POOSTED 1/3/16


FOUL PLAY

Mediatonic/Devolver Digital

As Siobhan Fahey once mused, all the world’s a stage...

Yep, Willy may have taken all of the credit, but it took his sister to deliver the snappiness.

Foul Play is, essentially, Final Fight – but if Haggar was played by Sir Laurence Olivier, and it all went down on the widest theatre stage in the known universe. This puppy just keeps on scrollin’.

As such, it’s a fab fun beat ’em up, which adds its own thespian twist. You’re he of wicked mo Baron Dashforth (or his sidekick, Scampwick, should you go all two player and non-mo on your enemies’ various arses). You’re also a daemon hunter. You act out tales of your conquests on the aforementioned really bloody long stage – complete with stagehands, bodgy props and, of course, an appreciative audience.

Well, they’re appreciative if you give them something to be appreciative about. You don’t have traditional life or health, your survival is all up to your ability to enthral and entertain. Yes indeed, your acting chops are literally your life. Forget such vulgarly crude weaponry as knives and pipes, as they’re for mere b-grade hacks. You are an ac-tor! Or something.

You can chain together all manner of enemy-smashing combo moves, with more coming on-board the further you progress through five varying acts, each of which have various varying stages replete with various varying minions and bosses. These combos are key to both high scoring and achieving set goals in each level. Sure you can mash your way through like Tara Reid playing Juliet, but you’ll have more hope of surviving an actual sharknado than achieving a decent score. Skill counts – please refer back to that ac-tor comment.

There isn’t massive variation, but the same criticism can be levelled at the arcade classics that Foul Play takes cues from. What it has in spades is fun – although your right hand may not necessarily agree.

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