Multiplayer Games

Jan

2021

Boomerang Fu – Putting the “FU” in Functionally Entertaining

Boomerangs don’t work. Contrary to how they’re seen in cartoons and video games, boomerangs don’t actually return to the thrower. They definitely don’t come back if they hit something. Like Australia, boomerangs are nothing but a conspiracy, a bunch of lies to sell misshapen pieces of wood to sheeple.

You want to try throwing a boomerang? Go for it. It’s not coming back, and neither is Timmy’s frontal lobe.

Boomerang Fu, consequently, is just one more cog in the conspiracy machine designed to inoculate the masses with misinformation. By combining boomerangs with Kung Fu—a very real form of martial arts first introduced in Kung Fu Panda—the developers have normalized the act of flinging banana-shaped sticks. The game does not shy away from violence; in fact, it rewards you for killing others. The formula manages to entertain, especially with a large number of people, but it invariably corrupts those who play, proving video games fuel aggressive tendencies.

What is it?

Boomerang Fu takes place in a post-apocalyptic world in which carrots, bananas, and other foods have mutated to gain sentience and pursue a singular purpose: to brutally maim each other with boomerangs. Combatants can hurl their boomerangs at each other or use them as crooked swords to bisect opponents up close. The jump can be used to dodge or kick enemies, dislodging their boomerangs. These killers even have psychic powers, allowing their boomerangs to home in on enemies or be pulled back from across the stage.

They’re deadly killing machines, and you control them. Power-ups further intensify the carnage by adding flaming boomerangs, exploding boomerangs, boomerangs which split into smaller boomerangs, and even a second boomerang. Combine these upgrades together, and you’ll understand why the Second Amendment does not protect your right to bear boomerangs. You can also trigger stage hazards to dispose of your enemies, mostly in the form of flicking switches to pulverize others between two stone slabs.

You seek to be Death incarnate, with a boomerang as your scythe. Each round features a new stage, and your task is to kill the most opponents. You can hold up to three power-ups at a time which carry between stages. If you comparatively suck, you’ll gain a shield at the start of the round. If you don’t suck, you’ll win. It’s that simple.

What’s good?

You’d think such carnage would be too graphic to watch, but Boomerang Fu has packaged its propaganda in a pleasingly cutesy aesthetic. Stages are bright and colorful, and each boomerang has a trail of your color, making it easy to follow the action. Your playable characters come straight from the food pyramid, treating you to such personalities like a coked-up coffee mug, a rather phallic banana, and a less phallic eggplant. These characters respond to the action enthusiastically, and each has a unique death animation, often accompanied by their juices staining the floor. The developers wisely chose to go with these imaginary characters after playtesters responded negatively to the human prototypes.
The gameplay is fast and fun with the help of its power-ups. Power-ups, in general, can determine who wins, so the mad scramble for them adds the needed chaos to each round. Power-ups can also be combined, whether they are helpful to you or deadly. When a boomerangs breaks up into multiple bombs, it does not care if you threw it. Other power-ups give you special powers, like the ability to dodge over obstacles or become a random object to blend in with your surroundings.
Boomerang Fu hosts a wide variety of well-designed stages, each with a minor Chinese theme. Each stage benefits from a specific strategy, be it close-quarter combat, long-range boomerang duels, or stage hazard manipulation. As such, you’ll rarely have a game in which one player stomps over the rest, unless, of course, you’re going against an e-sports-level Boomerang Fu player. If you are, then your best strategy is to laugh at them because they’re an e-sports-level Boomerang Fu player.

What’s bad?

All of Boomerang Fu’s issues—apart from its flagrant violence—relate to its lack of content.

