Saturday Morning Memories

If you are a child of the 80’s like me you’d be forgiven if when hearing the title of Allods Team’s latest release and thinking it was a cartoon that you had missed as a child. Blast Brigade vs The Evil Legion of Dr. Cread is almost a love letter to the cartoons and action films of the decade. The set-up, like most products from the 80’s is simple: Jeff Jefferson and his team is sent to an island to stop the invading Dr. Cread from constructing his giant doomsday robot. Evoking the feel of some of the biggest action films of the 80’s where the mission is something simple on paper but end up turning into a giant mess; Blast Brigade was an extremely enjoyable experience, albeit with a few bothersome issues.

Blast Brigade does an awesome job of blending the simplicity of 80’s action films with the bright and vibrant presentation of Saturday morning cartoons. I used to love waking up on Saturday’s and getting the cereal together for myself and my little brother as we prepared to sit in front of the television for the next few hours and just be in little kid heaven. Blast Brigade managed to make me have those same feelings, not only by its stellar presentation but also by its genuinely funny script and cast.

MSRP: $19.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, Switch, PC
Price I’d Pay: $19.99

Like most Metroidvania games, Blast Brigade begins with the player being stripped of their gear by way of being shot down out of the sky. After crash landing Jeff has to explore the jungle to find his equipment and his team, the game sets up its first comedic bits where small robots who look suspiciously like a certain plumbers shelled enemies walk back and forth. Any gamer worth their salt is going to attempt to jump on them by sheer instinct and they’ll receive a nice chuckle and an achievement for the attempt. Blast Brigade is full of little jokes like this and some genuinely good writing and acting by the voice actors.

Combat in Blast Brigade is a pretty straight forward affair, especially if you are a fan of the genre. Throughout the adventure players will find an array of weapons with which they can take down Dr. Cread’s minions. The first of which is the ole standby an assault rifle, but soon players will find shotguns, and even sniper rifle to help them take out the evil Dr. Cread. The game does a decent job of providing a variety of enemies for players to take on, but due to the very nature of Metroidvania and the backtracking involved they will run those same enemies on more than one occasion. It’s the boss fights that really allow engagements to shine brightest. Blast Brigade will have players going up against a whole host of crazy bosses with the first one being a cybernetically enhanced jellyfish, and that’s just the start so imagine how crazy it gets later in game. Each boss fight ends up being a ballet of platforming and bullets as players leap around, over or above various projectiles in order to figure out each boss’s weak spot and pattern.

Metroidvanias all live and die in my opinion by how well the progression path is in unlocking new areas and I can confirm that Blast Brigade has a really good one that instead of just requiring various tools or objects it actually gives the players various team members to choose from. Jeff Jefferson is not unlike the usual 80’s heroes in that he knows he’s the guy for the job. The ONLY guy for the job, but what he will find out is that he needs help for this mission. And during their time with Blast Brigade players will be joined by a team of heroes; Galahad, Shura and Vortex each bring a unique skill to the table that will be paramount to progressing. For instance, early on players will being to see a lot of wooden hooks littering the environment, it quickly becomes apparent they are used to grapple and reach higher levels but at this point players don’t possess the tools. This particular puzzle is solved by using Shura who has a grappling hook and allows her to cover long distances. This leads into one of my larger issues with Blast Brigade, and that has to do with its pacing.

As I said, players will begin to see these wooden loops that only Shura can use, early in the adventure, yet they won’t be able to actually use them for quite a while. It was five or six hours in until I unlocked Shura and that includes having to go up against her in a boss fight. Most games give you the character or ability right after the fight but Blast Brigade doesn’t do that. It’s not that I wasn’t enjoying exploring the various environments but the game just feels like it is purposefully slowing down things narratively in order to prolong the game. Of course, these characters and their abilities are needed to unlock different areas or get past various obstacles it’s just a shame that it takes so long before players actually have the full squad of four. I completely understand the sort of slow drip to content that Metroidvania games brings but with the idea of having an interchangeable team being front and center in the marketing, it just seems and odd design choice to have such a long game before you actually have said team.

The excellent cartoon styled world that Allods Team has created with Blast Brigade begins to open up once players have gathered their complete team. Even after returning to previously visited locations the sheer joy and excitement of knowing I was returning to them with new characters who could unlock some new facet was always something I looked forward to. Smartly, the game allows players to switch between characters at will so there is no need to return to a save point or something similar when finding the right character for the job. Platforming around the world however starts off being fun but quickly turns sour due to some balancing issues later in the game. Not to mention when players receive damage they sort of blink and freeze in place, the issue is that this will completely stop the momentum of a jump. It becomes extremely frustrating when making jumps onto a platform that can’t be clearly seen; a hidden enemy can make a seemingly simple jump turn into a trip back to the save room due to death.

Ultimately, if you as a player thought you were going to enjoy Blast Brigade vs The Evil Legion of Dr. Cread based off seeing various forms of media, then you should go pick it up right now. It is a rewarding adventure and certainly one of the better Metroidvania games that have come out recently; and that’s taking into account my issues with the platforming and the pacing issues. With an art style that invokes memories of Saturday morning cartoons with my younger brother, and a dash of 80’s action movies; Blast Brigade vs The Evil Legion of Dr. Cread is the mash-up I never knew I wanted. With its rewarding exploration, thoughtful map design and some genuinely funny writing; Blast Brigade manages to shine bright in a field already crowded with stars.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.