Developer: Triple Scale games
Publisher: Triple Scale Games
Platforms: PC, Xbox One, Switch
Tested on: PC
Save Your Nuts – Review
Triple Scale Games brings us a new party game that could help us kill a few hours during the stay-at-home global initiative. Published and Developed by Triple Scale Games, Save your Nuts is a sport, action, and party game available to play on PC, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. The game was released on the 16th of April 2020, so you can scurry ahead to purchase it right now. You can game with your friends and family at home with a couch party, or head online to join other players without breaking any social distancing.
Story
Save Your Nuts begins with a crafty squirrel challenging a group of animals consisting of two otters, two armadillos, a little wolf, a raccoon, and two dachshund dogs. He is speaking on behalf of all squirrels about how their species have been oppressed for too long. He says that now is the time to demonstrate their superiority in a competition, in an attempt to gain the respect they deserve. The squirrel invites all the animals who are brave enough to participate in this competition with a series of trials involving dexterity, strength, strategy, and cooperation. The ultimate champions will be declared Kings. Needless to say, the squirrels are already assuming that they will win in this competition. The prize is the squirrel’s most precious item, The Epic Nut from The Tree of Life. This sets up the premise of the game.
Graphics
The game is generally brightly colored and has a cartoon art style. This generates the fun party feel, as the animations in the game easily remind you of Saturday morning cartoons as a young kid. When choosing a character to play with in-game the animations exhibit a 3D model style. It’s easy to assume by the appearance of the game that it is meant for children, however, this is for all ages. When you’re in-game, the game is presented in a birds-eye view with the camera moving to focus on where the action in the game is happening. There are several areas for the tournament to take place, such as; Backyard, Park, Train Station, and many more to unlock as you play. Certain areas have interactive factors in their environments, for example, when playing in the Park, a crocodile can damage the players when they get too close to it in the water.
The areas in which the tournament takes place are all done in a 3D cartoon style. A blue or red circle displays at the foot of the animals, indicating which team you are on. When the animals are battling it out for the nuts, a grey cloud of smoke appears above them upon impact, covering them, ensuring no violence is witnessed. There are also blue and red spikes shooting out of the cloud, indicating the collision of the two teams within the smoke. The powerups in the stages are brightly colored, attracting you to collect them and benefit from the ability attached to them. The game can be fast-paced and can get a bit cramped in certain modes as players are fighting it out to collect the nut, however, the camera is accurate and helps by keeping you in view of the action.
Sound
The audio of the game soundtrack is complementary to the cartoon style. The sound of a horn and people cheering is heard whenever you score by putting the nuts in the house, which is the dog kennel in the Backyard area. This makes you feel as if you are playing football. Punching sounds from cartoons such as Tom and Jerry can be heard when there is an impact. The sounds from the selected animals in the game can be heard throughout the game, such as a dog barking and squirrels screeching. This adds to this feeling like a whacky exciting sports game with all the sounds.
The soundtrack to the game has a general guitar-heavy theme. The Backyard, an area in which you can choose for one of the game modes to take place, has a fun upbeat acoustic guitar tune. This changes in the Park area, with a more electric guitar sound. The songs do change when you are on a level for a long time but don’t expect mind-blowing tracks, although, it’s the right music to keep the game alive and pumping. The background music disappears for some odd reason when busy with character selection. Don’t assume your audio has stopped working when you are at this point in the game because the music in the background continues once character selection is complete and you move onto choosing the arena for the tournament to take place. The audio for this genre of games is well suited, as this is a game aimed at having light-hearted fun with family and friends and the music reflects that.
Gameplay
Save your Nuts is a very typical party game that revolves around a grand tournament. To win the tournament in Save your Nuts, there are three game modes available for the animals to contend in. You can have up to eight players, including yourself. If you don’t have that many people to play with, you have the option of including bots or going online to find other players looking for a challenge. The bots can be set to a variety of difficulty settings. This game is really fun and worth the time when playing with other people but not as fun when playing alone or with the bots. This game is more suited for parties, not an all-nighter, or for a 24-hour stream as it is hard to keep your attention focused on it as it can get tedious over a long period, especially when playing alone.
The three available modes are: Capture The Nut, Battle Mode, and Thieves Mode. The first mode is Capture The Nut, whereby the objective is to collect nuts -one-by-one, and each team has 5 minutes. The objective is to grab the nut and take it back to the house of your team, the dog kennel referred to earlier for example, with two teams battling it out to achieve this goal. Then there is Battle Mode, the objective here is to knock out the opponents and to be the last one standing. Finally, the third mode is Thieves Mode, which is the most hectic mode of all three. The game begins with each team having 5 nuts at the start of the game. Players can steal nuts from the other team’s houses. It can get very frantic in this mode because you can fight for more than one nut.
The game gives the option to use your mouse or the keyboard and if you have a controller you can use that too. The controls are simple enough to allow first-time players to ease seamlessly into the game. The game can become fast-paced depending on the levels of the players in the game. You can score very easily or can have long games where the teams are fairly equal and defending is great. Warning, this is a party sports game, do not take it too seriously. The mechanics of the game allow for a fast-paced flow. With the high number of players, it can get very crazy when you have all these animals running to one point on the screen, all fighting for a nut. It creates an atmosphere for good fun and doesn’t require the most challenging controls to execute.
Conclusion
Save Your Nuts is a fun party game, one to enjoy with your friends and family during lockdown to kill an hour or two. It depends on the excitement you are able to generate while gaming with others to consider how long you can go at it. Playing alone and with bots is not as fun as when playing with other people and the novelty can wear off fast. This is a game that is definitely to be enjoyed at a party where you are guaranteed to have up to eight players and you can implement a rotational system so that there are always fresh challenges. This keeps the excitement levels high as you see what different people are capable of and what cooperation strategies are developed adding in new faces to the mix after every round or two. This is a game to be played in moderation and for fun occasions, though it can definitely be enjoyed more by children who would find it less tedious in its simplicity. For adults, this is not the case as it is not a game you can play over long periods. It would make a fun game for a date night though!
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