Thank you, Nihad Nasupovic for sending us a review code!

When you really think about it, the world is actually very easy to destroy. We’re already doing a good enough job as is with all of the pollution being strewn about. But you know, don’t contribute more than you already are. If you’re feeling angry on one of those days, just do it hypothetically—like with this appropriately named title: Destroy The World.

Created by Nihad Nasupovic, Destroy The World is where you, well… destroy the world. The entire goal of the game is to go through cities, rain forests, the polar ice caps, and even the tropical islands and lay waste to everything that you see. The creature whom you play as is a giant, pink, starfish-looking monstrosity. I always knew deep down that Patrick was the most diabolical character that lurked under the sea. Ok, that's not actually Patrick, but a similar looking being named Bam-Bam.

Destroy The World starts off in a tutorial city so you can get used to how Bam-Bam moves. Tank controls are the name of the game so it can only move in the direction that it is facing. Run with the shift key or square/X button if you’re using a controller. Camera control is very versatile. Moving it far away gives a top-down perspective while moving it in close gives off more of a third-person view. Your options for controls are with a gamepad, keyboard, or a combination of keyboard and mouse. However, these can only be remapped in the configuration settings window that pops up before the game starts.

Various moves can be used to aid in your destruction. In the beginning, you only have access to some kind of headbutt attack and a butt slam with other abilities being unlocked as progress is made. In the end, you’ll end up with a kind of poop weapon, fire breath, and a blunderbuss? Kinda strange to round it off with a traditional weapon. Use all of these to your advantage to reach 100% destruction.

When our narrator says “destroy everything,” he means it! Levels start off fairly small so destroying everything that can be destroyed is fairly simple. When levels start to get larger is when the problem of destroying everything comes into effect. You’ll go from smashing everything in sight to playing Where’s Waldo? with that last tree, building, or animal that needs to be squashed. There is a map that can be viewed to help out somewhat with that last 1%. Before the 1.0.1 update, it was supposedly even worse with the percentage tolerance. Strangely enough, no other forces try to stop Bam-Bam from making a mess of things. In future updates, I would like to see some form of opposition like military units or even an opposing monster.

I always wondered if something can be both good and bad at the same time, and Destroy The World showed me that it is quite possible—in terms of graphics that is. The ground textures are truly bad, with graphical glitches all around. And yet the models of the buildings and animals are actually pretty good for something made with the Unity engine. Although every stage is encased in a square grid, each level does look different from one another.

The music is surprisingly decent—far better than I thought a game like this would have. Nice, simple beats overall. The narrator has this faux excitement in his voice that makes Destroy The World feel like a type of game show, further supported with the stock sound effects of a laugh track and the elevator-like music in the menus and loading screen.

Up to three of your friends can join you in destroying the world. In multiplayer, the main goal is still the same but with the players competing with each other in points instead. Because of the multiple players on one screen, the camera is in a static position. All of the stages are the same, with the exception of the final level where the very terrain is destructible and you must end up as the last person standing. Multiplayer took me a while to operate because the first player has access to both the keyboard, mouse, and the first controller plugged in so it's recommended to remap the controllers before choosing multiplayer.

Destroy The World is surprisingly violent. It’s a pretty goofy game on the surface with a silly looking controlled character and the exaggerated music and sound design. It manages to be very bloody as well. I realize the game has you kill animals, but I did not expect them to explode into pools of blood! Our narrator tends to have quite the mouth on him too. He does say “a*s” for one line, and also drops an F-bomb (he does, however, bleep it himself for the latter). The humor can border on childish and immature. Going back to the poop attack, most of the time it isn’t poop—sometimes it is a ball or a type of gem, but other times it really is poop, exploding poop as a matter of fact. And geez, Patrick- I mean, Bam-Bam! Would it kill you to put on some pants?! I can see your butt crack! I don’t want to stare at anyone’s butt crack, even if you are an ambiguous blob creature with an unspecified gender!

All of this destruction kinda makes me feel bad, and I guess I can blame that on the facts that Mr. Nasupovic provides on every loading screen. One fact (paraphrased) being that our ice caps are being melted at a rate three times higher than they are being formed—although more recent studies show that statement might not be entirely accurate. With each level being based on real-life environments, Destroy The World isn’t just mindless entertainment. I feel that he also really wanted us to think about what our actions are really doing to the world. In a metaphorical way, the walking blob of destructions represents us. It really makes you think, doesn’t it? Don’t feel too bad—every copy sold helps replant a tree, courtesy of the charity Plant for the Planet.

In an ironic twist, this review actually took me longer to write up than to complete the game. Destroy The World is a very short experience, lasting on average 45 minutes and the only reason to replay the game is with the other character unlocked at the end and to improve on your completion times. According to Nihad Nasupovic, future updates will provide more levels. It also manages to be both immoral and moral at the same time. In the game, it is crude, violent, crass, and takes pride in all of it, while providing facts on how certain practices are harming the planet at the same time. If you do buy the game, you help plant a tree somewhere in the world. Destroy The World is a simple, casual, and basic distraction that exists only to satisfy a certain itch; just don’t expect anything more than that. Truth be told, there are far worse ways to spend a dollar.