You won’t find unlockable content or achievements to incentivize coming back after you’ve seen everything, which will take approximately 30 minutes. With no single-player mode, you can fight against bots or friends locally. If no single-player mode bothers you, remember that this is a multiplayer game meant to be played with others. After all, you can’t play catch with a boomerang by yourself.
Even if you do have a gaggle of willing participants, Boomerang Fu’s gameplay isn’t complex enough to be fun for more than a game or two. The game wasn’t meant to replace Super Smash Bros. or even TowerFall. It’s meant to be a snack like Hidden in Plain Sight or Cake Bash. That said, there is this one guy who posted, “10 Advanced Strategies in Boomerang Fu for Nintendo Switch,” if you’re really desperate to crap all over your competition and be that one player we’re all laughing at.
There’s not much to customize in regards to matches. You have three modes: free-for-all (scored by most kills or last one standing), team deathmatch, and “Golden Boomerang” (which plays like a game of keep-away). You have a collection of modifiers—such as an option to choose which items appear in your matches—but certain features are bizarrely absent. You can’t choose which stages to include or exclude, and you can’t alter how many kills/rounds you need to win. You can alter the “match length,” but it doesn’t seem to affect the actual game length, or its change is so negligible I didn’t notice it.

What’s the verdict?

Just like how Splatoon 2 managed to make paint-related squid deaths into an entertaining online competition, Boomerang Fu has translated boomerang gore into goofy couch multiplayer. It’s simple, quick, chaotic, and fun: all the features you want for a party game. However, both the boomerang and Boomerang Fu struggle with longevity, with the fun petering out after a few hours. If you’re familiar with the likes of a Gummy’s Life, Treadnauts, and all of their short-lived brethren, you know what you’re in for. It’d be great if all these games could be bundled into one big party pack, but that’s a rant for another time.

Arbitrary Statistics:

Score: 7
Time Played: Over two hours
Number of Players: 1-6
Games Like It on Switch: Rocket Fist, Stikbold! A Dodgeball Adventure Deluxe

Scoring Policy

Jul

2020

Assault Android Cactus+

Assault Android Cactus+

Defense Gelatinous Popsicle-

High score chasers and speedrunners have found the key to happiness in video games. Whereas the plebian plays a game only once, the chasers and runners will replay that game ad nauseum until they break a world record. Why play any other game when you can play Donkey Kong for four hours straight or complete Ocarina of Time blindfolded? These gamers manage to suck dry any fun the game had and then eat the desiccated husk. At least, I assume they enjoy doing this. Otherwise, their ritual is some sort of masochistic torture lifestyle.

For the high score chasers, Assault Android Cactus+ (AAC) will keep you entertained for the entire year, or maybe a month. I don’t know how time operates for you all. For the rest of us, you’ll be looking at around five hours of playtime, ten at most. Developer Witch Beam has refined the gameplay and presentation so expertly that any gamer will have a blast, no matter how much you end up playing. Assault Android Cactus+ is a must-have twin-stick shooter, but for those without an obsession for leaderboards, the experience will feel short-lived.

What is it?

Assault Android Cactus+ separates itself from other twin-stick shooters by giving you unlimited lives but one battery. This battery steadily depletes over the course of the level, and if you or any of your co-op partners “dies,” the battery loses more energy. Defeating a wave of enemies will drop a green power-up which will recharge a portion of your reserves. The more you die, the faster you will have to dispatch your robot enemies to stay in the game until you’ve defeated all waves. If the battery empties out, you’ll restart the level.

Unlike your mindless robot nemeses, your playable characters are androids, all named after items on a grocery list written by a man having a stroke. Whether you choose Cactus, Aubergine, Lemon, Starch, Holly, or another, each character sports a primary and secondary weapon. Your primary weapon fires endlessly and upgrades as you collect bits from fallen enemies. Hitting the ZL button will cause you to dodge and swap your primary for your secondary weapon, which has a higher damage output. Once the secondary empties and cools down, you’ll dodge back into your primary weapon. Power-ups will occasionally drop from enemies to add firepower/speed or freeze robots. These prove especially helpful when you die and your primary weapon degrades back to level one.

