA genre is an offshoot of the real-time strategy genre, so when Namdai Banco and developer Primal Game Studio present a new free-to-play PC MOBA that spices things up by adding elements taken away to create it in the first place, I start hallucinating snakes eating their own tails.
After selecting from a wide array of science fiction inspired champions (here called Commanders), players take to the battlefield in standard MOBA battles, only with a twist. The minions spawning are determined by the players, with familiar RTS mechanics used to upgrade and deploy them to participate in rock-paper-scissors battles for lane dominance. It looks gleefully chaotic.
Players will also be able to use drops gathered during matches to craft upgrades for their favorite Commanders, because every game needs a crafting system of some sort. I'm not even joking.
Just what the world needs, another MOBA, right? Well I'm certainly up for a science fiction MOBA, and with these newfangled real-time strategy elements Supernova might just work. Anything that inspires concept art like this deserves a chance.
Players can sign up for a chance at alpha access to Supernova at the game's official website.