In a world filled with games paying homage to the retro games of yesteryear, Wario Land was not a game I expected to start getting this kind of constant treatment. After the raving success behind Pizza Tower, it was only a matter of time before another game came on the scene attempting to make the perfect form of these games. That game being Antonblast, obviously. You know what you clicked on. Antonblast is a side-scrolling 2D platformer not unlike that of Wario Land, where you play as Anton (or Annie) fighting back against moles, or mole-like devil creatures, all of which stole your alcohol. Who needs a deep story!

Satan is mad purely because some other guy is more red than him. Yes, Satan is actually pink. There are probably a lot of beings more red than you.

Antonblast is an incredibly fast paced platformer, with some small brawler elements. Those being the fact you can attack enemies and smash up blocks and everything else on your way through the level. For the most part this is actually required of you. At the end of every level, you then need to hightail it back to the start of the level, usually via a slightly altered path for various reasons, like the fact you’ve destroyed parts of the path on the way there. Essentially, everything you do is really messy, and maybe if you were just a bit less aggressive, you’d have a lot easier of a time. Is this creative story writing? Probably not.

Just smashing my way through the sewers, I’m sure this won’t cause any long term problems for the city.

While the game looks and plays like a much better version of a SNES game, doesn’t mean it’s all sunshine and rainbows. Yes, it’s fluent and responsive and all the buzzwords that people like to use, but it’s also missing a lot of soul. The reactions get old pretty quick, and every little cutscene and interaction starts to feel stale pretty quick. Especially since the interaction with other characters is purely based around how Anton is a pretty terrible person. Not like a fun kind of terrible person like Deadpool, or even an understandable one, you play as a guy with a drinking problem, a gambling problem, and burns every bridge around him. Good times.

Honestly, if the lack of soul wasn’t bad enough, the real issue is the sound. There are some songs throughout that can be fun, but the game is filled to the brim with random yelling, a lot of okay songs, and that’s it. This might be the most disappointing part of the game.

Look, everything is just silhouettes, such artistic, much wow.

As it stands, Antonblast feels like it should do everything right. In reality, it feels quite hollow. There’s no real relatability to the characters. The game is fine and everything, and the way it’s laid out makes sense even if it does kind of hide levels from you for some reason. Still, there’s a lack of real spirit that doesn’t make it fun beyond just the fact it plays well. It’s really frustrating because when a game does a lot right, but still feels really bland at the same time. Just playing well at this point doesn’t make a game great, and that’s the only place where Antonblast truly succeeds. 

Antonblast is available now on Nintendo Switch, PC.

Reviewed on PC.

A copy of Antonblast was provided by the publisher.