Sliding into your kneecaps
I do love a good fast-paced shooter. These kinds of games satisfy my primal brain of just moving fast, while killing every enemy as fast, and as violently as I can. Turbo Overkill from Apogee accomplishes that in spades. This shooter was originally released on PC last year, but now console owners are getting their first taste of its trigger-happy game play. Shooters this fast are sometimes hard to translate to a console, but Apogee has done an outstanding job here, and anyone who enjoys mindless shooters would be remiss to skip this one.
You know your shooter rocks harder when your protagonist has a cool name. Turbo Overkill puts players into the shoes of Johnny Turbo. Now, with a name like that, you know good times are ahead. Yes, it is the same Johnny Turbo from the Turbografx 16, which makes it even cooler. This version of him though has an arsenal and a chainsaw for a leg that can be used to grind up foes when he slides. Yes, this game takes itself extremely seriously.
MSRP: $19.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, Switch, PC
Price I’d Pay: $19.99
All kidding aside, the game does have a plot that feels ripped right out of the 90s. Johnny is sent to a world known as paradise where a rogue AI has infected everyone with its virus. His goal is to mow them down and take down the AI. There are three episodes throughout the game and the story becomes more and more of the catalyst as it goes on. Everything here is big and dumb, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
As anyone could imagine, this is a very fast-paced shooter. Johnny moves around the world at a brisk pace. The game has an almost fish-eye perspective and mowing down enemies is fast and violent. The game tosses tons of enemies at you at any given time. It really is one of those games where if you stop moving, you are doing it wrong. Instead, I found myself just sliding back and forth watching my foes explode into glorious gibs.
Johnny has a chainsaw on his leg that can take down smaller enemies early on. This is done by sliding into them, and it is as satisfying as you can imagine. As the game progresses there are upgrades that can be earned that make it effective against all enemy types. Maybe a little too effective. This weapon kind of dominated my play through. I started using Johnny’s vast arsenal, but once I had the chainsaw leg upgraded, I kind of abused it.
There are other upgrades as well, but they can get confusing after a while. The game focuses so much on just mowing down enemies as fast as possible, I found the one thing that worked, that being the chainsaw leg, and kind of stuck with it. There are some other neat things though such as the ability to slow down time and even upgrades for other extremities, but that chainsaw leg man, it is just too much fun to use.
Turbo Overkill definitely has the retro aesthetic nailed down. It is very fast, and the enemy designs remind me of something straight out of a Quake game. The pixels are chunky, and the neon drenched environments fit the tone well. As mentioned, it moves very fast. Sometimes it feels like I am flying instead of simply moving. The music matches the motif with a compilation of synth tracks and the sound effects are as chunky as I would expect. Nothing that stands out, but it fits the mood.
Turbo Overkill is definitely one of ‘those’ games, but it is a very well done one of those. I had a lot of fun mowing my way through it, and I cannot stress enough how much fun the chainsaw leg is. It is disappointing that nothing quite hits like that one mechanic, considering this game is packed with tons of weapons and upgrades that I barely ever touched. Still, it was a fun romp that reminds me of the classic shooters I grew up loving.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.