Developer: Happy Corruption
Publisher: ALL IN! GAMES
Platform: PC, Switch
Tested on: Switch
Space Cows – Review
Cows and fart jokes seem like an odd combination but seemingly not to the developers from Space Cows who thought it was the perfect combo. In the game, you’ll take on the role of a farmer looking for his beloved cow and you’ll have to fight an army of aliens to be able to get her back. The game is a twin-stick shooter where you use plungers to annihilate mootants. Space Cows was developed by Happy Corruption and published by ALL IN! GAMES and we got a chance to review it.
Story
There once was a chubby farmer who lived together with his cow Betsy. One day a man in black tried to convince the farmer to sell his cow but he refused. It seems like the eerie man didn’t take no for an answer since he just took his cow under the cover of the night. Determined to get his beloved cow back, the farmer dressed up as a cow and got kidnapped to a space milk station. Now armed with a toilet plunger he will fight off mootants to save his beloved cow friend.
This piece of the story that is delivered to you in the famous Star Wars way is seemingly the only story that you get. During gameplay itself, there is no more explanation or background to be found. The story you do get is more a background story and you do see hints from what it said during gameplay. For example, you might see billboards making clear that this is a space milk station.
Graphics
Space Cows looks really good and is almost reminiscent of the somewhat older cartoon generation. Certainly, the look of the mini-game that is included in the game, is very similar to the typical cartoon look. The regular gameplay is mostly 3D oriented and has you flying around a metal space station in zero gravity. Even though the background is well designed, there aren’t that many elements that change it up. This is mostly noticeable because the levels are quite long.
The enemies are actually not that widespread. You will mostly encounter the little mootants, who have, like most of the enemies that appear, a green look. Even though they seem quite detailed, it is hard to make out tiny details, so they mostly look a bit like a green blob. There is also a tentacle that will block your way and a shielded enemy, who both have the same color scheme as the “blobs”. Even the bigger boss-like enemy has the same color scheme. Even though the green does make clear that they are aliens and the enemy, it might have been nicer to see it changed up a bit.
Sound
The game might be called Space Cows but with the sound effects, it might have been better to call it “Farting Space Cows” or something similar. It seems the developers really enjoy flatulence jokes as the game is filled to the brim with it. A lot of sound effects are also based on farting and nearly all the sound effects have this kind of “wetness” to them. The sound effects aren’t necessarily bad, they just get a little bit stale plus it is also a bit weird to play this game in public.
Space Cows’ music is quite the typical platformer shooter game music and has also this typical space atmosphere to it. Whenever you fly inside a room that has a lot of enemies or something will lock you up, the music becomes more intense warning you of the situation.
Gameplay
Space Cows is a twin-stick shooter where you take on the role of a farmer looking for his cow. You are only armed with a plunger that you throw at the enemy. Funnily enough, you can throw multiple plungers after each other and the plunger doesn’t return. So, the farmer has an unlimited arsenal of plungers. As you go looking for your best cow friend, you come across mootants as well as lasers protecting the space milk station. The mootants are all the aliens inhabiting this station, you’ll most commonly run into the little blob aliens that seemingly hone onto you and try to catch you. These enemies you can just simply kill by throwing your plunger at them.
Then there is also the tentacle mootant, which blocks your way until you destroy it. You can destroy the tentacle simply by throwing your plunger at it multiple times. One other enemy that you’ll also encounter when the game starts to get harder is the shielded mootant. This enemy can’t be hit by your plunger and will shoot you with its projectiles. The only way to destroy the shielded one is to shoot its projectile back at it which does require some aiming. Once you manage to destroy it, the danger isn’t over since it explodes, making its particles fly around. If you manage to get hit by one of the particles, you lose a life. Everything that hits you actually makes you lose a life immediately.
The game does give you extra lives, but you start with only three lives in normal mode. Extra lives can be gained from milk cartons that are in random places in a level. You can also gain an extra life by collecting enough milk bubbles to fill your carton. The last way to gain an extra life is by completing the mini-game. This mini-game is also found in certain spots in a level and requires you to drag a cow in a sort of bucket to start. The game is called “the milk must flow show” and has a different objective and outlook during every level. To achieve an extra life, you will have to complete a certain objective, this amount goes up the further you are in the level. If you fail the mini-game, you can retry it as much as you want while still in the game screen, once you quit, you can’t retry unless you die during regular gameplay. It seems like the developers wanted to challenge the players before they could earn an extra life, since the mini-games near the end of the level are incredibly hard.
In the first level, the mini-game makes you squeeze milk out the cow, as two rows surround you. Those two rows have alien goo and pipes on them. You will have to aim at the correct side with the pipe to be able to continue. Near the end of the first level, you will have to complete 150 pipes, which is nearly impossible in the time given. Even if you get extra time by collecting watches, you will have to be incredibly fast to be able to make 150. If you don’t complete the objective in the mini-game, you will just get a big amount of milk bubbles which might give you a life still doesn’t feel as rewarding as an actual extra life.
Space Cows has a checkpoint system but doesn’t allow you to save anywhere in the level. The checkpoint itself also doesn’t stay if you quit the game. So, you’ll have to fully restart every time you load the game. This wouldn’t be much of a problem, but Space Cows’ levels are quite long and harsh. So, you’ll often get stuck with no way to quit or you’ll have to restart. This makes it so more casual players might not enjoy the game as much since you’ll have to spend some time beating a level. Certainly, if you are not used to twin-stick shooters it is quite difficult to play the game. The aiming system feels a little bit weird, but this might also have to do that without gravity you are just floating around. You also can’t hold the shoot button down and aim that way, you actually have to keep pressing the button over and over again to shoot a plunger. The latter can, in combination with having to aim, start to make your hand feel sore.
The developers also put in some sneaky parts, with having an enemy right as you come out a tunnel shoot at you. These unexpected hits can feel quite frustrating because you only have limited lives and losing one to something sneaky makes it quite hard. There are also no hints to show something is hiding behind the corner, so the first time you pass this kind of hidden enemy you’ll most likely get hit. Since a level only uses one checkpoint, this can mean you’ll lose a lot of progress if you die.
Conclusion
Space Cows is fun but seems mostly aimed more at gamers who would like to challenge themselves. With no save points in levels, it’s not a game you can just take a break from when you are frustrated. The game is filled with flatulence jokes and puns, which might not be for some people but perfect for others. If you want a game to just casually play to relax then maybe skip over Space Cows. However, if you are looking for a challenging game to try and beat your personal best, then Space Cows might be the game for you.
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