OH… SIR! THE HOLLYWOOD ROAST

Oh Sir

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

WARHAMMER AGE OF SIGMAR SOUL WARS

soul wars

Warhammer is best known for its two main franchises; Warhammer 40,000 is the science fiction brand and until recently, Warhammer Fantasy was the (rather obviously) fantasy brand. The world was recently rebooted into Age of Sigmar, a more high-fantasy and more original take on that genre. Sigmar was a much-needed breath of fresh air, combining some of the highlights of the source material and adding fresh ideas to the mix to make something new yet familiar.

Age of Sigmar Soul Wars is the game’s new starter set and firmly establishes its place in the World of Warhammer. It’s a mammoth box, filled with everything you need to play the game and also plenty of setting and source material for those who require storytelling in their miniature wargaming.

The box is eye-catching and beautifully put together. The slipcover has a picture of a Stormcast warrior looking moody, with a shadow war in the background. Take the dark looking cover off and we get another bit of artwork, an illustrated diorama of the battle in full swing. Delving inside and it’s a huge box of goodies.

For a start, they are absolutely loads of models here, and they are quite varied. They are 52 pieces in total, split between the undead Nighthaunts and the divinely heroic Stormcast Eternals. With the good guys, we get commander on the back of a gryph, which is an impressive looking gryphon-like beast. We also have a Knight-Incantor (a wizard knight commander) accompanied by three evocators, (also wizard knights). We get sword and bow-wielding Stormcast and a ballista. These are all pretty easy to assemble and they will push fit. They paint easily – spray, drybrush, add shade and they’ll come up great. Those with more time and skill can make them look even nicer, but even a beginner can get good results.

The Nighhaunt models are similarly easy to assemble and paint, though they are a little pointier so tiny hands beware. We get a lovely horde of horrors here, as well as some scary-looking leader types. No siege weapon for the undead, but a gallows wielding spectre is just as good. We also get a soul summoning horror called the Guardian of Souls and their lead by a ‘Knight of Shrouds’ who looks like it’s galloped off the cover of a heavy metal album and into your nightmares.

In addition to dice, rulers, transfers and the contents/set up guide, we also get Warscroll cards for each model. The layout is good and they’re easy to consult; you won’t have to thumb through a rulebook to look up a minor detail, it’s all on the cards. There’s a 16-page summary version of the rules as well, for ease of play. A ‘start here’ pamphlet gives us an overview of the world and game and the Battle of Glymmsforge tells us the story behind all the models and what the Soul Wars are. As well as painting ideas and inspiration. Oh, and a short preview of the Josh Reynolds tie-in novel of the same name.

Last but not least is the 320-page Age of Sigmar core book. It would be unfair to call this a rulebook. It has rules for playing Warhammer in it, but it’s more than that. It’s a lavish, beautifully illustrated affair filled with setting information and story. It’s rather pretty and rather nice. It also has guidance on different ways to get into the gaming hobby and has rules on different ways to play the game. If you like lots of story, it’s got you covered. If you just like rolling dice and moving models, it’s got rules for that as well. If you like a mix of the two, it can do that. This is the pinnacle of Games Workshop’s game crafting art – they’ve produced a game for anybody who wants to play.

This is the box that will make you return to the world of Warhammer, and it’s also the box that will be fondly remembered by a whole generation of gamers to come.

WARHAMMER AGE OF SIGMAR SOUL WARS / PUBLISHER: GAMES WORKSHOP / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

STAR WARS LEGION: AT-ST UNIT EXPANSION

Legion

Star Wars has a ton of exciting vehicles that form the back-drop of the world. From Death Stars to landspeeders, the galaxy far, far away has plenty of options if you don’t fancy walking. Even better, if you rather a huge machine did the walking for you, they’ve got you covered.

The AT-ST is the smaller, chicken walker style machines from Return of the Jedi. They are meant to be All Terrain Scout Transports, though one must wonder what part of ‘scouting’ involves walking a massive tower sized tank-like-thing through a forest whilst it knocks down trees and tramples bushes. The famous cab at the top is hardly conducive to carrying lots of troopers. What it does have is a big gun of the front, and that’s cool. Especially if you’re also using an AT-ST in the Star Wars Legion war game.

