Who knew a "physics engine" could be so much fun? Point and launch your character to inflict maximum pain.
Anyways, it's a simple game but a worthwhile one none the less where the limit is your creativity and the ability to abuse the physics of the game.
Gameplay is simple. The general gist of the game is take your little man (or woman if you downloaded Cookie) and launch him out of a huge catapault. Left stick controls where you aim, right joystick controls how much tension you have on the launcher. That is, it controls how far you fly. You generally fly in a parabolic trajectory (take some elementary physics classes people) until you hit something.
Before I talk about the aftereffects of contact, you can fly through the air doing 8 poses which affect how you land/hit/do damage by pressing the L1 with the shape buttons, or L2 and the shape buttons (triangle, square, circle, x, c'mon stay with me people). Also by pressing the shape buttons alone, you can grab onto things before contact or after contact as well (very handy for hanging onto moving vehicles or a rolling bowling ball for instance). Also, the left stick controls drift, which is fine tuning in the air.
Once you make contact, your character has physics take over, with minimal control afterwards. You have the ability to "Ooch" 4 times (once for each letter in the word). This "nudges" you along a certain path controlled by the D-Pad. If you are still in motion and don't press anything, the ooch meter will refill in 2 seconds time (although this is a little broken as my brothers' methods of play will attest to). You can do a Super Ooch by shaking the Sixaxis controller wildly to fill it up, you get one shot at this so don't waste it, although you can refill the ooch meter again.
Additionally you can grab things constantly, so position yourself in the middle of the train track or the road, grab a ride and get abused.
The game gives score for pain overall, destruction, and the combination of how many distinct objects you hit. Other than what I described, the general gameplay is trial and error.
The modes are pandemonium (just do what you want), Toss the mime (launch yourself, grab a mime in midair and throw him into a bunch of glass panes), or "Spank the Monkey" where you launch at specific monkeys in a timed race to knock them down.
Multiplayer mode is Horse (You can change the letters by the way) which you have to hit a specific target, then go from there, out damaging the other person until someone can't beat the record and gets a letter. The other mode is bowling. Simply put, launch at pins (or sometimes Mimes who tend to dodge you) and the other person is on defense with 3 hazards they can trigger (which are assigned each frame randomly). Fun with explosives is basically like launching yourself at boxes that explode cause damage, and well, just blow stuff up.
Beyond that, you can get trophies for certain achievements like breaking 1.5 million points, hitting the old granny, etc.
Your imagination is your limit, get creative.
Gameplay = 9 out of 10
Graphics : An acceptable level of graphical scenery. So far you only have one map with a few characters. Objects explode sending debris everywhere, the city is diverse and large with many vibrant colors and destructible objects.
The ragdoll physics are pretty realistic I have to say, not much of the super contortion where your head wraps around your butt or vice versa like some other physics based games have.
The textures are quite nice, especially the road for some reason which looks downright realistic.
But whatever, we don't play this game for the graphics really, as it's not really a graphical powerhouse. It's nice, let's just say that. Not much more to say beyond that.
Graphics = 8 out of 10
Sound : The game has a decent opening theme that sounds like part rock/punk/cheerleader where they shout and scream about pain after some girls cheer out the letters. It's pretty interesting, and fits well.
The game doesn't have music in the middle of it, but it has a VERY large diversity of sound effects, on par with Dead Rising.
Window panes shatter, objects explode, debris rains down, manhole covers clatter, crunches, bones breaking, trains derailing, rolling bowling balls, falling signs, steaming exhaust chimneys, it's all there with unique sounds.
While getting launched across the city, your character says a bunch of different and funny phrases (The game creators stress "comedy" in this game, and on all aspects, it delivers).
The grunts and groans and random quips each character utters are pleasing to see you caused so much harm. Mimes say racially stereotyped things that a French mime would say. Don't take it seriously, but a grain of hilarious salt.
Ambient city sounds decorate your trip into the wild blue yonder prior to the abrupt contact with brick and mortar.
Sound = 9 out of 10
Value : Here's the tricky part...
This game is 9.99, that's good. The game has one map (remixed if you get 1.5 million in regular mode), that's bad. So, it's up to the user to be creative. The single player modes can get repetitive, but the multiplayer is where the fun is.
The problem though is that the game currently lacks multiplayer online (which if you don't have another controller and friend next to you, that's a problem). However, 2 or more controllers, you can have a laugh a minute.
Hopefully, as the developers have said, this game will feature more and more maps, and possibly include multiplayer online. They said they will take this game as far as the community pushes it, so please people support this wonderful game.
Value = 8 out of 10 (mostly due to the cheap cost and fun multiplayer, but I can't give full value without a little more content).
Tilt : This game is reminiscent of two free games called Truck Dismount and Stair Dismount where you chose what amount of force and direction and obstacles to use and let the physics do the work to do damage and see how much you could rack up. This game is that, brought onto a much larger scale with more details.
The multiplayer is fantastic and the single player is good too, but the more the merrier as is any game.
The promises of community desired expansions and features keeps me hopeful about this game expanding beyond a one trick pony. Hell there are two downloadable characters for the holidays already.
This is one of the reasons I got the PS3 in the first place, and I'm pretty happy with it, but there can be more to make it even better.
Tilt = 9 out of 10
Overall 9.0 out of 10 (Old Gamespot Score = 8.7 officially)
Recap
Gameplay = 9
Graphics = 8
Sound = 9
Value = 8
Tilt = 9
Overall = 9.0
Pros :
+ 9.99 with multiple modes. Can't beat that.
+ Genuinely funny, while able to cater to all crowds being rated Teen.
+ Great physics and destructibility and overall gameplay. Hurting people has never been so much fun outside of Street Fighter or Gears of War.
+ The limit to the fun is your imagination...
Cons :
- ... which only comes in one map level, although it gets remade if you unlock Aftermath.
- ... and gets the most fun out of Multiplayer (Which can get really fun and competetive). But most games get the same pleasure that way.
- Weird issues with ooching, sometimes it works perfectly, othertimes you mash on the buttons and keep ooching, even though technically the gauge doesn't fill if you are pressing buttons.