Developer: Bonus Stage Limited
Publisher: DigitalMania, You Run Limited
Platform: PC, Switch
Tested on: PC
Warshmallows – Review
War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing! Then again, what if marshmallows raged war, wouldn’t that be pretty sweet? In Warshmallows up to four marshmallow warriors fight in an arena setting to encapsulate their opponents into rock-hard candy or floating bubbles. This makes Warshmallows a fun party game to play with kids around, as there is no violence, only food fights.
Story
Everything is fine and dandy in the sugar-coated world of Warshmallows. A bunch of champions decides to do a friendly tournament to see who is the fluffiest marshmallow of them all. It all starts with a call from Chindrella which is the G.O.D. of the Warshmallows. She calls on you because you want to become the champion of the games. After a short tutorial, you are let loose to enjoy the game against other players online or against friends locally.
The game is heavily focused on arcade gameplay, therefore there has been no real investment into the backstory or character backgrounds in this game. You won’t miss this as you will be instantly thrown into all the action and don’t really feel a need for lore in this game.
Graphics
The world of Warshmallows is very colorful and pleasant to play in. You have a bunch of venues to play in and they all have unique settings such as a city, historical village, volcano, and many more. The game has some simple animations for dashing, flying and shooting, which is pretty normal as the characters are just marshmallows. The graphics themselves are nice and of a decent quality.
The simplicity ensures that the frame rate stays stable and smooth during the most heated battles and that you don’t need to have a powerful PC to run it. Each character has its own color and corresponding projectile, allowing you to see who trapped the enemy, making sure you can keep track of the more skilled players. Every character has a few unique skins that alter the look but don’t do anything special other than that.
Sound
Don’t expect something really fancy in Warshmallows, as the sound design is very simple, yet effective. You have an announcer and rock music pumping you up before the match, but during the battles, there is soft music playing in the background to accommodate the venue you’re in. There are a bunch of sound effects when shooting, dodging, using your superpower, but nothing that blows you out of your seat.
Gameplay
Warshmallows is a party game where up to four players battle for the champion’s title. The main goal is to reach four wins and then win the match point. The game starts with a short tutorial explaining the simple controls, therefore the game is easy to pick up, yet difficult to master. It can be played with both a keyboard and controller setup. Both options work fine and if you have some friends over, you can always pass a few controllers around while you play with the keyboard and not suffer from a disadvantage.
In order to win a round, you must be the last one surviving. Defeating your opponents can be done with different means. Either, shoot them with your bubble gun, slap them out of the playing field or use the environment to trick them into submission. The players have three different guns at their disposal and they feel perfectly balanced, The rifle can shoot eight single bullets with different levels of accuracy, the shotgun fires two ‘four round’ spreads and the sniper has only two shots but a very high accuracy. Another trick up your sleeve is the superpower. The latter can be activated to help you escape danger. Each character has a unique skill and while they mostly do the same, they are more like a lifesaver than a game-changer.
For game modes, you can play online against others, play online with friends or go for some traditional couch co-op. Online against other players is a quick pre-lobby where the game searches for other players for 30 seconds and will mostly fill the game with bots if not enough players are found. The bots have decent skill and will try their best to defeat you in combat. Their skill and easily filled slots keep the games going fast, making it fun and worth your while. Because the gameplay is mostly the same all the time, you can get bored of it rather quickly, so it’s advised to play the game in short sessions as a lunch break thing or just have good laughs with friends locally or online. When you play with friends, you can decide to either play free-for-all, two vs two, or couch vs couch.
When you win matches you will be rewarded with experience points that unlock new weapons, projectile types and costumes. Unlocking the essential items goes pretty fast, leaving the option to grind in your hands if you want to have all the costumes available.
Conclusion
Warshmallows is a fun party game that you can play online or with friends locally. The simple accessible gameplay ensures that young and old can enjoy this title. The graphics are beautiful and the sounds are equally decent. You can have some fun for a while but it isn’t advised to play the game for long sessions. We can commend the developers on the decision to have bots populate the online lobbies because there aren’t any offline single-player modes.
Warshmallows - Review,
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