Imagine if you will, a mash up of classic puzzle games like Puzzle Bobble and Puyo Puyo, dynamic 3D platform action and an aesthetic pulled straight out of the Splatoon playbook, and you have this fascinating co-op oddity, POPUCOM, from Hypergryph.
Co-op is the important thing here, so anyone looking into this one should be aware from the get-go that this is the only way to play. Don’t pick up POPUCOM expecting a lengthy single player mode, as the only way to experience it is with a friend. But like all the best co-operative video game experiences, this is a tremendous amount of fun and the perfect game to play with friends and family, with a breezy and delightful feel that just puts a smile on your face from the moment you boot it up and doesn’t let go.
The gameplay loop is a real mixed bag and feels truly unique. I have mentioned some of the clear influences, but I cannot remember playing something with quite this kind of blend of styles and interesting things to do.
You play as a Splatoon-esque chibi anime character, which you can edit prior to kicking things off with a number of different outfits and palette options, more of which can be unlocked down the line using in-game currency. The gameworld is, brilliantly, known as Pancake. But Shrove Tuesday this aint. This crazy, vividly rendered 3D world is under attack by a giant, cartoony yet somehow Lovecraftian slime creature who is calling forth a bunch of pesky monsters known as Pomus. It is your job – with a pal – to collect robotic Mcguffins called Goodiebots and use them build a kind of whimsical weapon of mass Pomus destruction to take down the creature and save the planet.
Colour is the key to POPUCOM. There are puzzles, enemies and environmental hazards linked to different colours. Your characters are kitted out with an arm cannon that can shoot brightly coloured spheres. To take down an enemy you need to hit them with ordnance of the same colour. Remember I mentioned Puzzle Bobble? You can create satisfying combos when you take down stacks of enemies, just like hitting a colour match in an old school platformer.
As you move through several interesting and diverse biomes, you encounter puzzles that have to be solved with similar employment of colour matching, and are fed a series of handy gadgets to play around with, one of which reminded me of the time-honoured Samus morph ball, and without wanting to spoil the whimsical surprise too much, a reliance on cats that is an idiosyncratic feline delight on every level. These gadgets unlock different abilities including being able to teleport, move platforms around and even build platforms to give your partner a leg up.
The whole game is tied together with a delightful narrative undercurrent and the help of egg-shaped robot pal Yoki helps drive the story forward and acts as a kind of running in-game tutorial. As I have mentioned early doors, this is co-op only. Some enemies can only be taken out using a combination of colours, and the same applies to the puzzles. You also have the added peril of friendly fire – which can be turned off if you want to make things a bit easier but adds an element of cruel chaos to proceedings.
Progress through POPUCOM is genuinely rewarding as the different new areas you open up are exciting and fresh and gameplay is sufficiently devious that it is satisfying to beat an area particularly after one of the gruelling and thought-provoking boss battles, all of course linked to the colour mechanics.
As well as the main game, which can be played in both two player or four player party mode, there are also a bunch of mini games to tinker with when unlocked, and the use of the colour concept means one of them instantly reminded me of Treasure and their own use of colour switching on things like Silhouette Mirage and Ikaruga, not something I was expecting at all.
Everything here is just a treat to the soul and the senses. It looks and sounds as good as anything Nintendo has put out of a similar ilk, and has a concept that oozes originality and innovation. It is tricky as hell and the lack of single player campaign will put some people off, but if you have the ability to sink some time into this one with a pal then it comes wholeheartedly recommended.