The main campaign features 25 levels, including five boss battles. Beating this will unlock a hard mode of sorts, labeled “Campaign+,” as well as a Boss Rush option. Additionally, you have “Infinite Drive” which sends you against hordes of enemies and bosses until you collapse or reach Layer 50. A “Daily Drive” acts much the same as Infinite Drive but will end after Layer 10. All modes can be played with up to four players, and each mode will award you with currency. This currency can then be used to buy unique options to change gameplay (such as an isometric or first-person perspective), art, or information about AAC’s larger universe.

What’s good?

Dynamic stages carry the game’s intensity and entertainment value. For instance, the first stage sees you battling robots as you ride an elevator, giving you little room to maneuver. Once the elevator reaches the bottom, you have a larger space, allowing you to evade an increasing number of enemies. Several stages will similarly change over time, and others will have stage hazards like conveyor belts, lasers, and fires. Even the static stages are designed to keep you on your toes, although there are a few expected duds. The boss fights, conversely, are uniformly spectacular.
Despite your general mission to decimate waves of enemies, each of the androids incentivize tearing through metal in different ways. Cactus is your most standard fighter, unleashing damage both up close and from afar. With her shotgun and plasma field, Coral is best suited in the middle of the action, blasting large clusters of robots in one go. Shiitake’s rail gun can tear through multiple enemies but is slow, and without her mines, she struggles to stay alive in close quarters. None of the characters seem noticeably weaker or stronger than the others, although I’ve found Starch to be a beast against bosses.
The story and characters deserve their own Netflix adaptation, even if AAC offers so little of them. There are only four cutscenes in the entire game, but the dialogue is smart and goofy. The leading ladies show their personality with their one-liners as they battle enemies, their conversations with the bosses (each unique to the character you choose before the fight), and their background stories. They are sassy, silly, and badass, just as Isaac Asimov intended them to be.

What’s bad?

One button controls dodging and changing to your secondary weapon, and it feels awkward. Because the bosses and enemies can make the game a bullet hell at times, dodging is indispensable. However, if your secondary weapon overheated, you’ll be barred from dodging until it finishes cooling down. During more intense skirmishes, you’ll want to dodge but keep your primary weapon going, so you’ll have to dodge twice to keep your loadout. One could argue that this design choice makes you more mindful when you dodge, but it more often acts as a nuisance when you want to focus on the firefight and not fiddling with your weapons.
Unless you like chasing for high scores, AAC’s Drive modes grow stale quickly. Both modes feature dynamic stages, with barriers falling in and out, creating new obstacles or protection. However, the arenas, themselves, maintain their general circular structure, so you’ll often find yourself circle-strafing to avoid fire, clear enemies safely, and collect powerups. For most gamers, it’ll be fun to try a few times.
The graphics tend toward the uglier side. The game is not a looker on any system, but the Switch version makes things a little blurrier and a bit more jagged in places. Most everything is easy enough to see, and it runs fine, so you won’t die to cheap tricks, but you’ll be excused if you wrote this game off as another generic twin-shooter based on the still images.

What’s the verdict?

All games cater to a specific audience. Great games satisfy their target group and manage to welcome others. Assault Android Cactus+ will delight arcade enthusiasts and those hungering for the tops of leaderboards. For others, the game offers a brief blast of entertainment. Its flaws are minimal; its strengths are plenty; and if there was more to it, it could claw itself to the top leaderboards of my own reviews. As it is now, I’m left wanting a beefier sequel.

Arbitrary Statistics:

Score: 8.5
Time Played: Over five hours
Number of Players: 1-4
Games Like It on Switch: Cuphead, Enter the Gungeon

Scoring Policy

Jul

2020

Hidden in Plain Sight

Hidden in Plain Sight

But Entirely Hidden in the eShop

Not every game needs to strive for greatness. Sometimes good is good enough. We all enjoy a triple-A title, but we don’t always want the engrossing experiences they offer. It takes energy to dive in and appreciate Xenoblade Chronicles, XCOM, and Breath of the Wild. Occasionally, we just want to vegetate with a mindlessly good game.