Straight out of the box, it’s obvious that some construction is required. However, it really isn’t that fiddly to put together. The model is carefully designed to hold its own weight reasonably well and work on its own as a display piece outside the game. It does need glue and patience, but it is neither fiddly nor challenging. Gamers are going to have to decide what weapons the model will be fitted with, as the kit comes with various options. (Savvy gamers may want to consider magnets to allow chopping and changing of bits. These are easy to fit though obviously they don’t come with the expansion.)

Rules wise, we get plenty of goodies for the model. For a start we get General Weiss, who’s one of the baddies created by Fantasy Flight Games for the Star Wars franchise. He’s meant to be a tank commander style character but mostly he’s known for being the guy who sticks his lightly armoured head out of a heavily armoured vehicle. He allows the player to use extra firepower in game, which is nice. Talking about firepower, the rules of the AT-ST Mortar Launcher are pretty much what you want them to be. A long-range weapon that supresses the target, it’s a fun way to grind those rebels to dust. If you get bored of that though, there’s also a grenade launcher to blow them out of cover and a blaster canon to knock out even well armoured rebels. Choose wisely, or not. They’re all good options.

The AT-ST is exactly what you want out of a Star Wars model; easy to put together, enjoyable to paint and comes with rules for play that are flexible and fun. It’s so pretty it gives you another reason to dislike ewoks!

AT-ST UNIT EXPANSION / DESIGNER: ALEX DAVY / PUBLISHER: FANTASY FLIGHT GAMES / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

JURASSIC WORLD EVOLUTION

JURASSIC WORLD EVOLUTION

Despite its nature as a disaster flick, people seem to keep asking “Well, what if Hammond’s park worked?” Jurassic World itself dabbled with this theme, and we have received countless spin-offs which have experimented with this theme. Evolution is the latest attempt to bring this to life, but with far more fanfare and a budget behind it. Much like its inspiration however, what looks like a solid system only takes a slight push to start falling to pieces.

To cite its obvious benefits first (aside from the presence of Jeff Goldblum’s narration), the contract system offers a definite hook prior releases have lacked. With shifting objectives, decisions and new opportunities, it’s a random element to prevent players ever becoming too comfortable with ongoing events. These can range from testing a park’s security by releasing a dinosaur from its pen, to funding hunts for new fossils or enhancing cloning facilities. It makes the game unpredictable and – even with a few problems with the procedural generation by occasionally confusing departments – it’s easily one of its best ideas.

The addition of possible industrial sabotage, the capacity to genetically modify the dinosaurs and the variety of ancient lizards you can resurrect all have their own mechanical systems. These can affect you in any number of ways, from how many customers are drawn in, to gradually unlocking new elements within the game. Buildings are a big one, especially if you end up with an especially crowd-pleasing creature.

Unfortunately, everything else within Evolution is decidedly ropey or downright unfinished in places. This is evident from a glance, as the animations and interactions are repeated over and over again. If you have two dinosaurs fight, nine times out of ten they will simply repeat the same sequence of attacks. Even without this, anything of the same general body type tends to share the same basic animations, from walking to feeding. It’s the sort of error most companies stopped repeating in the late-’90s, when they realised it delved deeply into uncanny valley territory.

Still, the visuals would be one thing, but then you have the AI. Someone must have mixed up the carnivore AI with that of Jason Voorhees, as these things don’t hunt so much as slaughter everything in sight. If they see something and it is alive, they will attack it, or continually hunt for anything which might bleed. Frustratingly, this does not vary from one to the next, as you will have dinosaurs known for acting in wolf packs hunting alone or refusing to team up with others. Even herd animals refuse to do this, despite the inclusion of this as a mechanic, which ends up with dinosaurs becoming depressed and going on the rampage if the enclosure is simply slightly too big.

Even the visitors themselves have no personality, without preferences, personal choices or baseline differing opinions. If a building assists with something, that’s good enough for them. This is only made worse by the fact that the park itself has little in the way of true customisation options. Oh, you can choose where to set things up, but in terms of colours, designs and unique visual elements, you’re all out of luck.

