Thank you Numskull Games for sending us this game to review!

SuperEpic: The Entertainment War takes place in 2048 where videogames have been ruined by Regnantcorp who specializes in addictive free games. Due to many hostile takeovers, they are the only game developer left on the planet. It’s up to a llama-riding raccoon named TanTan to break into their corporate headquarters to save gaming and the world!

TanTan doesn’t have much to fight with and uses odd weapons like a toilet plunger, guitar, vacuum, golf club, and a lamp post to name a few. As new areas are explored, he’ll find merchants that can upgrade his weapons, stats, and sell various accessories. Many areas will be inaccessible until certain tools are found like a snorkel for underwater exploration and bombs to break through walls. Towards the end of the game you can find a pogo stick and wings that will allow you to get to places you couldn't reach previously.

At first, TanTan just has a health bar. Eventually he’ll get a stamina bar to pull off some maneuvers like double jumping, wall bouncing, and gliding through the air. A rage meter is required for throwing various projectiles like coffee mugs, keyboards, and dumbbells.

The gameplay is “Metroidvania” style with exploration and platforming elements. There are plenty of boss battles too. The story mode can be finished in roughly 10 hours or more if you go for the multiple endings and play through the QR code minigames. I spent over nineteen hours with all of the back tracking and playing the mobile app spoofs. If you don’t have access to a phone or tablet to play the minigames, you won’t miss out on required items but nice-to-have accessories. The minigames are spoofs of popular mobile games including Flappy Bird, Candy Crush, and Crossy Road (Frogger for old-school gamers). Additional in-game currency can also be attained by “mining” pig coins by using QR codes as well.

After some progress in the story mode, you will unlock a rogue-lite mode for even more fun! I ran into a few snags during the story mode and found some helpful YouTube videos online. The developers are also super-responsive on the Steam discussion forums.

Visually, this game has a 16-bit old school appearance. There’s a decent variety of enemies and bosses to defeat. The bosses aren’t terribly challenging and I often beat them on my first or second attempt. The corporate headquarters is pretty complex with multiple floors to explore thoroughly. With elevators you can easily go back to previous areas/floors. You will be using those elevators a lot.

Be sure to stop at the washroom because that’s where your progress is saved. If you die, you have the choice of respawning at your current location and lose half of your gold, or to go to your last save spot for free. The respawning at your current location can only be invoked once per save.

The pacing is handled by obstacles that you’ll have to come back to later once you have the means to bypass them. The map has various points of interest like elevators, shops, sleeping employees, and bathrooms marked for your convenience. The ability to add my own markers would have been nice and would have saved me lots of time trying to figure out where to go and what to do next. There is no direction in this game, just exploration.

Visually, this game isn’t very breathtaking. Though it has a throwback segment that is reminiscent of the SNES era, the regular visuals aren’t too much more complex. The level design is quite confusing and the story mode map is the same for everyone. True to rogue-lite games, the maps in that mode are randomly generated and will be different for everyone. I don't see a seed number to share your experiences with others.

The sound effects are fitting, and sound good with all of the player and enemy weapons used. The background music is also well done and has a good amount of variety.

The controls may be easier to pull off if you have a Pro controller. I found the pogo stick/mega jump hard to pull off consistently. Wall jumping is also a skill that you'll need to perfect if you want to beat the game. The multiple endings are determined by how many people you rescue and by how many security cameras you destroy.

On the surface, SuperEpic: The Entertainment War may seem family-friendly, but it does have a decent amount of language that warrants the Teen rating assigned to it. Along with *ss, b*stard, d*mn, hell, and crap, you’ll see some blaspheming too. No matter how greedy and bad Regnantcorp is, it doesn’t give you the right to break in and trespass on their property. Most of the violence is cartoon-like, but one of the endings is a bit more dark.

The asking price of $17.99 is reasonable if you enjoy Metroidvania and rogue-lite games. If you’re not a fan of hours of backtracking, you may want to wait for a sale or skip it altogether. Though the QR code apps are not mandatory, they do provide some humor and uniqueness. In the end, I enjoyed this title, but prefer games with more direction.