Hidden in Plain Sight sought to offer one fun idea and then called it a day. Its creator, Adam Spragg, published the game in 2011 and hasn’t produced another since. He ported it to the Switch, not for the riches but because his small fanbase requested it. Apart from a few new game modes, he has tinkered with base formula very little. It looks and plays like a basic Flash game, and it is one of the best “just good” party games on the Switch.

What is it?

Playing like a cross between Where’s Waldo and Hitman, Hidden in Plain Sight throws you and up to three friends into a crowd of identical NPCs to complete a mission, with finding and killing each other often being that mission. Aesthetically, nothing separates you from the NPCs, meaning you won’t know where you are in the room of copies, let alone where your friends are. Your first task each match will be finding yourself without moving too erratically. Then you must blend in with the crowd while completing your mission. Move too conspicuously, and your opponents will find you first.

Let’s use the “Ninja Party” mode as an example. You and your friends are identical ninjas, and your mission is to either be the last one standing or to get the most points by touching statues before the timer runs out. Hitting a statue triggers a ding, possibly alerting others to your location. You can punch with the A button to hit other ninjas, but this action also broadcasts your whereabouts. One hit will knock out your opponents, but NPC ninjas will get right back up. You have only one smoke bomb to cover your tracks. Move too quickly, and you may be assassinated. Move too slowly, and your opponents may earn more points.

The other modes experiment with this formula. “Ninja Party Classic” removes the timer from “Ninja Party” and tasks players with touching each of the five statues. “Catch a Thief” has at least one player acting as a sniper who must shoot down the thieves. These thieves, in turn, must nab as many coins before they’re taken out. “Death Race” is a race to the other side of the room, and each player has one bullet to shoot down a character. Move too quickly toward the goal, and you may expose yourself. “Knights vs. Ninjas” has the ninja characters attempt to kill the royal NPCs while the knight characters go after the ninjas. “Assassin” plays similarly to “Catch a Thief” by challenging assassins to kill as many NPCs before they’re shot by the snipers. Lastly, “Ninja Battle Royale” has you killing each other before a blue circle of death envelops you all.

What’s good?

The simple game mechanics welcome players of all skill levels while still allowing room for some strategy. Aggressive players are more likely to accomplish the objective but rarely remain hidden. Stoic gamers will have a better understanding of everyone’s locations but may spend most of the game behind. Based on your friend group, the meta of the game can vary wildly.
Each mode shines based on the number of players. “Catch a Thief” and “Assassin” thrive with three players, with two snipers working together to take out one thief/assassin. “Knights vs. Ninjas” works best with all four players, allowing two teams of two to strategize against each other. “Death Race” tests your patience and bluffing ability when you’re pitted against one other person, whereas it devolves into a tense scramble with four people. You can’t play any modes by yourself, and there is no online mode, but these are non-issues. Considering this game relies so heavily on banter and politics, you should be playing with others in close proximity, six-feet-apart be damned. That’s a COVID-19 joke. Its expiration date is 2021, hopefully.
Hidden in Plain Sight offers some level of customization. You can tweak timers, NPC counts, the speed of your characters, and the number of bullets in your sniper, among other variables. Filling the screen with 100 ninjas moving at 15 times their speed is good for laughs, but in most cases, you’ll leave the options screen alone.

What’s bad?

What you see is what you get. You won’t find any hidden secrets, modifiers, or other unlockables. Hidden in Plain Sight doesn’t have a save file, so it doesn’t keep track of anything, be it high-scores, player statistics, or game settings you’ve changed. Because you have no achievements or rewards to chase, the only reason to play the game is because you enjoy it, and that just seems wrong.
Jokes aside, Hidden in Plain Sight would benefit from any additional content because its fantastic gimmick is ultimately shallow. Most matches will last around a minute, and my experience has been that players will tire of a mode after 3-5 rounds. Hidden in Plain Sight is best enjoyed 15 minutes at a time, maybe every few weeks.
If we were to judge this book solely by its cover, Hidden in Plain Sight would blend in with the shovelware titles. Its simple aesthetic makes it easy to see everything, and the sprites are detailed enough, but that’s about as much as Hidden in Plain Sight has going for it. Music is largely nonexistent; freesound.org provided the sound effects; and you’ll be staring at a big brown floor in the same room every single match. The aforementioned options menu is so jumbled that it makes graphic designers and players alike cry tears of frustration.

