In addition to this, slaying the stage's boss also gives you points to spend on sponsorships. Finish an episode (successfully or otherwise) and you’re rewarded with fame points, which will allow you to permanently upgrade weapons, items and perks in the main hub. The better you do, the more “likes” you’ll earn, which can be used at any shop you come across during that run. Being able to dodge at a moment's notice certainly helps to escape a grizzly fate, and the number of items and perks obtainable can also alleviate situations where you may be vastly outnumbered. You can’t move and shoot simultaneously - which did take some getting used to - but this adds to the challenge in a way that feels like a smart design choice and not an unfair disadvantage. You’ll move around each stage blasting enemies, whilst trying to avoid their returning fire. The Crackpet Show’s gameplay is quick, simple, and hectic. Visually, though, they don’t offer much variety, that being said, they all end up covered in blood and guts anyway! As mentioned earlier, the game is procedurally generated, so no two levels are ever the same, at least in their layout. Admittedly, they are detailed, with small crowds gathered to watch the death-dealing mayhem and TV studio equipment littered about, but the actual environments start to feel quite samey fairly quickly. The same can’t always be said about the environments. You’re not limited to just using the show's cast - although I main Sniffles - as the original set of characters are just as endearing! Likewise, the enemies you’ll face are well-designed and diverse from bears using balloons to fly across the battlefield, to 80s rap throwback lemurs, there is definitely a wide variety of unique creations! These loveable animals may seem sweet at first glance - and the visuals certainly make it seem that way - it doesn’t take long for the blood to flow and viscera to fill the screen! The juxtaposition of adorable and abhorrent may take a while to adjust to (if you’ve never seen the show) but The Crackpet Show does a great job of capturing the spirit of Happy Tree Friends. With three seasons, consisting of six episodes apiece, it’s not a short game by any means (especially when each episode can take several attempts) and thanks to the procedurally generated levels and the large variety of weapons and items to collect, it doesn’t grow stale either! It’s a simple premise that works very well for the genre each level is seen as an episode, and you’re tasked with making it through each one in order to advance to a season finale. Moving on from pointless nostalgia, The Crackpet Show is a delightfully brutal roguelike shooter centred around a bizarre television show that pits cutesy critters against waves of monstrous mutants. It’s simple, crude humour for sure, but it always got a laugh out of me and my friends hiding in the corner during IT lessons. What seems like an innocent cartoon of a group of creatures living out seemingly mundane lives quickly turns into an all-out murder fest of decapitation, broken bones, and involuntary lobotomies. If you’ve never heard of Happy Tree Friends, then you clearly weren’t trawling the internet in the early 2000s for entertainment (and you’re probably a well-adjusted human because of it). Now, with the release of The Crackpet Show: Happy Tree Friends Edition on both PC and consoles, I can get my fill of randomly generated gory goodness with a generous dose of nostalgia. Despite releasing almost a year ago on Steam, I’d somehow missed it during countless hours trawling through the Steam store looking for my next quick fix of simplistic, but entertaining, shooters. I’m a huge fan of roguelikes, and was somewhat surprised to learn of The Crackpet Show very recently. Reviews // 27th Sep 2023 - 3 months ago // By Mike Crewe The Crackpet Show: Happy Tree Friends Edition Review
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