Kris Wall reviews Foul Play…
Foul Play casts you as renowned Victorian daemonlogist, Baron Dashforth as he recounts his greatest adventure live on stage, FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY! Aided by his loyal sidekick, Mr Scampwick, the duo must battle their way across 5 acts in a series of side scrolling brawls that harken back to days of Streets of Rage and Final Fight. The twist being that Dashforth and Scampwick have an audience to thrill and entertain as they tell their story, however unbelievable the tale may seem (It’s told with nothing but complete conviction by Baron Dashforth throughout).
The ace up Foul Play’s sleeve is in its inspired design and mischievous humour. The whole game is set on stage in front of an audience, meaning each scene of each level is constantly being built around Dashforth and Scampwick as they act out their greatest battles. I really liked seeing the sets being haphazardly built around Dashforth, as well as the humourous pitfalls that come along with theatre performances. Foul Play is a very funny game, with Baron Dashforth recounting his tales with the seriousness of a thespian, it’s the crew and actors around him that aren’t up to the task, actors fluffing their lines and having to be reminded by stagehands, prop people getting caught stage right setting things up for future scenes and actors having to be dragged from the stage after taking a spill, it’s all delightfully gleeful and makes Foul Play lots of fun to play.
Given the theatre setting, there’s an audience to thrill and entertain with your adventures, and they’re not going to be entertained by throwing out the same basic moves. Instead of a usual health meter, your success in Foul Play is based around the audience meter, the more entertained the crowd are, the more your multiplier goes up and you start to unlock more advanced moves. If it drops into the red, the audience is bored and the curtain is about to come down prematurely on the show. Beating a level with a 3 star rating whilst leaving the audience wanting more requires you to keep working the stage space to your advantage, mixing up your attack combos constantly, while avoiding getting hit back with the use of the parry and dodge moves.
Foul Play’s biggest weakness comes in the form of its limited combat system. While it’s certainly a very fun game to play, repetition can set in quite fast, and when you realise that the crowd can be almost immediately won over by a heavy uppercut into an air combo, you find that you’re sticking to the same combo and mixing it in with the occasional dodge and parry to fool the audience into thinking you’re the master of theatrical stage combat. The problem extends to the parry system, which should have been a nuanced part of Foul Play’s combat system that demanded and rewarded skill, however it’s very basic and allows you to counter and attack or throw an enemy from the moment they raise their weapon to the moment they strike, the window of time to counter is just too large and means that Foul Play’s combat system lacks skill and depth.
Foul Play is still a hugely fun game, especially in co-op where you and a friend can team up as Dashforth and Scampwick to take on this demonic tale. There are challenges and high scores aplenty to beat, and if you can deal with the shallow combat system and repetitive nature of the game, you’ll find that the humour and art style more than make up for its shortcomings, and if nothing else it marks out Mediatonic as an indie studio to keep an eye on, I look forward to seeing what they’re planning next. If you’re a fan of classic side scrolling beat em-ups then Foul Play is definitely worth checking out for its inventive spin on a much-loved bygone genre.
Pros:
+ Great art style and design
+ Very funny
+ Chasing high scores and challenges is addictive
Cons:
– Quite repetitive
– Limited moveset
– Parrying requires little skill
Final Score: 7/10
Kris Wall – Follow me on Twitter
Originally published March 1, 2016. Updated June 30, 2023.
