Enter a ring of death starring friendly creatures about to blood the screen and explode their insides for the simple entertainment. What more can we ask for? This is the proposal of The Crackpet Show from the Russian studio Ravenage Games.
The Crackpet Show It is already in Early Access on PC via Steam.
A game to death
Imagine if the movie “Death Race” and the animated series “Happy Tree Friends” had a child, that fun between innocence and wildness would result The Crackpet Show, a totally frenzied bullet hell where we as viewers enjoy the suffering of a series of cute little animals.
The joke is that these amorphous animals – cows, sharks, rabbits; etc. They are part of a reality show led by a hen, where they will face various creatures for the simple fact of gaining fame.
With this simple but effective narrative the possibilities are endless and that results in more rogue-lite or rogue-like elements; product of dying, fighting and dying again.
Stairway to fame
Off camera the game starts where we can select the characters and give them four possible characteristics: tank, healer, mechanic and attacker. Each one has its advantages and it is always the decision of the player with whom we feel most comfortable. Although the strategy can be passed through … here the reflections and not stop shooting is the only option.
In this first quarter we can improve our sponsors (who like other rogue-like) we unlock by getting prizes. These give us improvements or open certain special rooms during each run.
Our character has a weapon (then we can select two) and an object with limited use that can be bombs, turrets, anabolics; etc. We have three hearts and with each hit we lose half. Once it’s game over, we start over.
Each run has a path to choose from where we can find weapons, objects or improvements. Like other rogue-like there are simpler scenarios and others more difficult almost at random. Although the difficulty (barring the final bosses) is not something to worry about at first. There are also scenarios to collect “I like you” and with this access a store to buy weapons, objects or recover hearts.
The weapons are the juicy of the title. From machine guns, lasers, shotguns, bouncing balls or missiles. A great variety so that you don’t get bored and that each level feels different. What perhaps most shocked me at first is that we do not control the scope but it is automatic and attacks the closest enemy.
The Crackpet Show It currently has two seasons and each one with six chapters. Each chapter faces us with one or two final bosses and this is where we will have to concentrate, dodge all the attacks and gut our enemies with the highest possible speed.
We can also play cooperatively through Steam Remote Play Together.
Can I bite Todd like the mouse did?
Those of us who play video games or watch series like the aforementioned “Happy Tree Friends” will not be so surprised by this mix between innocence and sadism, but the visual result is more than effective. Even if they ask me; It would take these two opposites between tenderness and violence to more extreme places. But since the game is still in Early Access, it is not known where it may end up.
Nor does it have a soundtrack and it seems to me a great decision we only have to concentrate our shots, the sounds of the enemies exploding and the ovation of the public.
conclusion
The Crackpet Show is a game that does not come to invent anything new, part of already known formulas but the television format gives enough possibilities to extend the title once it is published in its entirety.
It should also be added that, by not having a difficulty level, the game can go from being a walk in the park to a real madness if we do not have the ideal weapon especially in the final boss battles.
System Requirements
MINIMUM: OS: Windows 7 – Processor: 2.0 GHz Processor – Memory: 4 GB of RAM – Graphics: DirectX compatible graphics – DirectX: Version 11 – Storage: 2 GB of available space
RECOMMENDED: OS: Windows 10 – Processor: 3.0 GHz Processor – Memory: 8 GB of RAM – Graphics: DirectX compatible graphics – DirectX: Version 12 – Storage: 4 GB of available space