Hell Yeah Review

2D platformers are becoming all the craze again these days and in a way that makes me happy. The new game on the block called ‘Hell Yeah’ has come to attempt to take part in this re-growing group of gaming genres, but does this bunny bring home the bacon?

From the very start of pressing the ‘GO’ button you will find that Arkedo’s new bunny mascot doesn’t take himself very seriously. The entire plot of Prince Ash’s journey for revenge revolves around a nicely nit quest where paparazzi have taken rather private photos of our hero in the bath tub with a rubber duck. Ash doesn’t like this…he really doesn’t like this. Thus begins his mission to kill all 100 viewers that saw the photos uploaded onto the worldwide web and thus go back to ruling the underworld.

Funnily enough you are going to find this story and its writing style rather familiar. Everything about this game’s personality and its characters all feel like borrowed ideas from the very popular Disgaea games, all the way down to the protagonist over throwing his father to become the new Prince of Hell. While the game’s written formula does indeed feel like borrowed ideas; that doesn’t make it entirely a bad thing. The game is indeed very chuckle worthy. I have always enjoyed these types of games and their rather dark take on humour, so it was great to sit back and enjoy the rather over the top ride and experience Ash mature as a pompous douchebag and of course a crowned badass.

As mentioned Ash is on a mission to kill the 100 witnesses that saw his bath time privacy pasted on the internet. As any gamer will tell you the perfect stream of murder requires the perfect set of tools, something that Ash will be receiving in pulsating filled palms of abundance.

To undo his past mishap Ash gains a rather deadly weapon to begin his quest in the form of a rotating ride able saw blade. With this motorised weapon of cleaving awesomeness Ash goes forth to cut his way through the many foes that lay in his way from fungus growing cowboy zombies to big rock monsters of titan proportion. All one hundred mini bosses deliver a variety of different attack patterns and challenges, so no boss will ever feel quite the same when confronting them. It was surprising to find that Hell Yeah brings quite a level of challenge to its stream of fights that occasionally blossom into chin rubbing puzzles that will make you go “Ah” more than once.

While you will be nodding your head in approval at some of the game’s attempts to juggle your brain, you will also find that Ash and his gameplay universe can also come in the form of certain levels of frustration. The first thing to add is that Hell Yeah bases its levels off an old form of old school 2D layout akin to something like Super Metroid, or Castlevania. Fans of those franchises will understand that the levels in these types of games can end up feeling like a rather tooth grinding maze. Not only did I find myself pausing in certain parts of the adventure to wonder where I was, but I also found that Hell Yeah’s simplistic zoom out feature and poorly created map didn’t help me at times when figuring out where to go. The ability to allow the player to look around the whole level while zoomed out would have helped navigation a lot, so it is a shame that players will occasionally find themselves backtracking to already visited areas in hopes of finding the correct path to the finish line.

Another thing that I found annoying was Hell Yeah’s constant attempt to put the player under pressure and thus kill them for a simple singular move. This is partly going back to the game’s level layout but I generally felt that a lot of the game’s traps and dangerous environmental hazards were just been cut and pasted around with no real sense of planning. The same can also be said those high regarded boss battles that I mentioned earlier. While I did enjoy them, I did find it rather annoying to have to go through the trial and error of death from figuring out how to win only to be shot back ten minutes to some odd part of the level. I have to be honest when I say that the checkpoint system is really bad. Why no one thought it was a good idea to put save points outside boss areas is beyond me, and it feels all the more a chore to keep having to trek all the way back to areas from unjustified experiences of death.

All this is in some way made up for though because of the rather appealing collection of content for players to find along the way. While Ash does have the saw motorcycle at his disposal, you will also find that through collecting the game’s rather charitable currency that not only can you upgrade the skeleton rabbit to be stronger, but that he can also require a rather large suitcase of useful guns.

In no way can I count all of these weapons on two hands, but from what I personally came across I can tell you that you will wielding tools of nostalgic tribute like an ‘Aliens’ inspired pulse rifle, or lightsabers glued on to your saw blade ride that makes you just want to get out there and keep on killing.

All this awesome variety is complimented by an incredibly beautiful art style. These types of games have come a long way from the days of Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario but it is awesome to see such attention to detail within a downloadable game such as this. Everything from the many different characters, environments and weapons all look great and truly inspiring to come across.

Hell Yeah is available now for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360!