Look, there was a period of time where I adored the destructive, senseless nature that can come from video games. Titles like Carmageddon, Postal and even Doom got their foot in the door by being violent for the sake of being violent (though, arguably, one of those series just died and the other became something pretty awful). But Doom still had direction and infrastructure that led it to eventually work out some incredible titles that we can’t stop gushing over.Sure, it’s absurdly unhinged at times, but it’s got a distinct flow that keeps it engaging and satisfying. It knows to keep a directive on the radar even while you’re bathing in the gore of your foes. It’s a lesson that the devs of Maniac seem to have only half paid attention when it was being taught.

If you’re going to pick up Maniac, chances are good that you enjoyed the original Grand Theft Auto. For many younger readers (and by younger I mean conceivably in their thirties), you may not have been privy to the original incarnation of the now groundbreaking franchise by Rockstar Studios. While we now associate the series with massive maps, complex missions and the godlike complex to destroy everything around you, the game used to be much simpler, which is what Maniac is trying to ape. This top down action title has only one purpose: survive for twenty minutes. You don’t need to worry about the pithy level targets that classic GTA imposed on players: you just drive around, shoot and slam into whatever you want, and then keep up the havoc long enough that the powers-that-be decide they should drop a nuclear bomb on you.

From the very beginning, Maniac is exceedingly proud of what it’s trying to accomplish. Every element about this game is geared towards a satirical level of mayhem and gore without being too graphic or in-your-face about the concept. You start as a belligerent Santa Claus and go from there, unlocking a coked-out lawyer, a creepy birthday clown, a dude in a hot dog costume and more. Each character has different stats that generally don’t matter for the way the game plays. You can try to murder and rob as many folks as you want on foot, but the truth is that you’ll accomplish much more, much faster and with greater efficiency when you’re in a car.

Don’t worry about trying to identify different makes or builds of vehicles: it doesn’t matter and you won’t get the name of what you’ve jacked once you’re behind the wheel. You now have a metallic roll cage between you and the ever increasing level of firepower being emptied upon your person, and that could be the difference between the game being over in two minutes or making it to the full, nuclear twenty. Unfortunately, you now need to figure out how to navigate the damn thing in order to go somewhere where you aren’t a sitting duck.

The controls for the driving aspect feel crazy counter intuitive, especially if you’re trying to shoot at the same time. Maniac asks you to balance both joysticks, a series of buttons and several other ideas all at the same time while the pressure to not die intensifies by the second. As much as it pains me to say it, the setting for “easy driving” and “auto aim/fire” are a godsend to make the game that much more fun. The terrain tends to oscillate wildly from flat streets to sudden, abrupt ends in the landscape, with rock walls, elevated highways and grassy knolls dotting everywhere you go. Trying to escape at high speeds never really works because you can’t ever see what the landscape is truly like until you’re on top of it, so removing the pressure of trying to manually do everything else is a relief.

For what it’s worth, Maniac does seem to commit to its own bit wholly and seriously. While the police gradually becoming more aggressive and reckless was a given, the escalation to FBI, Army and then what I think was Space Force was a bit of a surprise. Trying to flee the cops and ram through barriers in a fire truck? Par for the course, no problem. Actively being shot at by an experimental UFO craft that I guess the Pentagon was sitting on until this situation arose? Alright, I feel special and also kind of impressed. The accuracy of defensive mobs is never really perfect, but that works well with the firepower that constantly detonates other vehicles and objects that aren’t, well, you. Still, there is something magical about using a grenade launcher while driving a standard Sedan to take out an actual tank.

The upgrade system is…decent. Within the round, your only real “objective” besides staying alive is to get to the level up points that allow you to choose one of three augmentations. While you can purchase the base level of some of these skills to be permanent with the loot you collect, the in-game upgrades amplify your game in ways that you can’t really plan on. For example, more than three different upgrades will completely repair your car regardless of its current state, which is invaluable at multiple points in a run. Also, you might sometimes have the choice of a new weapon, like the uzi that completely outclasses the handgun you might normally find. From what I can tell, ammo doesn’t get picked up, so all you need to worry about is not accidentally blowing up the car you’re planning to jack next (here, the autoaim can be a dick).

But there are two caveats for Maniac that keep it from being a full blown joyride. The first is that the money pools are divided between the characters, which doesn’t incentivize trying to work with other entities within the game. Though the differences are mainly their one liners they toss out while destroying stuff (and they’ll do that a lot), it still would have been more cohesive to have everyone pulling from a communal cash pool. I don’t want to “grind” up more assets when I already have a ton in Santa’s coffers, let’s just share the wealth.

The second is, once you unlock the different characters, that’s really all there is to it. Sure, finding the right number of hot dog stands or baby carriages to explode might be a bit challenging (let’s not look into the edgy psychology at play here), and the tally doesn’t carry between runs, so it’s a genuine test of patience, attentiveness and some dumb luck. Yet there’s only a handful of characters to unlock, and once it’s done…you’re done. You can keep exploding things if you want to, but the drive to find something new dissipates like honeysuckle on the breeze. Suddenly now you’re just in a compounding, floundering mess of your own creation and, unlike modern GTA titles, you can’t even walk around and just exist.

I feel that Maniac sets out to do what it intends to do very well: it’s chaotic, it’s dynamic, and I admit it runs pretty well on the Switch, a console now infamous for slowdowns and stutters when on screen action becomes too much. It’s a fun little experience, but, without achievements or anything beyond the surface to strive for, you can get bored fairly quickly. Having said that, it’s a good budget title for anyone with a soft spot for 90s mayhem, and it never professes to be anything it isn’t. It’s just a shame: it seems I’ve grown older, and the genre hasn’t aged with me. How bittersweet.

Graphics: 7.0 For what it’s going for, Maniac looks perfectly presentable as a top down, detailed but not too complex driving/shooting simulation. Explosions are satisfactory, vehicle variety is pretty great. Did not care for a single character portrait.	Gameplay: 6.0 Drive, shoot, run over and repeat. You’ve figured out how to play from that sentence. Now spin it out for as long as you can. Good AI interference, though it leans more towards “berserker” mentality than “civil servant.”
Sound: 5.0 Almost entirely explosions and quippy one liners from your character of choice. Everything about this says “stream while listening to something else.” It’s not bad and does what it needs to, but it grates pretty quickly.	Fun Factor: 7.5 The itch that gets scratched is satisfied and then some. It’s fun, it’s retro and it’s unapologetic for what it represents and delivers. Had there been more, it would have been fantastic, but, as it stands, it’s just enough.
Final Verdict: 7.0

Maniac is available now on PS5, Xbox Series S/X, PC and Switch.

Reviewed on Nintendo Switch.

A copy of Maniac was provided by the publisher.