While “Superepic: The Entertainment War” has a silly premise, it’s a seriously good Metroidvania – Review

In the future, Regnant Corp develops only freemium games that are laden with cash-sucking microtransactions. You are a raccoon atop a llama looking to topple this evil corporation from within. This isn’t anywhere near as clever as Animal Farm and it isn’t trying to be.

It’s clear that Undercoders and Numskull Games definitely have a silly sense of humour and it shows in almost every part of Superepic: The Entertainment War…

Is there more to this game than silly jokes about crappy games?

Superepic’s story is so dumb that I can’t go any further without mentioning it. While I don’t mind a bit (or whole heap) of silliness, some players may prefer something more serious when it comes to their Metroidvanias.

However, the premise is so silly that it’s given the art team free rein to create beautiful environments, characters, and animation that many 90s games could only have dreamt of and your eyes will be glued to the screen the second you start this game up.

As you enter each environment, you’ll probably also be thinking about how awesome and bombastic the music is, but after you’ve spent a few minutes exploring, you’ll realise that it can get quite repetitive, especially if you find yourself running back and forward within the same area. You’d be forgiven for turning the volume down every once in a while.

The combat is also faster than you’d usually find in your typical Metroidvania and it makes for some really rewarding gameplay. The only problem is that a lot of the combat can be solved with button-mashing. While certain attacks are better against certain enemies and some are completely useless against them, once you’ve worked out which is which, you can just spam the one that works.

That said, as you progress, there are plenty of new weapons, upgrades, and abilities that will give you more combinations of buttons to mash and if you’re finding the combat repetitive, you can mix it up if you want.

Additionally, while you put your controller’s buttons through their paces, there’s a motley crew of enemies and bosses with differing attack patterns for you to try juggling with the daft array of weapons and abilities you get as you progress.

The Verdict

Superepic: The Entertainment War is a Metroidvania that isn’t taking itself very seriously on a narrative level but seemingly wants players to take it seriously on a gameplay level. Frequent upgrades and new enemies help to keep this game feeling fresh even if it is occasionally let down by repetitive combat and music.

It’s not going to win prizes for its writing, but if you’ve ever wanted to hit pigs with a stop sign while riding a llama (who hasn’t!?), I’d highly recommend picking up this fun and ridiculous game…

Superepic: The Entertainment War is available on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.