What’s the verdict?

I like Hidden in Plain Sight. It’s not a guilty pleasure like a Gummy’s Life, and it’s far better than the likes of Think of the Children and Headsnatchers. It is also too simple for me to recommend to everyone. If it belonged to a minigame collection like Nintendoland or WarioWare, Hidden in Plain Sight would be the highlight. As it stands now, it’s a quirky side attraction to Smash or Mario Kart, like my beloved Rocket Fist. If you are looking for such a sideshow, then Hidden in Plain Sight will be a small hit at your next drunken escapade.

Arbitrary Statistics:

Score: 6.5
Time Played: Over two hours
Number of Players: 2-4
Games Like It on Switch: TowerFall, Treadnauts

Scoring Policy

Dec

2019

Super Bomberman R

Delayed Release

A whopping 78% of games released on the Switch have received some sort of update, whether it added content or addressed performance issues. Keen readers will know I pulled that statistic out of my ass, but that doesn’t matter. If this review ever becomes popular, I can always fix that statistic and make a better opening. Until then, I don’t need to. That’s the magic of post-launch updates: you can release a half-baked product and fix it later if people end up caring about it. With this, you never have to submit a final draft.

Konami has milked this concept for Super Bomberman R. The series’ revival was a barebones package when it first released in 2017. Over the past two years, it has sold rather well which likely incentivized Konami to produce more content. To the publisher’s credit, every update has improved Super Bomberman R, adding maps, unique characters (like Simon Belmont and Pyramid Head), and a new game mode. However, unlike Splatoon 2 or Arms, Super Bomberman R’s online component wasn’t strong enough to keep gamers playing, and the updates weren’t enough to pull them back. The updates did save Super Bomberman R from being a bad Bomberman game, but they didn’t necessarily make it a good one.

What is it?

Bomberman’s general gameplay tasks you with blowing up all other enemies in a maze-like arena. Instead of attacking others directly, you must strategically lay bombs to ambush or trap opponents. A bomb will explode a few seconds after you place it, sending fire in the cardinal directions which can kill both you and others. “Soft blocks” can be destroyed, opening new paths and potentially revealing power-ups. These power-ups give you new abilities/bombs or increase your speed, the spread of your bombs, and how many bombs you can plant at one time.

Matches play out quickly as you to race for power-ups, dodge opponents, and lay down your attacks. Bomberman has always thrived in multiplayer environments, and Super Bomberman R allows you wage battle against up to seven other players/computers. In the standard Battle Mode, your goal is to outlast everyone else for a set number of rounds. In the Grand Prix modes (added post-launch), it’s 3v3 to reach a specific goal (get the most kills, capture the flag, secure the zones, snag the most crystals), and your characters respawn if eliminated. Both Battle Mode and Grand Prix allow for local, wireless, and online multiplayer, although you’ll be hard-pressed to find another player online.

For its single-player campaign, Super Bomberman R offers a cartoony story in which the Bomberman Brothers must prevent a dastardly evil plot. Captured in still shots and laughably bad dialogue, the story does little more than justify why you must tackle 50 stages across five worlds. Each world ends with two boss encounters, and most missions task you will blowing up all enemies (although you have survival and escort variants here and there). The campaign can be played cooperatively with another person, doubling the chances that one of you will die to your own bombs.

What’s good?

