Developed by Vixa Games and published by Ravenage Games and Ripples Asia Venture, The Crackpet Show is a roguelite shooter where you must take part in a bloody action show and ‘clear’ episodes in order to become famous. The main characters in the game are cute little animals that look really cute but give a weapon in their hands and they will become deadlier than the most brutal protagonists you’ve seen in video games. The Crackpet Show combines different genres into one and it delivers an addictive experience that is topped by wacky humor. This is our review of The Crackpet Show in which we blow up our audience and turn a show into a bloody mess.
The Crackpet Show offers you two modes to jump into. Apart from the main story where you can progress through episodes and play through them level after level, you also get an Endless Mode where you spawn, and the enemies keep coming until you die. This mode is initially locked and demands that you clear the first season and all of its six episodes. There are three seasons in the game, each with six episodes and each episode has its own unique boss for you to defeat. The progression is pretty decent in the game and because of its challenging nature, the game wants you to get better before tackling the much harder episodes. Fame is the ultimate goal of this game and the more slaughtering you do, the more famous you become in the game.
At the start of every run, you will find yourself in the main hub of the game where you can choose a class out of four. These classes are Assault, Engineer, Medic, and Tank however these classes only give you a starting weapon and an item for use. The number of items you get at the start is not that much as well so if you are picking Medic, it only comes with one Bandage, or the Engineer only has four turrets that he can deploy in the game. Once the item is used, it goes away from your inventory, and you have to find new items. Apart from the starting weapon and the item in your inventory, there are no other starting perks or bonuses for the four classes that you have in your inventory.
After picking your class, you can head into the episode of your liking. If you are just starting the game, you will only have the first episode unlocked and more episodes are unlocked after you complete the previous ones. After choosing an episode, you will have a randomly generated path that consists of different levels, and you can choose what path you want to go through. Each level has a particular icon on it, and it shows what sort of level it is. Some levels are simple enemy levels, and you only get to fight enemies in them while some levels are item levels where you will unlock an item after you defeat all of the enemies in them. The same goes for weapons as well however each level will only offer you one item, so you have to make your decision and stick with it.
After choosing the initial level, you have to follow that same path unless another branch appears in it and you can choose another path for the rest of the episode. During the path, you have to collect items, perks, and weapons and ‘build’ yourself up for the final challenge, which is a boss fight. The perks are random, and their activation animation is really cool as well. A large machine appears, and they are literally activated inside your brain as it shocks your character to its core. You get perks in the same way you get items or weapons, through completing levels but these perks are really important, and you have to find the right balance between weapons, items, and these perks. Before the final boss fight, you are always given the shop where you can purchase weapons, items, and even health so that you go in fresh to face the boss.
For me, the boss battles kicked up the difficulty a lot as some of the levels feel really easy in the game even in tougher episodes. The weapons, items, and perks do a splendid job of helping you out unless you arrive at the boss fight and then everything starts to feel useless. The boss fights in The Crackpet Show are a true test of your mettle and everything you hold dear. After clearing some of the toughest of the stages, I still had trouble defeating even the very first boss of the game. No matter how hard you try to build the best ever builds, you will need to be at the top of your skills to defeat the bosses here. While each run is randomly generated, the final boss of each episode remains the same and no matter how different your path is, the final boss of every episode in the game will remain the same. Due to the nature of some of the boss fights, you will often get bullet-hell vibes as well.
This also brings a unique perspective on in-game progression because after you defeat a boss, you will unlock another episode and that remains unlocked even after you die. This means that you do not have to restart from the very first boss like in most similar titles and just pick the episode you want to jump into and play it to the end. Apart from episodes remaining unlocked, your experience also remains banked. The more you play the game, the more experience you gain in the game, and the more famous you become in the show. Successfully completing an episode also allows you to earn trophies as well. Some of the episodes also feature mini-bosses which are not as hard as the final bosses, but they can still mess up your day if you are not careful enough in the game. The game can be played with a friend in co-op mode as well either through a controller or Remote Play and the screen splits into two for this mode. During this mode, you can sabotage your friend’s game by stealing their weapons. For me, The Crackpet Show was fun in both solo as well as co-op modes. The co-op adds another layer of fun since you can mess around with a friend but the solo mode itself is pretty solid as well.
The gameplay of The Crackpet Show is one of the most unique ones that I have seen in any roguelite for a long time. There is no aiming in the game and the game takes care of the aiming at its own. You left-click to fire your main weapon and right-click allows you to use your currently equipped item. Apart from this, you move around with WASD, and pressing F allows you to interact with switches, items, and menus. Spacebar allows you to dodge around however when you are shooting, you cannot move at all. While the game auto-aims, it does not allow you to move while you are shooting. If you are moving and press the left click, you will stop moving and then you will start shooting. This is perhaps to prevent the game from becoming too easy.
The weapons are pretty decent in the game as well and apart from the starting weapons, the weapons you acquire later in the game from in-game shops absolutely annihilate the enemies. Despite the fact that in certain scenarios, there are tons of enemies on the screen and sometimes they are so many that you even forget where your own character is located. However, as you begin slaughtering down everything, things eventually come into your control. As you kill the enemies, each kill nets you a specific number of Likes which is the main in-game currency. The more enemies you kill, the more Likes you earn and when you head into the shops, you can purchase better items, perks, and weapons. Mind that when you start a run, you are always offered a perk at the start and you have to choose one from two, and right from this point, you start ‘building’ your character for the run.
Overall, The Crackpet Show is a great title that is filled with wacky humor here and there. Also, this is the only show game where you are able to blow up the audience with your weapons as well. The option sliders are middle-fingers, and the deaths are pretty gory in a comic way. The controls take a little time to get used to because normally, you have to aim and shoot your enemies but not here and that makes for some awkward initial minutes as you are just sitting there and shooting while the game aims at your enemies on its own. It does bring a unique element of gameplay into the mix, and I would have loved manual aiming but you get what the developers make, and this is not something that would ruin the gameplay for you.
Final Verdict:
In this age when roguelikes are dropping like water drops from the sky, it is very hard to find one that is actually fun to play, and I am happy to say here that The Crackpet Show is one that is filled with its moments. It is wacky, it is fun, and it is challenging all at the same time. The visuals are nothing to go crazy for, but the overall design of the game is really good, and the gameplay is where it really shines. With none of the complex mechanics in place and a decent progression thrown in the mix, you can spend quite a lot of time in the game and still have a good time. The addition of co-op makes this a solid game to go for over the competition. Whether you are a seasoned player of roguelikes or casually jump into one for the challenge or you are looking for a fun co-op game to play with your friend, The Crackpet Show fills all definitions with its mindless shooting and its own unique personality. Highly recommended!
Final Score: 8.0/10
