An Adult Game in a Kid’s Package?
It seems to have been a while since I reviewed what is, in essence, a twin stick shooter. Well, that deficiency has now been addressed by the arrival of Dinomite Games and Kinda Brave Entertainment’s Go Fight Fantastic!
This is a game that confounds your expectations, in a good way. You see, it may look and feel like a kids game, but the action on offer is definitely on the adult end of the spectrum. So, is there enough here to keep us engaged, or should we wait for the next game in the genre to arrive?
Bowie, Birds, and Jelly
Kicking off with the story found in Go Fight Fantastic! and the news here is pretty good. We appear to be a group of kids travelling through space in a ship captained by a dog called Bowie. Oh, and we are also interstellar smugglers, apparently. It’s all a bit Oliver Twist in here, to be honest, but luckily we also have heart’s of gold.
On a mission to the Bird Planet (where, you guessed it, the inhabitants are all birds), an invading force made of jelly-like beings invades and steals all the chicks. With the rest of the birds in shock and unable to do anything, guess who it falls to in order to recover the chicks, batter the invaders and generally save the day? Well, no prizes, but that’s right, it is us. And up to two friends if you can rope someone in for the ride…
Classes and Co-op
What we are faced with is basically a twin stick shooter, based around different classes of characters. The basic character types are all here: we have a Tank, a Striker, a Healer and an Archer to choose from. Playing solo comes the opportunity to pick three of the classes to take into battle with us, and when playing co-op, obviously we can only control one character.
Actually, here is a good time to talk about the multiplayer modes, as there are two ways of playing: either couch co-op, or online. Starting with couch co-op, the news here is great, as sitting side by side and sharing a screen is a great deal of fun, and surprisingly tense. The game is fast and responsive in this mode, and is also a great deal of fun: everything is better with friends (or relatives) after all.
The Broken Bridge: Online Matchmaking Issues
The bad news is found in the multiplayer arena of the online world: it sadly does not work. There doesn’t seem to be anybody playing in the world, so I decided to host a game and wait for people to find me. Well, that was kiboshed by the fact that if you start a multiplayer game online, you cannot ready up! Once you are in the lobby, that’s it: that’s where you stay. It really is galling to be unable to launch an online game, and a brief glance at the Steam page shows that us Xbox players are not alone in this issue.
Solo Struggles
So, having written off finding strangers to play with, I decided to press on alone, and occasionally with my son. Playing solo is fine, it runs well and has no issues, but Go Fight Fantastic! seems to have been designed as a three player game from the ground up, and there doesn’t seem to be any enemy scaling. Therefore it seems odd to me that a cute looking game such as this was seriously asking questions of abilities.
I’ve played Diablo 3 and Diablo 4 to death, but this was testing me! A lot of the issue is the lock on to the enemies, or rather the lack of lock on: especially noticeable as the archer, as actually hitting the enemies seemed a bit, if you’ll pardon the pun, hit and miss. Using a melee class makes this a bit easier, as being stood on someone’s toes in order to hit them ensures it is pretty hard to miss. But too often I found myself swinging wildly into thin air.
Meteorites and Modifiers
The setup of the game is almost like a roguelite, as there are elements that are kept if you fail a run, but if you don’t beat the boss of the level you are on, you do have to start from the beginning. The upgrades for each of the four characters is done with meteorites that you can find, either in the levels or dropped by foes, and then each character can equip up to three of these meteorites. Some are class specific, whereas others are more generic, such as increased health or greater damage output.
Each meteorite can also be upgraded and levelled up, increasing their effect. Fnding new meteorites usually means a hard decision as to whether to utilise them or not though, and it is possible to mix up your team in this way, with a damaging heart, for instance, and tailoring your team to your playstyle is quite good fun.
Of course, we need to look at the way the game presents itself too, and here the news is also generally good. There is a cute, hand drawn, pastel quality to the graphics, and these work really well. Go Fight Fantastic! is presented from the traditional top three quarter perspective, and it all moves at a decent lick without any slowdown. There are annoyances, such as things that appear to be flat blocking a path, and the way that the graphics turn into shadows when they go behind cover makes it hard to target foes, but other than this, it is all groovy. There is even a bit of randomness built into it, with different level layouts from run to run, and this helps with replayability.
Sound is okay too, there are no voice overs to be heard, and so you’re left to rely on effects alone; thankfully the battle sounds and music are all nice enough.
A Middle-of-the-Road Shooter with Flawed Online
Go Fight Fantastic! should really be called Go Fight Not Bad!, as while there are issues, especially in the online world, there is a solid game here. It isn’t the best twin sticker you’ll ever play, but neither is it the worst. Middle of the road is an apt description.
Important Links
Team Up with Friends and Fight Off an Alien Assault in Go Fight Fantastic – https://www.thexboxhub.com/team-up-with-friends-and-fight-off-an-alien-assault-in-go-fight-fantastic/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/go-fight-fantastic/9NDHV7DJ60G7/0010
