Ever wanted to kill people while dressed as Donald Trump and firing spider mines? Well now you can, thanks to Ragdoll Rage: Heroes Arena. Developed and published by HeroCraft, Ragdoll Rage: Heroes Arena is a unique shooter where your character features ragdoll gameplay mechanics. The goal in the game is really simple: find a weapon and kill your enemies however with your ragdoll physics coming into play every time you try to move around, things are not always as easy as it sounds. This is our review of the Nintendo Switch version of Ragdoll Rage: Heroes Arena in which we try to land on our feet and shoot some cool weapons while flying around with jetpacks.
Ragdoll Rage: Heroes Arena offers you plenty of gaming modes to jump into. After a brief tutorial, the game gives you the freedom of playing whatever mode you want to try out first. If you prefer solo modes, you can jump into the Leagues where two different leagues will test your mettle and give you gold for every win along with a bonus costume unlocked at the end. You can also jump into a quick match instantly with the AI player if you want to hone your skills. Once you are ready, the real fun of Ragdoll Rage: Heroes Arena lies in the online or VS modes such as the PvP Local, PvP Online, or Deathmatch where you can test your skills against local or online players from around the world.
The gameplay of Ragdoll Rage: Heroes Arena is based around ragdoll physics where your character is unable to walk like a normal person. You can jump with the ZR key and shoot any picked-up weapons with the ZR button. To help you a little as you try to walk around, you can press the B key for jumping as well if you want to avoid some obstacles. You can also land some melee attacks on your enemies with the ZR key if you are not holding any weapon in your hand and if you are lucky, you might knock their weapon out of their hands as well while doing so and grab it to finish them off. The mechanics are not that hard, and you can easily get better at the game after 2 or 3 games maximum.
Ragdoll Rage: Heroes Arena features different characters which are basically just skins for the base character. You will unlock the first skin at the start of the game and then you will need to unlock additional skins by earning gold from game modes that reward you with gold. There are some pretty neat skins in the game such as a cheerleader, a mustache-man, a cool robot, a skeleton, and even a Donald Trump skin if you want to blast your enemies while dressed up as him. These skins are purely visual and they give you a reason to use the gold that you earn in the single-player modes of the game. There is no grind in the game and the only grind that you will be doing is to earn enough gold to unlock all of the upgrades and
The levels in Ragdoll Rage: Heroes Arena are designed for giving both players a fair advantage and from there, it depends on the players to take advantage of their spots as well. The weapons are spawned after some time and depending on the level, one or two weapons may spawn at the same time. In some levels, only one weapon spawns, and the player who misses claiming it must avoid the other player trying to kill them until another weapon spawns. After the game kicks off, random weapons start to spawn later in the match as well and if you fail to kill the other player in a certain time, a sudden-death warning sounds, and then spikes start appearing from both ends of the screen. There is no visible time in each game but if you take too long, the game will end the game for you.
The levels are not too complex however each level is unique in the sense that each level has a unique background and the support items that appear in each level are unique as well. Some levels give you jetpacks to fly around as you try to kill enemies while some levels give you trampolines to jump on them in order to reach weapons or other items. Some of the levels also have spikes where you take damage if you fall on them and sometimes, you will also find explosive or toxic barrels that deal damage to players if they are damaged or exploded. In addition, another level had rotating platforms with spikes on their edges which could damage anyone who would hit them. One of the levels had an AT-AT Walker in its background which was a clear Star Wars reference so each level in the game is pretty well-designed.
As you jump around and try to land on your feet in these crazy levels, you will be shooting at your enemies with some of the craziest weapons that you can find in the game. The weapons in Ragdoll Rage: Heroes Arena are some of the coolest that I have seen in any video game. You have a wide variety of weapons to choose from including generic ones such as pistols, shotguns, assault rifles, mini-gun and crazy ones like a gun shaped like a dragon that shoots blue heat-seeking projectiles at your enemies, laser guns, green goo gun, rocket launchers, grenade launchers and what not. You name it and Ragdoll Rage: Heroes Arena probably has some sort of a weapon like it in the game. You will not spawn with a weapon in the game and right after the game begins, you will need to look for a weapon as they will start spawning in the level after some time.
After you have found yourself a weapon, you will need to work around the strengths and weaknesses of each weapon. Some of the weapons have limited range while some have a high charge time before they start firing. Some of the weapons also have a low firing rate but they deal a high amount of damage with each hit so you have to make every shot count if you want to win in the game. Similarly, weapons featuring a high rate of fire do not deal massive damage with each hit. This is the same for all weapon types in the game and you have to keep in mind their strengths and weaknesses. While there is no ammo restriction, you can change your weapon by swapping it with at any time if you see a better weapon lying on the ground at any time in the game. You are not locked to one weapon after picking it up so you can experiment around with different weapons if you are having a tough time killing with your current weapon.
With its multiple modes, crazy weapon selection, and fun level design, Ragdoll Rage: Heroes Arena is excellent for quick playing sessions, family fun, or when you just want to have some ragdoll fun with your friends and players from around the world. The visuals and soundtrack of the game are fine and nothing to boast about too much. The performance of the game on the Nintendo Switch console is fine as well. You can use two Joy-Cons for two-player modes on the same console and if you have extra, more players can jump in the fun as well. The frames are pretty decent even in the handheld mode, so this game is pretty good if you want to have it on the go or while playing in your home. The UI does feel like it is a mobile game, especially with the daily login bonus and other bonuses for just logging into the game, but it works out just fine.
Final Verdict:
Ragdoll Rage: Heroes Arena features wacky gameplay mechanics and offers tons of co-op fun if you have some friends or family members to play the game with. The solo modes are only good for earning gold and unlocking new characters in the game but the real fun of Ragdoll Rage: Heroes Arena lies in playing the game with local co-op. The weapon selection and level design of the game is pretty decent however I would like if the game adds more weapons and levels in the future as that would increase the replayability of the game. If you are looking for a fun, co-op game to play with your friends and family and won’t mind wacky ragdoll physics coupled with even wackier weaponry, you must give Ragdoll Rage: Heroes Arena a shot.
Final Score: 8.5/10
