SuperEpic: The Entertainment War Switch Review

In the not too distant future, only one game development company exists, the gigantic, money-hungry, and of course highly evil Regnantcorp. As a huge fan of indie gaming, the premise of SuperEpic: The Entertainment War is absolutely horrifying. However, SuperEpic isn’t actually a horror game. It’s actually a Metroidvania, and a pretty good one at that.

So is this a game worthy of its epic title? Let’s find out!

The setup in SuperEpic is that Regnantcorp have managed to take over all of gaming using their mind-controlling, mood altering, highly addictive games. If that wasn’t bad enough, gaming seems to also be experiencing a universal surge in popularity, so not even those weirdos that don’t play games are safe.

But, there is hope! A mysterious, masked, vigilante group (That seems somewhat inspired by the real life ‘Anonymous’ movement), are recruiting real gamers to take down the massive Regnantcorp. Two such heroes, a raccoon and a llama, are recruited into the fold while playing an old modem based console, and so gaming and life itself are now in their hands… paws… hooves… whatever.

The premise is pretty fun. The story doesn’t take itself too seriously which is to SuperEpic’s benefit, and other than a few grammatical and typographical issues, it’s also fairly well written. Thankfully, the story sections are kept relatively brief, so they never outstay their welcome, and you can be back to the gameplay before long.

Speaking of the gameplay, as mentioned earlier, SuperEpic is a Metroidvania. If you’re familiar with the genre, you know what to expect. If not, then it’s pretty simple. Essentially it is a mixture of action/adventure and platforming. You’ll need to explore areas, heading from room to room, kill or avoid enemies, and find new abilities that allow you to explore previously blocked or unreachable areas.

Combat is very combo-based, with three of the four face buttons corresponding to different weapons. X is a rising attack that pushes enemies into the air, Y is your quick combo button that allows you to link a few attacks and dish out some quick damage, and A is your smash attack used to push enemies downward. It’s quite easy to link all three attacks together, pushing an enemy into the air, jumping and following up with a combo attack, and then finishing it with the downward smash. Sometimes you can also use the smash to knock enemies into each other causing extra damage to both.

The more you play the game, the more techniques and abilities you’ll be able to add to your repertoire. Some are meant for traversal (such as the double-jump), while others allow for further offensive styles (such as the rage moves like the ranged dumbbell throw). It’s not the deepest combat system, but it works and feels pretty good, even allowing a novice to easily link together the basics effectively.

Platforming is less polished than combat, but still acceptable. In particular, the jumping is a little stiff. However, I didn’t come across any areas that punished me too badly for missing my jumps, and the addition of the double-jump and dash make things a little easier, too.

Defeating enemies gives you coins that you can spend in the various shops to buy new weapons, accessories, and upgrades in order to stay competitive against new enemies. Enemies come in all different types, from basic pig enemies that just run at you to buff dog security guards that charge up a dashing punch or even a living arcade machine that has a nasty bite.

The game also has various bosses to fight as you move through the different sections of the Regnantcorp offices. I really enjoyed a couple of the initial bosses: the first was a pig piloting a giant robot, and the second was a slave driver pig that rode upon a human (or anthropomorphic pig) pyramid and called in assistance mid-fight.

While SuperEpic may not be as polished as say Guacamelee, it gets the basics right and throws in enough to keep it interesting. The character and enemy designs are fun, the backgrounds are nice, the music is pretty good, and the premise and story are solid.

But, further than that, Undercoders, the development team, have thrown in a full rogue-like mode that extends an already pretty engaging game. They also have QR codes in a few places that can be used to play minigames on your phone that reward you with codes to redeem in-game cash rewards. How’s that for meta?

SuperEpic: The Entertainment War Review Provided By Nintendo Link
Developer: Undercoders
Publisher: Numskull Games
Release Date: December 12, 2019
Price: $17.99, £14.99, €14,99
Game Size: 868 MB