All this is even assuming that the park works as intended. There are a multitude of bugs which can quickly lead you into bankruptcy if you’re not too careful. Release a dinosaur to test security? Sometimes the guards will end up stuck in an animation loop, refuse to respond, and the game will lock you out of being able to answer the threat personally. As such, your blossoming attraction becomes a bloodbath and you quickly get shut down.

After careful consideration, this writer has decided not to endorse this park. Perhaps with time, updates or mod support this can evolve in to a worthwhile game, but as it stands it simply has a good framework for a potentially great experience. If you’re a die-hard fan of Jurassic Park give it a look, but otherwise, wait for a definite price drop.

JURASSIC WORLD EVOLUTION / DEVELOPER & PUBLISHER: FRONTIER DEVELOPMENTS / PLATFORM: PLAYSTATION 4, XBOX ONE, PC / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

FOX N FORESTS

fox forests

Rick the fox is on the hunt for a tasty dinner and spies Patty the partridge sitting on a rock in the forest. She tells him she tastes horrible and he definitely shouldn’t eat her, then asks him to fight some monsters in exchange for some treasure. Seeing the potential for riches and a partridge dinner, Rick agrees. She takes him to the Season Tree, a once powerful entity who is now old and useless. The ‘evil green-eyed horde’ has taken over the forest and is trying to bring about some sort of fifth season. The tree gives Rick a magic crossbow and asks him to find four pieces of magic bark while collecting magic seeds to open up new parts of the forest. It might sound like we’ve explained the premise really badly there, but that’s exactly how the game begins.

Fox N Forests is the first game from German developers Bonus Level Entertainment. A 16-bit-inspired platformer with a few light RPG mechanics and an emphasis on exploration, it looks and sounds incredibly authentic and could easily pass for a long lost SNES original. Rick is able to buy new attacks and upgrade existing ones, purchase items to extend his life points and mana bar, and acquire potions that enable him to perform special attacks. All items cost a combination of gold and collectables, which are found throughout the game world.

There are four levels, each based on a season, consisting of three stages including a boss fight. Levels are huge with multiple paths to take, but not every route will be accessible straight away. Weapons earned from bosses are needed to unlock alternate areas, so you’ll be revisiting each level more than once if you plan on finishing the game. A certain amount of magic seeds are needed to unlock each of the main levels, and these can be incredibly well-hidden in some cases. Almost too well-hidden at times, especially when you’ve been running around the same level looking for one final seed for much longer than you might have wanted.

FNF’s main gimmick in its season mechanic, where Rick is able to change season to alter his surroundings. Switch to winter to send angry bees to sleep, summer to make new climb branches appear, that sort of thing. Each level offers the opportunity to change between two seasons, but it feels like if all four were available there might have been potential for some inventive puzzle solving.

Revisiting the same levels multiple times does become a little repetitive, and the endless search for collectables often feels directionless. Fox N Forests is a more than serviceable platformer but doesn’t quite hit the highs of the games it was inspired by. Maybe not recommended for anyone new to retro platformers, but those looking for a throwback to keep them entertained for a few hours will likely be pleased enough to see this through to the end.

FOX N FORESTS / DEVELOPER: BONUS LEVEL ENTERTAINMENT / PUBLISHER: EUROVIDEO MEDIEN / PLATFORM: PC, PS4, SWITCH, XBOX ONE  / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

STAR WARS LEGION: 74-Z SPEEDER BIKES UNIT EXPANSION

Legion

Star Wars would not be Star Wars without some sort of random chase scene. Things moving quickly across the screen, either in space or on the ground are a default of the series. One of the most memorable scenes of Return of The Jedi is the speeder bike scenes. Luke and Leia both get to commit grand theft auto by nicking a couple of Imperial bikes and wackiness ensues as Imperial Scout Troopers decide that the best way to catch the good guys is by driving straight into some trees. Clearly Endor lacks a Highway Code.

