After a swift pre-amble and a short chat with her friend and robo mechanic, Raz, Cherry sets off into the world in pursuit of bloody vengeance, with an emphasis on the bloody part.
What follows is a retro-look, hand-drawn Metroidvania adventure with a unique look and an appealingly moody, sarcastic hero. It wasn’t just the look that gave me a nostalgic glow inside though, Cookie Cutter harks back to ones I played in the 90s because of its immediacy and simple gameplay.
There’s little in the way of innovation, but what it offers up is a smorgasbord of gore and fast and frantic battles. It’s look reminds me of modern take on Earthworm Jim and the combat is a mic of jump, dodge and pound. There IS a parry ability, but I’ve got through a good chunk of the game without really using it. It is very precise and when you use it varies between enemies, so I eschewed this in favour of uppercutting aliens and androids till their heads came off.
There are a few very basic puzzles and some traps, but the focus is very much on combat. And I like the fact that you are rewarded for racing headlong into battle as breaking the enemies’ attacks appears to be the best tactic. Hit them fast and repeatedly, and don’t relent or they’ll hit you back (and you can’t take a lot of hits before crumbling). On a note related to health, there’s a neat aspect to this game where you can use energy to either power up attacks or self-heal, which adds a nice dilemma to ponder as gargantuan beast tries to tears your arms off.
Like any game of this genre worth its salt, there’s upgrades to be made to toughen up your character as you violently probe the recesses of the enemy-filled mines. In keeping with the brutally straightforward leanings of this game however, the upgrades really serve to just make you hit harder or take more hits.
Anyone seeking a game with a new twist or requiring a bunch of brainpower is best served looking elsewhere. This is old school button-bashing fun with an emphasis on action, gore and finishing moves that would make the Mortal Kombat fighters queasy.
I took a short while to get used to the fight mechanics, but as soon as I got to grips with them, realising that going straight for the jugular and not letting up was the way forward, I was hooked. The battles are visceral and heart-poundingly intense, while the visuals and animations are a little slice of revamped retro heaven.
SUMMARY
Aside from some minor collision issues (the platform edges are not always easy to find precisely, resulting in a jump over rotating blades being missed by a centimetre), and the fact that I found parrying to be too hard to make useful, this is a slick, fast-paced and highly enjoyable retro-style romp. Get violent. Get revenge. Get stuck in.
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