The core Bomberman gameplay remains solid, barring some looser controls compared to previous games. Newcomers will blow themselves up a few times before adjusting to the gameplay, but they can eventually keep up with the explosive experts. When eight people come together, the gameplay is chaotic enough to get the room laughing yet still strategic enough to keep games competitive.
Grand Prix offers an innovative alternative to the typical “last man standing” formula. Bomberman has rarely challenged players to work as a team. Even in the traditional team battle, your allies operate more as extra lives than parts of a cohesive unit. In Grand Prix, you will lose unless your team all cooperates to reach the objective. Each character also has their own stats and abilities, bringing a level of complexity absent in other entries. Matches could be improved by shortening them by a minute, and the modes could be more original, but any Bomberman innovation is a welcome one.
Although often simplistic and tedious, the Story Mode can be entertaining. The environments are colorful, and the music is pleasant (even if it loops incessantly). You’ll encounter a variety of enemies with unique patterns, and the stages feature some interesting layouts. Co-op tends to try your patience with your partner more than it offers a new experience, but the option, itself, is still appreciated.

What’s bad?

An expensive shop prevents you from accessing a good chunk of content. Although updates have made it easier to acquire in-game currency, grinding for a single character or map can still take an hour, especially now that online matches are almost nonexistent. Super Bomberman R may award players who invest considerable time in the game, but it pays minimum wage when its shop prices ask for human sacrifices.
Super Bomberman R may be a reboot of the series, but this doesn’t justify less content and customization options. Unique modes from previous entities, like Air Drop (Dodge Battle) or Panel Paint (Reversi), are absent, and the same goes with power-ups (with several bomb variations excluded). You can’t randomize the stages or modes, make power-ups inflammable, include or exclude certain power-ups, or set handicaps. Now that indie developers are allowing us to finetune every aspect of local multiplayer (see Towerfall and Treadnauts), Bomberman feels out-of-touch with the current gaming world.
Apart from Grand Prix, Super Bomberman R does little to change or improve the series. Bomberman still can’t make its single-player mode anything more than a side dish. Battle Mode is virtually unchanged from previous installments, and its stages are recycled from previous entries. If Super Bomberman R was released during the series’ heyday, it would be considered another mediocre sequel, nothing more.

What’s the verdict?

After nine years since the last Bomberman entry on a Nintendo home console, I’m glad to see the series return and perform so well financially. It’s just disappointing to see it return so meekly. In its efforts to reboot the IP for a new audience, Super Bomberman R has sacrificed innovation for familiar territory, despite the fact that this territory has been ravaged by mortars for decades. New characters and modes show Konami is interested in straying off the beaten path, but after sitting on the franchise for nearly a decade, you would have hoped they had forged a new path during that time. We never demanded a perfect Bomberman, Konami, but these anemic blasts do little to blow our socks off.

Arbitrary Statistics:

Score: 6
Time Played: Over 15 hours
Number of Players: 1-8
Games Like It on Switch: Flip Wars, Towerfall Ascension

Scoring Policy

Nov

2019

Headsnatchers

Heads Will Roll

Headsnatchers has an achievement for those who log 50 hours into the game. I can appreciate the developers for rewarding players for sinking that much time into it. I can’t imagine a single person who would subject themselves to such an endurance test. Considering that reaching the 50-minute mark is an accomplishment in out of itself, one wonders if the developers were delusional or overly optimistic.

Maybe we can call them “dreamers” instead. They certainly have a novel idea, one which could have been an irreverent, zany multiplayer game. However, somewhere along the way, their dream game became a nightmare, one which is incoherent, illogical, and unwilling to let you have adequate control of your body. Ranking as the worst game on my Switch, Headsnatchers hurts to play, no matter how much love the developers may have poured into it.

What is it?

You knock them out and then rip off their heads: that’s the Headsnatchers way. The rest of the game depends on the arena because each has its own win condition. One stage requires you to shoot a basket with your opponents’ heads. Another tasks you with feeding those noggins to a shark. Some stages forgo the head-stealing and place you in a head-popping obstacle course. Each level begins with an opening cinematic explaining the rules (sometimes poorly), and then you’re sent into the fray.

It only takes few punches to fall unconscious, leaving your precious brain bag defenseless. Mash A enough times, and your headless body can get back up and attack the enemy, ideally dislodging your head from their grasp. The X button performs a standard or charged punch while Y executes a dash attack. You’ll occasionally have access to weapons, but picking up and using them usually takes so long that a simple smack is more effective. There’s a dodge roll as well, but the hit detection is dodgy enough so you don’t have to be.

