Welcome back to Beyond Co-Op Reviews, our critical look at games that don't feature co-op modes.
After a long break, we’re hopping back in with the latest entries in the Arkanoid and Cotton series, an addictive Roguelike called Vampire Survivors, the gross-but-loveable Garbage Pail Kids, and RiffTrax, a movie-themed party game.
With so many games to choose from, let us help you find the best non-cooperative games in our Beyond Co-Op Reviews!
Arkanoid - Eternal Battle (Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and Steam)
“Eternal Battle mode is a 25-player battle royale in which everyone progresses through a series of levels while trying to stay alive and maintain a high score… Unfortunately, the multiplayer community seems to be dead on Xbox.”
Vampire Survivors (Xbox, Steam, Android, and iOS)
“Coming from the mind of Luca Galante and his small development team, Vampire Survivors is a top-down Roguelike that bears more than a passing resemblance to the Castlevania series.”
Garbage Pail Kids: Mad Mike and the Quest for the Stale Gum (Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, Steam, and NES)
“Every NPC, enemy, and boss is an actual Garbage Pail Kids character, making for an extremely authentic experience. The bosses themselves are absolutely enormous and fun to battle.”
RiffTrax: The Game (Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and Steam)
“During each round, the game plays a series of movie clips, pausing after each one to allow players to either write their own riffs or select from pre-made jokes.”
Cotton Fantasy (PlayStation and Switch)
“Cotton Fantasy is a 2.5D shmup, so most of the graphics (outside of the cut scenes) are 3D. Still, they’re colorful and creative, capturing nearly all of the charm of the 16-bit games.”
Download codes were provided by each of the publishers in this feature.
Beyond Co-op Review: Arkanoid – Eternal BattleReview by: Paul Acevedo
Eternal Battle Mode
Taito’s Arkanoid series of brick-breaking games began in arcades and has spawned numerous ports and sequels. Up until recently, the last new entry was Arkanoid Vs. Space Invaders, which debuted on mobile before its inclusion in the Space Invaders Forever and Space Invaders Invincible Collection compilations on consoles. Now, French developer and Pastagames (developer of Pang Adventures) and Microids have crafted their own unique sequel called Arkanoid – Eternal Battle. Although a Taito-developed sequel might have been preferable in some ways, the benefit to Microids publishing this one is that Eternal Battle is available on all platforms, not just PlayStation and Switch.
Eternal Battle is a traditional Arkanoid-style brick breaking game. The player’s paddle is a ship called the ReVaus (as opposed to the traditional Vaus). While bouncing a ball around each level, the objective is to destroy all breakable bricks. Enemies spawn at regular intervals, but they can’t actually harm the player in any real way. Broken blocks occasionally drop one of a variety of power-ups that can be used for a limited time, until the player picks up a different power-up, or until the player misses the ball and loses a life.
While the gameplay is traditional by series standards, it’s important to note that the game is played with the analog stick of a controller. The developers have showcased a custom paddle controller like the original arcade games used, but that controller isn’t available to consumers. The game offers five speed settings for ship movement, but none of the speeds fully match the paddle’s ability to make both fine and fast movements. The trigger buttons move the ReVaus to the left or right sides of the field almost instantly. This can be helpful sometimes, but I’d have preferred a speed-up button instead.
Retro Mode
This Arkanoid features four game types:
Neo: A new campaign experience consisting of 45 levels. This would be a welcome addition to pantheon of Arkanoid campaigns if not for the poor level design. The levels get really tough really quickly. They often put bricks way too low on the field (giving players precious little time to react when the ball hits those bricks) and seem to rely on lucky power-ups (which spawn too infrequently) to clear. I got stuck on Level 19 for an hour and lost interest in the game, sadly. “Neo” offers no save option either, so be prepared to tackle the whole campaign in one go if you’re brave enough to attempt it. Eternal Battle: This titular mode is a 25-player battle royale in which everyone progresses through a series of levels while trying to stay alive and maintain a high score. The player with the lowest score gets periodically eliminated until only a few players remain. Once that happens, the last few players engage in a way-too-difficult boss battle against Doh, the recurring series villain. You can only win by defeating Doh – being the last player standing counts for nothing, sadly.Neo Mode
Versus: This 1-4 player competitive mode consists of five rounds. During each round, the goal is to clear the screen of blocks before everyone else. Some regular items appear (though not the laser), including a new item that attacks other players with a random effect. The main player can add AI opponents to Versus mode, but there are no options to adjust the AI difficulty, the length of the game, or anything else. Otherwise, it’s a fun mode. Retro: This mode consists of the original Arkanoid arcade game with absolutely no enhancements. It offers no display options, no save states, rewinding, or other standard emulation features. Sure, it’s nice to be able to play arcade Arkanoid at all, but the lack of effort put into this version is astounding.Versus Mode
As much as I love the series, Arkanoid – Eternal Battle lacks the polish and thought that you’d get from a genuine Taito game. The Neo and Eternal Battle modes, the meat of the game, are too difficult to be approachable, and Eternal Battle doesn’t even have the multiplayer community that should be a selling point. The lack of save features in Neo and Retro really hurt as well. Eternal Battle feels like one of those early XBLA titles that was created as a sequel to an established franchise but fails to capture the series magic. A little more polish and a lower price would have resulted in a worthier Arkanoid title.