Of course, these cool looking things are inevitably going to end up for the Star Wars Legion game. Fast and shooty things that explode easily are always quite fun when added to a wargame, and Legion is no exception. The expansion gives you two pieces, and they are more than a little bit fiddly to put together. One of the problems is that the models look like they could easily slot together for pre-painting preparation and they really don’t. These models require either fine gluing skills and patience, or a willingness to leave bits off.

It’s worth the patience though. The models look amazing once assembled, and aren’t a challenge to paint. For a start, both pilots are Scout Troopers, so they’re black and white and thus dead easy. The bikes scrub up well with a spot of dry brushing and a given that they are brown and black, they’re not difficult to paint up in a nice way. As always, the plastic isn’t the usual sort you get with miniatures, but it takes the paint with no problem. You will need superglue to put them together though.

The bikes can also be found in the core starter set, as can most of the cards and rules. One cunning little bonus however is two ‘comms jammer’ cards. This has a short range effect on enemy units, making sure that they can’t easily be issued orders. Given that Star Wars Legion is carefully designed to make players consider every order and every move very carefully, this is rather fiendish.

In play the units won’t last a very long time, but will do enough damage and disruption to make them worth it. That and the bonus of having an excuse to make zoom and pew-pew noises.

DESIGNER: ALEX DAVY / PUBLISHER: ASMODEE, EDGE ENTERTAINMENT, FANTASY FLIGHT GAMES / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

DIE FOR VALHALLA!

Vahalla

Woah… A 2D side scrolling beat ’em up based on a mashup of Lovecraftian lore and Norse mythology, casting players as a valkyrie with the ability to reanimate corpses and possess their bodies! Sounds fun, right?

Four valkyries are available, each serving as an individual character that can be independently levelled up either by a single player during multiple playthroughs or by a co-op team of up to four players. The valkyrie is very weak though, and if she dies it’s game over, although you retain your progress for the next adventure. Your power mainly comes from possessing fallen vikings, summoned from one of the many graves throughout each level. Initially, players have access to one single “clan” of vikings, including a dual-wielding axeman, an archer, or a sword and shield… er… wielder. Ten additional clans can be unlocked by meeting objectives within the game’s main adventure mode, eventually giving players a huge choice of classes, each with their own unique attacks and abilities. It’s great to have such a wide choice, but it’s quite likely that most people will settle on their preferred warrior quite quickly, and will choose to stick with similar vikings as often as possible.

Vikings and valkyries can be levelled up by collecting shining orbs called “glory”, which is the game’s version of experience points. This can be spent on upgrading your viking’s health and strength, as well as learning additional attacks. Your current viking continues to level up until he dies, at which point you return to valkyrie form until you resurrect another hero who starts over from scratch. It’s possible that a skilled player could keep a viking alive for many levels, ending up with a ridiculously powerful character, although this is easier said than done. After the first few levels, enemies start to get tougher and health-replenishing items become quite scarce, so you need to have your wits about you if you want to keep the same guy alive for more than a couple of levels.

There’s a nice range of enemies, many requiring slightly different tactics to defeat, but the backgrounds – as nice as they look – will quickly start to feel quite samey, leading to the game seeming overly repetitive long before the end of the 60-something levels. Some of the grind can be alleviated by playing co-op, but we found progressing through the neverending stream of levels to be a little laborious at times.

With the regular game, a hardcore mode featuring permadeath and a shorter but more challenging set of levels, and a multiplayer deathmatch option, there’s certainly plenty of content to work through. While it’s all perfectly competent, the game still somehow feels unremarkable despite the fairly unique possession mechanic. As far as side-scrollers go, Die For Valhalla might not be up there with the best, but it’s far from one of the worst.

DIE FOR VALHALLA! / DEVELOPER: MONSTER COUCH / PUBLISHER: MONSTER COUCH / PLATFORM: PC, PLAYSTATION 4, SWITCH (REVIEWED), XBOX ONE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

HYRULE WARRIORS: DEFINITIVE EDITION

Hyrule Warriors

Warriors games have been around for a fair while, but tend to fly under the radar for whatever reason. For the uninitiated, it’s a series of games that began with Dynasty Warriors in 1997 and encompasses countless spinoffs and sequels all the way up to the 2018 release of Dynasty Warriors 9. The basic premise of a Warriors game is simple enough – run around a battlefield slashing away at hundreds or even thousands of enemies, taking over forts and ultimately defeating the commander to advance to the next level. Hyrule Warriors combines Warriors gameplay with characters and locations from one of Nintendo’s most beloved franchises, The Legend of Zelda.