“Tornado” headlines the game modes, and although it lacks any tornadoes whatsoever, you will find free-for-all battles in which each of you vies for three, five, or seven wins. “Tag Team” simply pits two teams of two against each other on the same maps found in Tornado. “Online” offers a lobby where you can jump around until you realize no one is playing Headsnatchers. You could play with friends online. You theoretically could. “Roulette” adds a few cutscenes and randomizes which stages you play but is virtually identical to Tornado. “Zombie Castle” rounds out the package with a single-player mode which involves isometric platforming and gunning zombies, making it the only mode that isn’t like Tornado and proving Tornado should’ve been the only mode. And while we’re at it, let’s take out Tornado.

What’s good?

Headsnatchers features a rather competent head creator. It’s like making a Mii except your creation is usually horrifying and the facial features overlap each other. You can then use your character to play, or you can choose from the 104 heads created by the developers. Most of their designs are actually endearing, to the point that Headsnatchers should have been a collectible action figure set (like Funko Pop) rather than a video game.

What’s bad?

The controls make Headsnatchers borderline unplayable. Movement feels loose, and your punches/jumps/shots will rarely go in the direction you aimed. Sometimes your inputs don’t register, and other times they’re delayed. Even if you do land an attack, it only matters if the hitboxes decide to work. I’ve blasted other players square in the chest with a shotgun only to see the bullets phase through them. When the game gets to decide which of my inputs will matter, I’m not playing; I’m simply hoping I can participate.
If the controls don’t ruin the experience, the bugs will. Of the two times I found one other person for an online match, both ended because the game didn’t register when someone had won, causing us to be stuck on a single stage. This same issue can pop up in local play. Additionally, you may think you avoided an obstacle or zombie, but if the coding disagrees with you, you’re out a head.
There is no option to play with bots. I’ll repeat: in a game with a dead online community, THERE IS NO OPTION TO PLAY WITH BOTS. There are a few games out there that still lack bots, but for a game this simple and so dependent on chaotic multiplayer action, it’s absurd that the developers did not include this option. The Tag Team mode is unplayable without four people, and it’s easier to play alone with four controllers than find three other consenting humans.
Some design choices seem to exist only to frustrate the players. The camera will zoom in based on the players’ locations, and if you’re right next to each other, the camera is fixed inches from your faces. There is no temporary invincibility once you’re knocked down, so if you’re in a pit of spikes or bullied by another player, “Tubthumping” becomes your anthem. If you’re entirely knocked out of a round, you’re frozen in place until everyone else is as well. Without a timer or any “sudden death” hazards, matches can drag out as the living players fumble with the controls. Certain stages are also dependent on precision platforming which is nigh impossible. As such, those stages either last minutes longer than they should or end in a draw.
Zombie Castle is a “how-to” of bad platformer design. Most stages find you jumping from blocky pillar to pillar, and you need near-perfect jumps to overcome them. Add that isometric view, and “leap of faith” becomes synonymous with “jump.” Occasionally you’re tasked with ripping off a zombie head to use as a key, but most often, these zombies serve as invincible bad touches. It’s generic; it’s boring; and the controls still suck.

What’s the verdict?

I’ll acknowledge I played barely two hours of Headsnatchers. I gave up on Zombie Castle after beating the second floor. An online community doesn’t exist for me to be able to play online. Player 2 refuses to touch the game, and my friends could only stomach a round. Perhaps you unlock improved controls, better performance, and bots if you reach 50 hours of playtime. Perhaps you achieve Nirvana. Having played only the two hours, I have only achieved the understanding that the developers had a great idea and didn’t know what the hell to do with it.

Arbitrary Statistics:

Score: 1.5
Time Played: Over 2 hours
Number of Players: 1-4
Games Like It on Switch: A Gummy’s Life, Stikbold! A Dodgeball Adventure Deluxe

Scoring Policy

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