Arkanoid – Eternal Battle sells for $29.99 on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and Steam.
Our Rating: 3 out of 5
Beyond Co-op Review: Vampire SurvivorsReview by: Paul Acevedo
The Castlevania series might be sadly dormant nowadays, but its influence lives on. Coming from the mind of Luca Galante (Poncle) and his small development team, Vampire Survivors is a top-down Roguelike that bears more than a passing resemblance to Konami’s classic vampire-killing series. Set in the countryside of Italy, an evil vampire has unleashed an army of monsters against the local population. Only a family of vampire hunters and their allies can stop the menace – or die trying.
The game begins with precious little in the way of presentation; there is no introduction and no cinematics at present. Players will select Antonio Belpaese, the starting hero, followed by Mad Forest, the first unlocked stage, and then drop right into the action with absolutely no tutorial. Figuring the controls out doesn’t take long, though; no buttons are used during gameplay! The hero automatically attacks at regular intervals, so all players have to do is move around, exploring, dodging foes, and collecting items.
Despite the simple controls, the gameplay is just deep enough to be satisfying and addictive. Enemies drop experience crystals that allow the hero to level up. With each new level, the player gets to select from up to four randomized upgrades. These include mainstay Castlevania weapons like whips, axes, daggers, and holy water, plus many others that fit the game’s gothic world, as well as items that increase defense, experience gain, and more. Weapons and items can be further upgraded by finding duplicates, increasing rate of fire/activation, damage, area of effect, projectile count, etc.
As players grow in power during the run, so do the enemies. Tougher, deadlier monsters begin to show up while the hordes become ever more numerous. The overall goal during a run is to survive for 30 minutes, but it will take plenty of attempts to reach that point. Between runs, players can spend the gold found from breakable objects and treasure chests on permanent upgrades that will make future runs a little easier. There are lots of playable characters (all with unique starting weapons, perks, and stats) and numerous stages to unlock over time as well.
The best Roguelikes have fun gameplay, good randomization, and strong metagame elements that keep players coming back for more. That’s Vampire Survivors in a nutshell. The game’s production values aren’t exactly amazing, but it also costs only five bucks. Having already played Vampire Survivors for over eight hours on Xbox and Steam Deck (where it runs well but slows down a bit at higher levels), it strikes me as one of 2022’s best values in gaming. Now, how about a sequel with co-op?
Vampire Survivors costs $4.99 on Xbox and Steam. The Xbox version is currently available on Xbox Game Pass as well. The mobile version is free to play on Google Play and iTunes.
Our Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Beyond Co-op Review: Garbage Pail Kids: Mad Mike and the Quest for the Stale GumReview by: Paul Acevedo
In the late 1980s, a line of dolls called the Cabbage Patch Kids took the United States by storm. Art Spiegelman, celebrated cartoonist and author of Maus, conceived a parody called Garbage Pail Kids (GPK) for the Topps Company. The GPK trading cards featured characters that looked like Cabbage Patch Kids but were all gross and disgusting in some way. For three years, GPK was a huge domestic hit – it even got an infamously bad live-action movie! One thing GPK didn’t receive during its heyday, however, is a video game adaptation.
In 2022, thanks to writer Adam F. Goldberg (creator of The Goldbergs TV series) and Retrotainment, an indie developer that specializes in creating modern NES games such as Haunted Halloween ‘86, the world has its first real GPK game. Garbage Pail Kids: Mad Mike and the Quest for Stale Gum has been created as a lost NES game, the one kids should’ve been able to enjoy back in the ‘80s. A genuine NES version is due out in 2023, but the game itself has already been released on modern consoles and PC.