Hyrule Warriors was originally released on the Wii U back in 2014, with an expanded 3DS port in 2016 that included previously-released DLC, a handful of brand new levels and playable characters, and a few new gameplay additions. While both were well-received by critics and gamers, Hyrule Warriors didn’t quite catch the attention of the masses. So here we are in 2018, with a new Definitive Edition on Nintendo’s super-successful Switch console featuring every single piece of content from both previous versions of the game. Exactly how much content is there? Well…

The main story is set outside of the main LoZ timeline but still within the realms of Hyrule lore, with environments, characters, weapons, and even remixed music from Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, and Skyward Sword. The story plays out over roughly 30 levels in the game’s Legend Mode, during which additional characters, weapons and items can be unlocked for use in later levels. Free Mode offers the ability to replay any level from the story with whichever character you like, allowing players to search for any undiscovered collectables.

Adventure Mode is where you’ll likely be spending most of your time – a vast collection of grids of various sizes, with each individual square requiring players to complete a specific objective to earn rewards such as heart containers, weapons, costumes, unlockable characters, and items that can be used to reveal extra rewards in other stages. The first map is an 8 by 16 grid, giving 128 separate challenges to be completed. And when that’s all over, players can move on to one of the other nine adventure maps! Finally, there’s Challenge Mode, which might be less substantial than the others but is no less entertaining. Players can participate in timed challenges against bosses, or even control Ganon in his ultimate giant form wreaking havoc across Hyrule.

While there are several different modes to play through, the core gameplay remains the same throughout. Attacks are performed by two-button combos, with most enemies taken down by one or two hits although the occasional larger bad guy might need a little more persuasion. There are a handful of bosses that you’ll see quite a lot of, but they all bring some much-needed variation to the game and require the use of your secondary items like the boomerang, bombs, bow and arrow, and hook shot. Most characters have multiple weapons, and each weapon has its own unique combos and attacks so nothing feels boring or repetitive. Throw in a bit of magic, some special attacks, showers of rupees, hidden chests, and a few other collectables, you can see there’s plenty here to keep you busy for a seriously long time.

It’s totally possible that playing through every single piece of content HW:DE has to offer could take a good two or three hundred hours, and we haven’t even mentioned the insanely addictive levelling system, where each of the 29 characters can be upgraded independently from each other. Players can add skills to weapons, use materials collected from enemies to make badges that enhance your attacks and abilities, create useful potions, and even play nursery with a fairy by feeding and dressing it up to unleash its full potential on the battlefield.

As something of a hidden gem on the Wii U (and, to a lesser extent, the 3DS), we’re ecstatic that HW:DE has found a new lease of life on the Switch. There’s plenty of new content for Wii U owners, 3DS fans get the opportunity to play a high-definition version of the game on a bigger screen, and newcomers have got a ridiculous amount of incredible button-mashing adventures ahead of them. If we could change one thing, we’d be tempted to make the map a little larger as it can be a tad tricky to read when in handheld mode, but that’s really the smallest nit-pick in an otherwise incredible title. Just go and buy it right now!

HYRULE WARRIORS / DEVELOPER: OMEGA FORCE / PUBLISHER: NINTENDO / PLATFORM: SWITCH / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

STAR WARS LEGION – REBEL TROOPERS UNIT EXPANSION

Troopers
The Rebel Troopers, perhaps one of the least glamorous band of heroes in the Star Wars canon. Much of the glory for the rebel antics gets taken up by the main characters, the droids or even the snazzier dressed Fleet troopers or the cool and gritty partisans.  Mostly the Rebel Troopers get their run around in Return of the Jedi or failing that, are shot to pieces by Stormtroopers (of all things) or generally mocked by the villains.  Even their biggest moment in the comics was pretty much to give Darth Vader an excuse to say bad-ass things before mowing through them. It’s no surprise that at geek events you find legions of Stormtroopers and maybe one Rebel Trooper if you’re lucky.

