Developer: Art Games Studio
Publisher: Art Games Studio, Ultimate Games
Platform: PC, Switch
Tested on: Switch
Pooplers – Review
Splatoon is probably one of Nintendo’s most beloved IPs of the last two generations. While the Wii U was one of the most unsuccessful projects of Nintendo, Splatoon gathered a lot of attention and was ideal for shooter fans. The concept of splurging ink all over the place catered to many kid-friendly gamers and it wasn’t long before Nintendo’s Switch had a second installment of the Splatoon franchise. Now, we had the chance to try out Pooplers, a game that tries to mimic a part of what Splatoon was all about, but instead of cute characters, we get horrid looking babies who shit all over the place, rather than spray ink. A literal shit game about, well, shit.
Story
There is absolutely no story to be found in Pooplers. You either play against bots or you poop it out with friends. We doubt the game would have been any less shitty with a story in place. It’s all about mini-games and poop-matches, rather than having a buildup or even a goal.
Graphics
The graphical design of this title is total shit. You’ll have character models that come right out of a PlayStation 2 game, and the movement animations are pretty much of the same quality. The colorful poop you leave behind has a bit of Splatoon’s graphical design, but other than that, both games are on a totally different level. While the stages are somewhat varied, it feels like the developers wanted to properly flesh out this clear parody of Splatoon, but gave up somewhere in the middle.
Sound
Another shitty part of the game is its sound design. You’ll hear a fairly okayish backdrop, which then gets spoiled by the same three sounds that loop over and over again, namely the parent telling you to stop shitting all over the place, your fart sounds and the babies crying from start to finish. There is nothing redeeming about using these horrid sounds throughout the entire game. The other modes have a few other sound effects, but nothing that makes up for the overall horrid design.
Gameplay
Pooplers is a party game in which you have to shit all over the floor, trying to cover as much in your color of poo. You have a free for all mode, a team match, a mode that pits parents against kids, and two other modes that feel completely out of place, namely a horde survival mode and a football mode.
The first modes all revolve around the same thing, you pick a map, you start pooping, and you try to get the best spread. If you opt for the mode with the parents, other players can pick the role of the parents, and they will have to clean up the babies’ mess and put them in time out. A certain percentage has to be scored by the babies when the timer runs out, otherwise, they lose. The parents are slower than a snail, and you can only catch up to babies by picking up the speed power-up. It feels dull playing as the parents, and also very underwhelming.
Playing survival makes the game even worse. You simply notice the game wasn’t designed for such gameplay. It’s cute that your characters get to wield balloon-weapons, but other than that, everything feels wrong. You’ll be fending off zombies for some reason, and your powers are so weak, you’ll often lose points on the easy waves anyway. There is no tactic, there is no proper progression, there’s simply no purpose. The same can be said about the football match, which has you push a football to the other player’s goal. You can fart the whole time while doing so, and this supposedly should give you some boost. We didn’t notice anything of the sort.
Conclusion
Pooplers is simply put a piece of crap. The game tries to be a parody of a great franchise, Splatoon, but fails horribly to do so. The idea is there, and while it may be cheesy, if it was properly fleshed out and designed, it could have been something for slapstick humor enthusiasts. Now, the game should have been flushed down, instead of costing actual money on an online store. If you get this one for free on a drunken night, you could get a few laughs out of it, but even in your intoxicated state, you would still see how shitty this game truly is.
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