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SuperEpic: The Entertainment War review

I don’t know about you, but navigating through today’s games can be somewhat of a minefield–especially if you’re actively dodging microtrasactions. Enticing offers of lootboxes, a finger wagging to the ‘pay’ button–even a voice gently whispering, “more gems”…needless to say, it can get to be a pain in the backside.

SuperEpic: The Entertainment Wars drops us into a pixelated world of the future in which all of the video game nickel and diming has severely spiraled out of control. Citizens are now controlled by what they consume, feeding into a vicious cycle of brainwashing as one monopolising major video game corporation, RegnantCorp., now rules the masses.

Watch the launch trailer for SuperEpic: The Entertainment War below:

Underground hides our trusty heroes though–and not all is lost to RegnantCorp.’s diabolical ways. As these two secretly enjoy their blacklisted games, a (creepy) face transmits through their screen and invites them to join forces to take down this totalitarian dictatorship.

…Enter RegnantCorp.’s front lobby!

Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to fight your way to the top of RegnantCorp. and take down the main cheese! Oh, and I forgot to mention above–you’ll be riding into battle with your noble steed, a llama, and yourself being a raccoon.

SuperEpic: The Entertainment War
Credit: Numskull Games / Undercoders

The gameplay is simple, but defined. Working at it’s core as a Metroidvania, you’ll be platforming your way through plenty of vertical rooms, working your way through a maze-like map that’s easy to follow, but can be tough to get through. The enemies are very straightforward in terms of ‘bash anything with your croquet mallet you see’, and have some really great animations and concepts attached. There will be times that you’ll feel frustrated at what seems to be a room full of baddies just for the sake of it–it’s not a constant ordeal, but it is one of my small gripes.

As SuperEpic makes a point to laugh at itself and the industry as a whole, there’s a healthy amount of Easter Eggs and references to keep the player going, “Oh yeah!” or “I remember that!”. The cultural relevance of these references is great, and serves the plot of the game itself to be a bit more uneasy.

View some SuperEpic screenshots in our gallery:

Metroidvanias usually have a few standout components that make up their bread and butter–large maps with plenty of backtracking, nasty bosses and a fair number of upgrades. SuperEpic does all of the above in style. Maybe it was because the story was so blinding, or perhaps the level colour palettes were so much more vibrant than that of Dracula’s castle…but I never seemed to notice how firmly it fit into the genre. I say this as a compliment as well–all too often nowadays do you see hope spoiled in a run-of-the-mill Metroidvania. It takes a lot to have a breakout title in a genre that’s been around since 1986!

SuperEpic: The Entertainment War does a fine job at quite a few things: it will make you laugh out loud, or curl up into yourself (depending on how seriously you can envision a global video game dictatorship). You’ll have a great time with plucky controls that are easy to learn and fun to master as you hop around on your llama, slugging things in the face with a giant croquet mallet. You’ll be intrigued with upgrades, and challenging bosses and enemies as you gallop through. There are times it’ll feel a bit unfair as you meet an untimely demise, but overall SuperEpic: The Entertainment War is a fantastic time, plays gorgeously on PC or Switch and will keep you busy for a good minute. I highly recommend if you’re looking to have a big smile on your face and do some Vania’n. Good luck bringing down ‘The Man’!

SuperEpic: The Entertainment War was reviewed using a digital code provided by the publisher.

Publisher: Numskull Games Developer: Undercoders Release Date: 12th December 2019 Reviewed On: PC/Steam Also available on: Nintendo Switch

Sara Boardman
Sara Boardman
By day, Sara is a video game fanatic, playing since her fingers could work a controller, keyboard and mouse. By night, she's a cartoonist who likes to draw silly pictures of her whippet, Phil.

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