Teratopia

Teratopia was reviewed on a PS4

Teratopia is a 3D action brawler set in a colorful bright world that’s inhabited by monsters of all different kinds of shapes and colors. It’s not long before they are invaded by a race of pink freakish beasts that look like a weird hybrid between octopuses and rocks. You fight them back by controlling three types of monsters, each with their own attacks and special moves.

Become an Overlord

The minions that accompany your monsters are literal game changers, as they transform the game from a mindless button masher to a strategic and challenging experience. You have five different types of minions, each with their own specialties and moves.

It’s so satisfying to fight the swarms of enemies that are coming to get you by dropping all of your minions at once. The game’s levels also have a few turret emplacements in the environments that your minions can use.

It’s such a shame though that the frame rate struggles to keep up as the screen fills up with more creatures, but it usually goes back to normal once you get defeat your enemies. It’s important to note here that Teratopia runs at 30FPS on the PS4, which is a bit disappointing.

The Three Musketeers

You have three beasts to choose from, Tucho’s a brawler that punches enemies up close, Benito deals ranged damage and Horacio is beige blob that spits acid and does damage over time. Horacio the blob is a bit hard to play as, and I often found myself opting for Benito.

There’s no indicator as to where Horacio’s attacks will land, so you’ll often miss your enemies. It doesn’t help that his acidic spit doesn’t detect the pink villains, but rather goes through them. It only damages them if they’re walking over the green goo.

Amazing Boss Battles

My favorite thing of the game are the wonderfully designed boss battles. Their attacks are based on their characters. A rockstar named Punko throws flying vinyl disks at you and damages you by blasting his speakers at you.

Another boss is a mother figure that attacks you by rolling her rolling pin, sending waves of damage your way. The best one though is a Jessica Rabbit look alike. Wolf whistles and all, she even uses big red floating lips as an attack.

At first, the game’s a bit slow but it slow drips your upgrades one by one, which range from new skills and powerups to the usual passive percentage increase to strength, luck or critical hits.

It Has a Few Flaws

The game’s biggest flaw is the lack of camera controls. The right stick is useless as you’re unable to rotate the camera (it’s used instead to teleport your minions across the map), which can cause your character to get lost in the environment at times. Coupled with the lack of a lock-on button, both of these missing features make Teratopia harder than it needs to be.

The game also suffers from a few navigational issues. It lacks a mini-map or even a normal map, so you’re often left stumbling around, looking for the right jumpable gap to reach the next section.

At times, the jumpable gaps aren’t so jumpable and you’d end up falling to your death. Platforming isn’t as solid as I would have liked. Jumping feels a bit clunky and you’re never sure if you’re going to stick the landing or not.

The game tries to shake things up a bit later on by introducing a few changes to the gameplay, but it’s too little and it’s at the later stages of the game. A section with a 2D platform section, and an on-rails boss fight where you have to shoot him using cannon. The last few bosses also offer a bit of variety than the usual ones.

The orchestrated soundtrack is fun to listen to and accompanies the each of the stages’ aesthetic well enough. It’s a large collection of tracks, they’re all varied, and enjoyable to listen to while you beat up the hordes of pink beasts.

Challenging and Difficult

Dying in Teratopia is frustrating as it takes you back to the level selection screen, forcing you to cross the same sections to restart the boss fight you just lost. You’ll also do quite some backtracking as you try to grind and level up in order to take on some of the harder boss battles. At one point of the game, you’re actually forced to backtrack just to progress.

This grind though is alleviated by the fact that the enemies scale up as you level up which means you’ll never feel as if the game’s too easy.

A lack of collectibles such as artworks, more costumes for your characters, or maybe even tidbits of information about the world, hurt the game’s replayability. I would’ve loved to jump at the chance to replay the game and collect some more goodies.

There’s no need to return to the world of Teratopia once you’re done, but at 7-8 hours of playtime, it’s at a perfect length for such a game. Especially considering the fact that it only costs 14.99$.

Overall,

I was surprised at the challenging nature of Teratopia’s gameplay; it’s difficult and tough but never feels as if the game is going out of its way to punish you. Teratopia is a fun diversion if you’re looking for a simple action brawler with vibrant visuals.

If you’re looking for a solid platformer though, then it’s not the game for you, as the platforming is clunky at best and there’s not much of it anyway.

All in all, I enjoyed my time in Teratopia, even if it is a bit rough on the edges.

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Special thanks go to the publisher Eastasiasoft for providing us with a review code. Check out more of our reviews, feel free to also follow us on Instagram.

You should play Teratopia if you

• Enjoy RPG elements and leveling up your characters
• Love action brawlers and button mashers
• Enjoy games with a cartoonish visual style
• Love creative boss fights
• Don’t mind the repetitive design
• Don’t mind the frame rate drops
• Not expecting to do a lot of platforming

Teratopia’s Score

6.5/10