Developer: Funny Fintan Softworks
Publisher: Kwalee Gaming
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Don’t Stop, Girlypop! – Review
From otome visual novels to licensed games based on preschool TV shows, this reviewer certainly isn’t a stranger to games aimed at audiences I’m not part of. While it’s almost impossible to approach such a game completely without any bias, we do aim to keep an open mind. Sometimes, games that don’t cater to us specifically end up being unexpected games. Case in point: DC Super Hero Girls (no, really). What we’re trying to say is that we weren’t going to dismiss Don’t Stop, Girlypop! purely based on its premise, but we did need to be in the right mindset if we were ever going to give it a fair chance. That’s how the game ended up in our review backlog for months, only to finally make its inevitable appearance as a full-fledged review subject right now.
Story
The premise of Don’t Stop, Girlypop! sets the tone for the rest of the game by being as shallow as it is over the top. You play as Imber, a fairy-like warrior fighting against the evil corporation Tigris Nix, who are trying to steal a resource called “The Love” from a brightly coloured planet. As vapid as the story is, it is played completely straight and without a hint of irony. Dialogue delivered via flip phone and cutscenes exist, but any narrative content these add is only surface deep.
Graphics
Pink is the obvious keyword here. Don’t Stop, Girlypop!’s art direction is extremely stylized, leaning hard into a maximalist, Y2K-inspired aesthetic filled with bright, neon colors (mostly pink), and chaotic hyperpop energy. The game’s flamboyant visuals are the main attraction here, and unapologetically so. It is perhaps ironic then that the game’s main selling point also ends up being one of the game’s biggest drawbacks. Between the neon colors, particle effects, UI elements, and fast movement happening on-screen at any given moment, Don’t Stop, Girlypop!’s action becomes a blur and important visual information is sometimes obscured by the sheer amount of on-screen clutter. Unsurprisingly, this translates into a game that is very demanding when it comes to visual performance. Don’t Stop, Girlypop! requires a whopping 16GB of RAM at minimum, and even with that, the game couldn’t escape stuttering and frame drops.
Sound
The gaudy visuals may be Don’t Stop, Girlypop!’s signboard, but the game’s soundtrack is what’ll stick with us. Its Y2K-inspired tunes are catchy as hell. The music helps drive the rhythm and intensity of gameplay, while also keeping the tone light and playful despite the constant action. The game also includes voice acting, which is particularly helpful as there is often already enough going on at once without you having to focus on on-screen dialogue. The performances are decent but not outstanding. Rounding things out are gunfire and general combat sounds, which are satisfying in isolation, but don’t always clearly communicate impact or damage, which can make it hard to tell if enemies are being hit. Music sometimes overpowers sound effects, making it difficult to hear important audio cues during fights. This does affect gameplay, especially in chaotic encounters where clarity is already a problem.
Gameplay
A game built around a gimmick risks only being as good as that gimmick, and that’s certainly the case with Don’t Stop, Girlypop!. The game is a fast-paced, first-person boomer shooter built around constant movement and arena combat. Players chain abilities like jumping, dashing, grappling, and wave hopping to build speed, which in turn increases both damage output and survivability. The core gameplay centers on those fast-paced, momentum-driven mechanics, with movement being just as important, if not more important, than aiming. The faster you move, the more powerful you are. Speed builds damage output, healing, and score multipliers, so you’re constantly encouraged to chain movement abilities. When everything clicks, Don’t Stop, Girlypop! Becomes exhilarating, rhythmic, and satisfying, with a strong flow state similar to other movement shooters.
The main issue here is that Don’t Stop, Girlypop! rarely effectively clicks. At high speeds, combat can become hard to read, making fights feel out of control and visually overwhelming. The game is physically demanding as well, requiring constant, repetitive inputs that can really put a strain on your hands, especially when playing over longer periods of time. The result is gameplay that feels like it opposes the game’s underlying design philosophy of “the faster you move, the more powerful you are”. Add to this an unbalanced weapon arsenal and limited enemy variety, and you end up with a subpar shooter once you strip away the pink.
To its credit, Don’t Stop, Girlypop! is the kind of game that knows it shouldn’t overstay its welcome. Clocking in at around for hours to complete, the game’s campaign can be completed in a single sitting, albeit a very demanding one. There’s little replayability here either: no additional modes, challenges, or meaningful post-game content beyond a handful of collectibles and secrets that don’t significantly change the overall experience. That makes the €19.99 price tag hard to justify, especially given the plethora of boomer shooters to pick from. The only thing that really sets Don’t Stop, Girlypop! apart from the likes of DOOM or Ultrakill is that aesthetic. If that’s enough to convince you to give this one a go, all the more power to you.
Conclusion
In a perfect world, Don’t Stop, Girlypop! would have been the kind of game that shouldn’t work in theory, but does in practice. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t deliver on that front. Not because the core idea of an over-the-top, neon pink hyperpop boomer shooter is a bad one, but because the game fumbles the execution. As much as we wanted the game to succeed, it simply doesn’t live up to expectations, with the garish visuals actually hurting the gameplay, the underlying shooter mechanics being below average, and the price tag not matching the amount of content. Killer soundtrack though.
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