REVIEW: Anger Foot

July 12, 2024

Written by Jamie Galea

With video games striving to become more complicated and wanting to be taken more seriously as an art form, sometimes all you need is a video game that is blissfully simple and just wants to do one thing very, very well. Anger Foot, the latest game by Free Lives & Devolver Digital, is a game that’s all about kicking people and listening to hard bass. It’s a game that’s crass and juvenile and unashamedly so. To say that it passes with flying colours would be an understatement.

Anger Foot’s setup is pretty simple. You’re the titular Anger Foot, noted sneaker head and resident of Shit City, the worst city in the world. After the game opens with him obtaining the last sneaker for his prized collection, and subsequently having them stolen by the four gangs that run the city, it’s up to Anger Foot to get back his kicks the only way he knows how: a violent rampage across Shit City with his powerful and educated feet leading the way. Maybe he might even make Shit City a slightly nicer place to live too!

This isn’t a game where you really need to worry about the story, even when levels will sometimes open with segments where you can walk around and talk to residents for kicks. It’s here that the game’s crass and otherwise juvenile aesthetic really shines. If you really want to know more about the gangs of Shit City (the Violence Gang, the Sewer Gang, the Business Gang & the Debauchery Gang), this is probably the only real way to do so. Though don’t feel like you’re compelled to learn everything about this world! It’s all there for gags and giggles, and if you’re not down for it, you can safely skip that to get to the meat of the action: kicking down doors and murdering the goons getting in your way.

He’s putting those educated feet to good use.

And let me tell you, you’ll be doing an awful lot of kicking. While each level is all about getting from point A to point B, the best way to deal with all the goons and doors in your way is Anger Foot’s  powerful foot, which lays waste to anything it comes into contact with. It feels incredibly satisfying to use the kick to just plow through everything, and with how fast and frenetic the action is, it never really lets up and it never ever gets old kicking everything. It’s the kind of game where death is easy to come by and restarts are quick are quick, so you’re never really out of the rush of the game for long.  There’s a looseness to everything in Anger Foot that I think really works in its favour. You don’t ever have to worry about being terribly precise with any attack — the kick can take out multiple enemies if they’re close, you can fire a gun and hit enemies anywhere to instantly kill them, explosions can be a bit generous when you didn’t think they would be, that sort of thing.

Coupled with this is the inspired decision to soundtrack the action to constant pulsating hardbass. It never gets old hearing the music dynamically shift from muffled beats when there’s a lull in the level to full blast whenever the action is about to kick off . It’s even rewarding to see enemies drop everything and start dancing to the music when you mess up, and given how quickly you can die, you’ll be seeing a bunch of dances if you’re not careful. The music can feel just a bit repetitive, not really running the full gamut of what hardbass is, but ultimately I think works incredibly well in the games favour.

While the obvious comparison gameplay wise would be to Hotline Miami, I like to think there’s a small underpinning of Neon White with how the game wants to be fast and flowing. Hitting your marks and getting into the zone of precisely kicking enemies and landing shots feels incredible, and rewarding like nothing else when you get it perfect. While the game doesn’t encourage speed running to the same degree as Neon White, there are moments where the game does allow you to skip segments and often the game does encourage you to play faster if you want the most rewards from each level. To give you an idea, one particular level challenges you to clear it in five whole seconds. It’s completely doable, and it would’ve been great to have leaderboards to show off to friends how quick you can do it, but when it allows you to be flowing, it’s a hell of a feeling.

Yet at the same time, it’s often much better to take it much slower. While you can take down enemies incredibly quickly, it’s also a lot easier to get swarmed by enemies and get taken out by something you had no idea was even around. Awareness isn’t always Anger Foot’s strongest suit, and there’s been more than a few occasions where in the heat of combat there’s a goon that you either didn’t notice or completely forgot about. You get used to it as you memorise levels, and restarts are often quick enough that it’s not a problem, but it can be a little frustrating when you’re several minutes into a level and about to finish it, only to get bopped at the last second.

Get used to seeing these five words.

While there’s a lot about the game that I like and I think ultimately works, there’s sadly quite a bit about the game that feels really under-utilized. For instance, there’s a system where you can drink beer and/or energy drinks for buffs, but it never really seems to be all that effective, if anything, it can trip you up and cause you to make more mistakes. Then there’s the unlockabkle sneakers which change up the game some. They range from dumb jokes, to expanding your moveset and some that add proper gameplay modifiers. As useful and funny as a lot of these sneakers are, they pale in comparison to your existing toolset. Playing conservatively, and taking advantage of how loose you can be with the gunplay and melee can take you a lot further than having a slide or dash, let alone making enemies heads bigger. They’re not a bad idea in theory, and one that should make you want to replay levels, but not when you can go further without them.

Otherwise, Anger Foot is a game that doesn’t put a foot wrong. As an action game it’s just the right level of speed and fury, and kicking damned near everything you can never gets old. Couple that with a fun aesthetic and constant hardbass, and you’re in for a fun time. It can feel a little underbaked at times, and the game could do better letting you know what’s going on, but it’s so much fun kicking enemies that you can easily forgive these shortcomings. It kicks just the right amount of arse that if you’re looking for your next game to play, Anger Foot is most definitely a good one.

 

RATING: 3/5 (It’s Fine)

This game was reviewed thanks to review code provided by the publisher. For more tales of kicking, follow Jamie across social media over at @jamiemgalea!