The second game in the Oh… Sir! insult ’em up series has made its way to consoles, after being available on PC and mobile devices at various points throughout 2017. For newcomers, Oh… Sir! plays out like a verbal sparring contest, kind of like a beat ’em up with words instead of punches, where the objective is to deal damage and ultimately defeat your opponent by constructing coherent and inventive insults.
The Hollywood Roast takes players to Tinseltown, battling as – and against – a variety of familiar yet strangely altered (for copyright reasons) screen icons. Each player takes turns to choose from a shared list of nine randomly selected words and phrases in an attempt to string a sentence together, often adding up to four additional phrases that are unique to each character. Each match will generally feature different offensive possibilities to the last, although it’s quite likely you will have seen the majority of available words by the end of a single playthrough.
The only game mode is a simple 1 vs 1 match, although this can be played either by a single player against the computer or as a 2-player local or online match. We tried several times to throw some shade at strangers on the internet, but unfortunately the game was never able to match us with any other players, so in the end, we just stuck with the single-player campaign.
A few tactical advantages are available during matches to keep things interesting. Each character has a weakness and exploiting these by using the relevant words scores bonus damage. Combos can be built up by using the same words in consecutive insults, but this is pretty much down to whether or not the computer deals the appropriate phrases in each round. Lastly, tiered Comeback phrases become available when players take damage and allow the victim to add a little flourish to the end of their insult for bonus damage.
A few other bits and pieces add some extra excitement, such as objectives that can earn the player new Comeback phrases, and the possibility for extending a single insult over multiple rounds, which can result in some genuinely absurd statements. It’s always amusing to hear each character read your completed insult aloud, but the lack of depth in the available words and phrases mean that the game ultimately gets repetitive quite quickly. It’s all completely daft and is just about enough to entertain those with a puerile mind for a little while, but it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea.
OH… SIR! THE HOLLYWOOD ROAST / DEVELOPER: VILE MONARCH / PUBLISHER: GOOD SHEPHERD ENTERTAINMENT / PLATFORM: ANDROID, iOS, PC, PS4, SWITCH, XBOX ONE (REVIEWED) / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
