PopSlinger

PopSlinger

released on Jan 26, 2022

PopSlinger

released on Jan 26, 2022

PopSlinger is a vibrant, narrative-focused musical shooter inspired by ‘80s and ‘90s New Retro culture. Join Ria Carbon, a funky heroine on a stylish quest to save the world from sinister invaders from another dimension using soda-powered guns. Backing Ria up is former PopSlinger heroine, Gin! Experience the whimsical story of Ria and Gin as they fight against the "Corazones", people whose hearts have been corrupted by the dark forces from the other dimension, all while grooving to a fully dynamic soundtrack that reacts to your in-game performance in real-time.


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I adored the soundtrack, at least.

I think it looks great, i really like its style, i liked the characters and the music is super good, but the game sucks.

The concept is neat. Kill 4 enemies of the same color in a row, get a power up. Kill 8 enemies of the same color and you get a Heal and a score bonus (ironcally healing lowers your score so for people hunting SS ranks it's a worthless reward).

At first i tried to mach the colors, but it's hard and annoying and the power ups suck anyway AND fuck up your combos. There's no reason to do them unless you're hunting a high score.

The power ups includes a double shot that can kill something you don't want to kill, a shitty turret that can also break your combo, and a shield, the only good one. Heal is stuck as an 8 same color kill reward wich is hard to do. When you get it you're doing well anyways and you probably don't need it. Getting hit or mixing colors breaks the combo.

I got to see 3 weapons before dropping it, none of the extra ones help with the combo system (the base one is a gun). You have a spread gun and a laser, you're not sniping what you need with those things. Btw enemies tend to overlap so good luck killing the one you want.

Leaving the combo system aside, the game is frustrating for a few reasons:

1) The camera is too zoomed in
2) Your hitbox is gigantic
3) There's motherfucking contact damage
4) The arenas are small
5) The UI covers a bit of your vision
6) The 8 same color kill streak is THE ONLY WAY to heal

It's a mess. You can't see shit, enemies attack you or spawn from off screen, your hitbox is so big and the camera so zoomed in you can't even react to them coming from below and touching your shoe breaking your combo and taking away health you'll probably never recover.

It's even worse against bosses, they have no tell for some of their attacks and you will get hit, but the worst is the contact damage. They move around A LOT, and you never know WHERE they're gonna go. Yeah, the game sometimes tells you where they're going to attack but they start moving as soon as that shit appears and you have NO chance to react before they touch you.

Zoom out the screen, specially during the wave sections and remove contact damage from bosses, at least while they jump around randomly, and the game could be decent enough to be worth finishing.

It's a shame it's this bad, because i loved everything else about it.

I'll give it credit where credit is due: the soundtrack is absolutely amazing! The ost is honestly the biggest highlight of this game as there's a lot of relaxing bops in here. The artstyle I'll also admit is great. I think it's a really cool aesthetic. The game also has charm, you can really sense that while playing the game. The characters? Well they're okay I suppose. But I honestly think that it's just not for me. I just think the game is incredibly frustrating to get through as there's a lot of cheap bullshit moments in the game. Which, part of me wants to say that was the intended goal perhaps? Like the more aggravated you get, the more you just wanna go "one more try" and keep trying until you beat a level. But again, I got way too heated playing this game. I don't wanna say it's a bad game by any means, but I just personally don't care for it. It's...eh.

It's a pretty underrated game imo, I do think it could be overwhelming for some due to alot of it's moving parts and mechanics BUT if you're looking for a game with charm and challenge, it's definitely gonna be your thing.

I'll be honest, I didn't play very much of this. The bit I did play didn't leave a great impression, the presentation and overall style felt neat but sort of low quality, and the gameplay was incredibly unengaging and simple. Not for me.