The premise of the game comes from “Fury Load,” a 10-minute animated short that depicts Mad Mike (a Mad Max/Conan the Barbarian parody) as he fights to survive during an apocalypse caused by the iconic GPK, Adam Bomb. In the game, Mad Mike must use a scientist’s time machine to recover the ingredients needed to produce stale gum. The story comes to life via text-heavy cinematics that feature plenty of gross jokes and puns.
Quest for the Stale Gum is loaded with genuine Garbage Pail Kids, starting with the four playable characters. Mad Mike delivers melee attacks with an axe; Luke Puke vomits in a downward trajectory; Patty Putty can jump the farthest; and Leaky Lindsay shoots snot horizontally. Characters can be swapped on the fly to meet the needs of the situation. Leaky Lindsay is by far the most useful because of her ranged attacks, and Mad Mike, ironically, has the least utility because of his short range. The kids all have their own health bars. As with the original TMNT for NES, losing a character doesn’t end the game.
The game is an action platformer in which characters progress through large levels on their way to find each level’s boss. Along the way, they’ll collect actual GPK cards from garbage pails strewn throughout the level. These cards can be traded with NPCs, a smart nod to GPK’s origins as trading cards. Some cards are just for show, but others can be used as power-ups. Destroying garbage pails also fills the player’s TRASH meter. Once full, the player can activate a brief period of invincibility. I mostly ignored the trading card aspect during my playthrough, but the invincibility certainly helps with bosses.
Mad Mike and friends will travel to six different levels over the course of the game, visiting such locations as the prehistoric era, ancient Egypt, Mars, and even Hell. After beating the first level, the rest can be played in any order. Every NPC, enemy, and boss is an actual GPK character, making for an extremely authentic experience. The bosses themselves are absolutely enormous and fun to battle. Environments feature lots of details, gross jokes, and occasional parallax scrolling. While Quest for the Stale Gum is an NES game made in 2022, it’s an impressive one.
The console and PC ports of Quest for the Stale Gum were handled by developer Digital Eclipse, so the game features many of the same emulation conveniences and bonuses seen in TMNT: The Cowabunga Collection. During gameplay, players can rewind, use save states, or change controls (the default button layout puts jump to the left of attack, which is terrible). Gamers can also watch a full video playthrough of the game and jump in at any time! Other features include a sound test, level maps, concept art, a character viewer, and even GPK card scans. Last, but not least, the “Fury Load” short and a 3-minute making-of documentary round out the package.
The Garbage Pail Kids trading card line was revived in 2003 and continues to this day, so it’s no surprise that GPK still has fans. Mad Mike and the Quest for the Stale Gum was clearly made by fans who love and understand the property. This is a very crude and icky game, just as you’d expect from the GPK. It’s also a well-made game that would have truly impressed if released in the 1980s. If you like retro games and trashy humor, don’t miss out on Mad Mike’s quest!
Garbage Pail Kids: Mad Mike and the Quest for the Stale Gum sells for $9.99 on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and Steam. The limited-edition NES version is currently available to preorder for $79.99 at iam8bit.
Our Rating: 4 out of 5
Beyond Co-op Review: RiffTrax: The GameReview by: Paul Acevedo
The cult favorite TV show, Mystery Science Theater 3000, popularized the concept of “riffing” on movies – making jokes at the expense of a bad movie. Several staffers from MST3K went on to form RiffTrax, a comedy group that riffs on countless movies, TV shows, and educational shorts. How do you make that idea into a game, though? Developer Wide Right Interactive somehow found a way, hence the welcome arrival of RiffTrax: The Game.
Just like the Jackbox Party Pack series, RiffTrax: The Game is a party game in which one player hosts the game from a console or PC while other players join and play from the web browsers of their smart devices. 6 active players are supported during a game, and up to 12 players can join the audience as well. The developers have designed RiffTrax: The Game to be streaming friendly, as evidenced by optional Twitch interaction that allows viewers to vote on the proceedings, and moderation tools that allow the host to deal with troublemakers. This one even supports both single-player gameplay and multiplayer matchmaking, two things you don’t get from the Jackbox series!