Which is a pity, because they really are the unsung heroes of the franchise. In Fantasy Flight Games’ Star Wars Legion game, however, they are your slogging footsoldiers, on par with the Stormtroopers in terms of disposable unit.  The variety of the actual models is good enough; we get one alien headed model and a bunch of humans. One of those humans looks a little bit like the bloke with the bushy beard in Return of the Jedi, a fact that may intrigue certain hardcore fans.

They are fun to paint. Unlike Stormtroopers, our rebels have a sense of style and wear a variety of clothing. This makes them not as easy to splash paint on as the bad guys, but for the lazy, a spot of green camo is easy to do and there are plenty of tutorials online.  It is a bit of a pity there’s only one sort of alien and of course these are fixed in their pose, which is great for painting troops but a little dull in the long run.

Rules-wise there’s not a heck of a lot to say here. You get bonus cards such as Impact Grenades and Grappling Hooks, which let you fine tune the unit. (The Stormtrooper set also gets these.) The rest of the cards are the same as the troopers from the core starter set. (As are the models.)  They are potentially the most versatile units in the game, thanks to the range of leaders and commands that Rebels in Star Wars Legion can use. Essential for any potential galactic hero.

STAR WARS LEGION – REBEL TROOPERS UNIT EXPANSION / DESIGNER: ALEX DAVY / PUBLISHER: FANTASY FLIGHT GAMES / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

SUPER DARYL DELUXE

Daryl

Daryl is a stoner/hippy version of Garth from Wayne’s World crossed with Napoleon Dynamite, and we join him at the start of his first day at Water Falls High School where he immediately gets mixed up in some strange goings on. Most of the classrooms are locked, there’s hardly any students around, and there’s a princess locked in a secret room deep inside the ventilation system. “What’s going on” is a pretty simple premise for a story, and one that easily provides cover for the ridiculous adventure that lies ahead.

‘RPGvania’ might be the best way of describing the gameplay, with Daryl exploring the school and taking on missions from other students while amassing an arsenal of skills and abilities to help him deal with whatever might be thrown at him. Quite often you’ll find yourself overwhelmed by the amount of things you’ve been asked to do, but thankfully the game tracks the progress of your quests so things never get too out of control. You’re rarely explicitly directed to your next destination though, so there can be a lot of wandering around as you try to work out where you should be going.

Daryl’s quest for popularity lands him in all kinds of wacky situations, usually ending up with our hero coming face to face with some pretty peculiar characters. There are goblins on Napoleon’s battlefield in history class, evil electronics and killer lab equipment in the science room, and there’s even time for a trip to Ebenezer Scrooge’s house during literature class. A whole host of historical figures make an appearance alongside Daryl’s modern-day schoolmates, and every single encounter leads to some sort of unexpected adventure.

All of the characters, backgrounds and cutscenes are completely hand drawn, with around half of the visuals in black and white while the rest is in colour. It’s an unusual combination that really works well and gives the game a unique eye-catching style. The writing is consistently goofy (and occasionally misspelled) with a massive dollop of humour, which can be a little hit or miss at times depending on your own sensibilities. It’s all absolutely charming in its own way though, and even if you’re unsure to begin with, there’s a high chance you’ll be won over pretty quickly. With an emphasis on the “high”, probably.

Despite some frustrations with navigating the overall world, Super Daryl Deluxe provides more than enough content to keep most RPG fans going for many hours (we were closing in on 20 by the time the final credits rolled). Sure, it isn’t the most complex RPG in the world, but then sometimes all you want is an enjoyable romp through some daft locations with a bit of absurd humour thrown in for good measure. If you’re up for something along those lines, check this one out immediately!

SUPER DARYL DELUXE / DEVELOPER: DAN & GARY GAMES / PUBLISHER: DAN & GARY GAMES / PLATFORM: PC, PLAYSTATION 4, SWITCH (REVIEWED) / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW