Animal Super Squad is the type of game that is great to relax to for thirty minutes or so. It offers up some fun levels (both casual and challenging), a great art style, and limitless playability. The game, however, relies a lot on the community aspect, at the expense of less higher-quality official content.
Pros:
Good game to unwind to. I found Animal Super Squad to be best played in short sessions, offering a breather from the much more serious games I usually play. The game punishes players very little for messing up through its constant use of respawn points. In fact, the game encourages constant respawning, forcing players to do so in the game’s tutorial in order to complete it. The levels vary in difficulty, from super simple ones to more complex and difficult ones, oftentimes frustratingly so (depending on how sadistic the level creator may be). As such, those looking for a relaxing distraction have their levels and those looking for a similar distraction, but with an element of challenge to it have theirs too.
Great art style. The game’s stylized art style really sets the tone for what the player should expect from it: that of a crazy, yet fun adventure. The different characters, hats, and vehicles all fit into this style, some more stupid than others, but not feeling out of place considering the type of game this is. I would compare it to LittleBigPlanet in that regard, as both go for that stylistic approach, but offer gameplay that appeals to both casual and hardcore crowds.
Technically unlimited playability. This is the type of game that can sustain itself for years to come due to the game’s focus on its level editor and community levels that come about from this editor. There is a “story” mode that includes developer-made levels, but it does not last too long, so the community levels are really what hold the game up in terms of playability. The game technically has an unlimited amount of content in this regard, with ten or so levels being uploaded by the community daily. I imagine that this will die down with time, but for now, it is pretty constant.
Cons:
Lack of official levels. The addition of community levels is great, but I actually had more fun playing the official, developer-made levels. The story mode barely lasts a couple hours or so, forcing the player to turn to these community levels pretty early on, but, to be honest, the community levels simply do not match the quality of the ones included by the developers. The game obviously stresses the community aspect of the game, but this should not come at the expense of less official levels.
Bugged achievements. A minor complaint, but coming from someone that loves to earn achievements, it is a bit disappointing that Animal Super Squad’s achievements are bugged. Only a few of them seem to work, with every other achievement not tracking progress properly and, as such, not unlocking when the requirements are met. Hopefully this is fixed in a patch.
While the game does lack in terms of official content, it is fun regardless. The community levels provide for limitless playability, the art style is good, and the gameplay itself is perfect to unwind to. As long as the community sustains the game with new levels, it is a worthwhile recommendation, although I do hope that the achievement bug is fixed soon.
You can buy Animal Super Squad on Steam here.
I was provided a free review copy of the game in order to write this review. Read more about how I do my game reviews here.
cublikefoot 