The game takes place over a customizable number of rounds. During a normal round, the game plays a series of movie clips, pausing after each one to allow players to either write their own riffs or select from pre-made jokes. When writing your own riffs, the game uses text-to-speech to bring the custom jokes to life. The pre-made riffs are voiced by the actual RiffTrax staff, making for a highly authentic experience. After the clip has been played with all players’ riffs, everyone then votes on the best riffs and points get awarded. This continues until the final round, which consists of a single clip and higher point payouts. Optionally, the AI “Riffbot” will fill in as an extra player, choosing clip-specific riffs from a pre-written pool.
One of the things that makes RiffTrax: The Game special is its large arsenal of movie clips. The game features hundreds of clips from different movies and shorts. They’re all movies that the RiffTrax crew would actually riff on, including a few surprisingly recognizable films. The developer has even updated the game with more clips several times since launch!
The other big plus is the choice of both “Write a Riff” and “Pick a Riff” game modes. Creative players will enjoy writing their own jokes and hearing them brought to life, whereas picking a riff is much lower pressure and more approachable. Sometimes the pre-made riffs that players can choose from don’t match the current movie clip all that well, but that’s part of the challenge. Both modes have plenty of potential to liven up the parties of movie fans everywhere.
Although RiffTrax: The Game only offers two game types compared to the average Jackbox Party Pack’s five games, this one costs a lot less than a Jackbox title. It perfectly captures the style and humor of actual RiffTrax performances, something I wouldn’t have imagined before playing this game. Most importantly, RiffTrax: The Game lets gamers and non-gamers alike join up for silly movie-themed fun.
RiffTrax: The Game costs $9.99 on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and Steam.
Our Rating: 4 out of 5
Beyond Co-op Review: Cotton FantasyReview by: Paul Acevedo
The Cotton series of cute ‘em ups has experienced a renaissance in recent years thanks to developer Success and publisher ININ Games. Six of the games in the series are available on PlayStation and Switch, including classics like Cotton 100% and Panorama Cotton, as well as a few modern games. Only Rainbow Cotton for Dreamcast hasn’t received a re-release or remake. The latest part of the renaissance is Cotton Fantasy, a new entry developed for arcades in 2021 and released on consoles the following year.
Cotton Fantasy has three main strengths: story, characters, and presentation. The story involves another mysterious disappearance of magical candies called “willows” from Fairyland. The queen sends Silk the fairy to recruit Cotton the witch on a mission to save the remaining willows. Cotton loves willows to an absurd degree, so she takes their disappearance to heart. The narrative comes to life between levels via animated cinematics that are fully voiced in Japanese with English subtitles (a huge improvement over the untranslated cinematics of previous Cotton games). It’s like watching a magical comedy anime every time you clear a level!
Whereas Cotton games usually only put players in control of Cotton and Silk, Fantasy adds an additional six characters into the mix. These characters include: Appli from Cotton 2 and Cotton Boomerang, Saiba Ria from Psyvariar, Fine from Sanvein, Umihara Kawase from the Umihara Kawase series of platformers, Luffee from Doki Doki Poyacchio, and a new, unlockable character. They all play differently from Cotton herself, and two Trophies can be unlocked with each character, adding a fair amount of replay value. The only downside is that the same cinematics play regardless of character choice. Character-specific stories would have been much more exciting.
The game also looks and sounds like a dream. Fantasy is a 2.5D shmup, so most of the graphics (outside of the cut scenes) are 3D. Still, they’re colorful and creative, capturing nearly all of the charm of the 16-bit games. Between some of the game’s 8 main levels, players will engage in a pair of 3D bonus stages that pay tribute to Panorama and Boomerang Cotton. The soundtrack is quite memorable as well, remixing some classic tunes to great effect.
The only real downside to Cotton Fantasy is a lack of game modes. Besides the story mode (which has 7 characters but only one story), the only other mode is a Training mode that lets players play any unlocked stage individually. Additional modes like a boss rush or the ability to play through all the unlockable stages in a row would have been welcome. The lack of co-op is also a shame, especially given how many characters the developers had to work with! Considering the slimness of the overall package, it might be advisable to pick up Cotton Fantasy when it’s on sale instead of at full price. Still, this is definitely a real Cotton game that anime and shoot ‘em up fans will love while it lasts.
Cotton Fantasy sells for $39.99. It’s available digitally on PlayStation and Switch. Physical PlayStation and Switch versions are available at Amazon as well.
Our Rating: 3.5 out of 5