oh dear oh dear...where to begin here...
Alright, well I guess I'll start with an overview of the aesthetics. Scrapped is a side-scrolling battle arena wherein you play as one of 5 (and no more than 5, despite what the description would have you believe) robots, each with their own unique ability. The game's visual style has that organic "MS Paint" feel, but is certainly no eyesore. The characters move fluidly and the bells and whistles (like screen distortion, my fave) keep the game from ever looking bland.
The game has three play modes: Tutorial, Scurrybot and Battle. Naturally, I played the tutorial first and found myself quite impressed. The robots' abilities are varied enough to keep gameplay constantly interesting. There's cloak, rope swing, machine gun, rocket, and gravity-reversal.
Now, the tutorial was fairly straightforward, ending with me killing a quite challenging opponent with my own arsenal of 3 out of a multitude of weapons. I had high hopes for this game. I thought it was going to be a platformer wherein you solve different problems with the different robots. Swing across a fire pit, change into a ninjabot to cloak behind a big baddie and change into machinegun bot to kill it swiftly, etc. Like Megaman, but with an emphasis on the numbered platform-centric powers. Bottom line: this game had potential. Lots of potential. Enough potential to make me ready to call this the best platformer on the list.
And then...I played the rest of it.
First, let's talk about Scurrybot. You are put into a room with a bunch of little robots and...well, that's it. go nuts, take no prisoners. I didn't even notice whether or not the scurrybots were able to damage me. The most significant threat to my health bar was the splash damage caused by my own weapons. So yeah, Scurrybot mode is insubstantial and not at all challenging, but that's fine for a supplemental game mode. The real game must be hidden in Battle mode.
Aaaaand nope. Battle mode is one hell of a frustrating experience. There's no respawning. Once you're dead, you're dead. The weapons are very powerful, too, meaning your health bar can be drained in a second if you're not careful. Couple that with the fact that all enemies immediately have their sights trained on you from the start of the match and you've got yourself a very anticlimactic battle. I tried every map and match style, but it always had the same result. 2 seconds of gunfire followed by "you have been destroyed" standing menacingly on the screen.
The developers of this game were able to create the tools to make this game wonderful. It's as if they spent hours preparing seasonings and side dishes to complement the meal they were cooking, but someone misplaced the lamb shank and they had to replace it with a handful of dirt. There is some value to reaped from playing around with the robots' varied powers, but the game as a whole absolutely wreaks of lost potential.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay complete.
Links
Scarp: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=548
