Story

The main plot point here is to rescue your fellow cats and save the city. There's nothing special here but it is presented in a really nice 80's / 90s cartoon show style set up. There's a few call back to other franchises too including the loading screen being the bus that you travel in which looks like the mystery machine. The opening is reminiscent of TMNT with an ooze type substance that changes the animals within Feral City by a mysterious paramilitary force led by F and his Hellhound minions.

9 ragtag outlaw cats rise up to oppose F and his regime in Feral City. Dash, Buck, Candy, Banshee, Haxx, Benny, Jenny, Jynx & Larry (Think Junkrat if you've played overwatch).

The story is effective and world building is done through 4 captured cats that you have to rescue before you can use them. The 5th Zone is off limits until the other 4 are completed.

Gameplay

Being a roguelite, Clawpunk has approached the game with 9 different characters all of which have different play styles. they have different attack speed, type and movement speed too. This game is supposed to be fast paced so a few of the slower characters feel our of place here although each character can hold up to 3 cards which changes some of their assets. I'll touch on this more later. On top of this your characters also pick up grenades and guns! It's quite mental at times. sometimes in the best way other times you take what feels like cheap or unavoidable damage which is frustrating. SEMI-NON-LINEAR PROGRESSION: Battle through five level zones, with the freedom to tackle the first four in any order, all starting from a central hub level. CHARACTER MANAGEMENT: Master nine unique cat characters, each with their own weapons and stats, to tailor your play style. COLLECTABLE CARDS: Discover and collect special cards throughout your journey, permanently saving them to mutate and enhance your cats' abilities. AGGRESSIVE GAMEPLAY: Dive into non-stop, push-forward combat that rewards daring players with powerful rage attacks for diving headfirst into the fray. DESTRUCTIBLE ENVIRONMENT: Explore and defeat enemies creatively, or simply indulge in the sheer joy of destroying everything in sight!

You have 5 zones to regain control of. Each zone has 8 levels and 1 main boss battle. At the start of each level you must work your way down the level the aim is to destroy everything as quickly as possible and create a combo to collect as many points as possible. You are graded on: - Hits received - Enemies killed - Combo - Rage (did you activate your rage bar)

The gameplay is fun and quick paced the soundtrack is fun but not as strong as I'd hope after watching the trailer.

Visuals & Design

The art is 16 bit retro inspired, it has wonderfully bright neon colours and a cyberpunk feel.

The game plays quite different to your "standard" platformer as you play from the top of the level to the bottom rather than left to right or the occasional right to left playing game.

Character designs are lovely they're nailed the 16 bit style.

Performance

Playing on Nintendo Switch 2, The frame rate is stable frame rate even at the busiest of times. I did encounter one freeze and crash on the overworld menu outside of that it was stable and smooth. Loading times are generally nice and quick with very little time between levels keeping the fast pace going.

Value

Price wise I think this game balances replay ability with a reasonable price and the £7.99 is good value for money.