Developer: Mad Gamesmith
Publisher: Mad Gamesmith
Platform: Switch, Android
Tested on: Switch
Redneck Skeet Shooting – Review
Mad Gamesmith brings Redneck Skeet Shooting to Switch this month. It’s the first game the Polish studio ever released, and it has been available as an ad-infested free game on Android for a while. The Switch version exchanges the ads for a €4,99 entry fee. Time to find out if this is the perfect opportunity to break out the moonshine or if you’re better off staying out of the woods.
Story
Meet Billy. Billy is a redneck. His favorite thing in the whole wide world is shooting stuff, so Billy builds himself an object-spitting machine. He fills the device with gasoline and loads it with whatever random crap he can find. As he turns it on, a steady stream of targets is ejected from the machine: it’s shooting time! Of course, this is all derived from the context: there is no actual story to the game. Then again, it’s a pretty simple premise, just like Billy appears to be a simple-minded guy.
Graphics
Graphics are presented in a colorful, cartoony style that might look appealing at first, but quickly lose their luster: the objects you encounter are non-animated images that slide across the screen but have no depth to them. Billy’s movement animation is very limited and feels flat and unnatural. Adding insult to injury, each of the unlockable stages is identical in layout to the next –the only thing that changes visually is the background.
Sound
As you’d expect from a Redneck-themed game, the soundtrack is mostly made up of banjo sounds and has the typical Americana-vibe of the Southern States. There are a couple of tracks in the game, that keep looping while you’re playing.
Apart from the music, there’s the sound of the gun –which is incredibly annoying- and those of the objects exploding. There’s no voice acting, so don’t expect Billy to utter a YEE-HAW or whoop after beating the high score.
Gameplay
Calling Redneck Skeet Shooting a shooting game would be stretching the definition of what a shooting game is. Sure, you stand around and shoot stuff but don’t expect any more than that, as there is literally not a semblance of depth to the game. In that regard, Redneck Skeet Shooting has a lot more in common with the Adobe Flash-created games on websites like Newgrounds back in the early 2000s than it has with a video game one would expect on the Switch in 2019.
You control Billy as he stands in the left-hand corner of the screen. On the right-hand side of the screen is a gasoline-powered contraption that spits out objects for you to shoot. As it does so, it consumes fuel. Hitting an object with the shooting weapon of your choice slightly replenishes the fuel. Should the object spitter run empty, it’s game over. There’s a couple of other ways to end a round of Redneck Skeet Shooting: hitting a stick of dynamite will, for example, end your game. The same goes for hitting the object spitter. Some of the larger objects can be hit multiple times in order to rack up more points, and you can also hit multiple objects with the same shot, earning you a “DOUBLE HIT” message on the screen.
When your round ends, any points earned are cashed out: these are used to unlock new weapons, new stages and new outfits for Billy. These are very limited, even for a €4.99 game, but the in-game menu promises new content in future updates, though whether these will be free or paid DLC remains to be seen. Earning enough coins to unlock something new is repetitive and tedious –you’ll have to replay the same stage over and over to earn enough coins to unlock the next stage. Had there been more to the game than aiming and button-tapping, this would’ve made the stages feel less like a chore, but as it stands, there is very little incentive to keep playing.
The controls are simple: using the left-hand control stick, you aim –although Billy has a tendency of leaning forward, which is presumably where the challenge lies. Pressing the A button makes Billy shoot. Levels work the same way –the differences lie in the objects that are in each level. Some overlap between levels, but every level has several unique targets. These range from garden gnomes through whiskey bottles to car seats. Shooting these will add them to your trophy collection –a gallery of still images of each object in the game.
Apart from the background and the objects being fired, there is no difference between each level –they are functionally the same. This is a missed opportunity, as you’ll feel you’ll have seen it all within the first 10 minutes of gameplay. Had objects been implemented in different ways on each stage, there could’ve been some longevity to the game. For example, a stage that has objects pop up from behind various pieces of the scenery rather than them being spit at you could have provided the game with some much-needed variety.
Conclusion
An utterly shallow attempt at a quick cash-grab, Redneck Skeet Shooting attempts to draw in players with its cartoony style, but offers very little in return for your money. As it stands, the game is basically all about doing the same thing over and over as you attempt to fill the trophy galleries and unlock everything. It’s doubtful if the “reward” of a complete gallery is worth the effort.
Redneck Skeet Shooting - Review,
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