Anarcute

FIGHT THE POWER!
The plot of Anarcute is quite simple. The world is under the totalitarian control of the Brainwash Patrol. The strange people with animal heads who inhabit the world have had enough of this tyrannical regime and attempt to overthrow it using the power of love. And rioting. There’s no dialogue in the game, instead presenting the story through mumbly cutscenes between each level; it gives you a general sense of progression, but doesn’t do much to add to the overall world. If you came here looking for some kind of story, you’ll probably be disappointed. The game doesn’t really extend much beyond the core setup, but it probably doesn’t really need to either.

KATAMARAMPAGE
Most levels in the game follows a similar structure: you start out with a small group of rioters, and you need to work to find others. This can be done in a variety of ways: some are trapped in cages, others are strapped atop giant buildings, and there are occasional ones that are literally just napping on the street. Regardless of where you find them, these additional members will add to your hoard and increase the overall power of the group, enabling you to utilize additional abilities – such as a stomp attack that can stun enemies, and even being able to pick up entire buildings! It really gives you an increasing feeling of power as your mob gets bigger in size.

With size though comes lack of control. With just a few rioters, it is much easier to avoid enemy attacks and obstacles, but the looseness of the controls become ever more apparent the larger your group becomes. Movement is never precise in the game and moving the stick seems to compel your group into a general direction rather than any precise movement, which tends to lead to many lost lives. If you remember the mob controls in the old Pikmin games, you will probably have a general idea about how imprecise this is; although it feels a lot worse in Anarcute. With rioters only being able to take a few hits before biting the bullet, you will find yourself getting hit by enemy attacks or laser traps that you should be able to avoid, simply because your group of animals aren’t moving quite how you wanted to. One boss requires you to position your army on a small raft to protect yourself from a tidal wave attack, and it’s almost impossible to position yourself – resulting in needless deaths. Things only get worse when dashing; used to rush through traps or avoid enemy fire, it often makes you more vulnerable and can prove pretty stressful. One level has you running through a level quickly using the dash to get through it at speed, but the lack of control tends to put you in awkward positions and make the level more difficult than it should be. Aside from the wonky movement, the rest of the controls fare better. Your team pick up items automatically, and can throw regular or explosive objects using the two triggers, with weapons and destruction assigned to two of the face buttons. It’s all quite simple, thankfully, and you will unlikely fail missions due to the controls.

Regardless of size, your aim is typically to capture the various flags scattered around the levels and capture / destroy key buildings. Of course, the enemy will not make things easy for you as the streets are crawling with armed militia waiting to take you down. Enemies are a highlight of the game, with a huge variety on offer. Every handful of levels of so tend to introduce new enemy types to spice things up, and they all have their own unique attacks or weaponry. The early stomping brutes will be common foes throughout your playthrough, but expect to see laser dogs, ball & chain wielding thugs, and even attack helicopters as things get tougher! They can be tricky to deal when you have a huge number of rioters on your hands, but fights are always fun – even if losing your furry friends is an inevitability.

And you will lose them too. The game is not as easy as you expect it to be. Careless rioting costs lives, and if you rush in expecting to overwhelm everyone then you won’t get far through the game. Taking a cautious approach is definitely the right idea. Throwing projectiles from afar can be a good way to deal with distant enemies, attracting a smaller number towards you. Sneaking up on attack helicopters before they spot you and fly off is also a great idea. The game knows this too and throws in the occasional stealth level with a lone warrior that help you learn how to be sneaky – these levels are a nice change of pace, and aren’t too difficult either. Speaking of a change of pace, the game does throw in a surprising amount of variety throughout its short playtime. The bulk of the levels may follow a similar structure, but you will get levels that play in a very different way – one level even sees you raiding a police concert, taking down waves of enemies as the music gets increasingly more frantic! These are all capped off with a boss fight at the end of each area that provide a solid challenge, and also a lot of fun. These surprised me as they take some of the new mechanics from that area and centre the boss around it. The second area introduces the laser weapon, which can be used to cut metal objects; the boss is a giant arachnid-like mechanoid, which you naturally have to cut the legs off using your new play-toy. I expected them to be simple hit-the-weakspot affairs, but there’s a good amount of strategy to them and proved to be my favourite part of the game.