REVIEW: Antonblast (PC)

December 4, 2024

Written by Jamie Galea

It’s been far too long since there’s been a new Wario platformer, and even longer since the last Wario Land game. Ever since then, we’ve gotten to the point where indie developers have taken it upon themselves to remind audiences of how wild and unique those games were. Last year saw the sublime Pizza Tower, and this year the long awaited Antonblast finally steps up to the plate. It’s a game I really wanted to love, but I ended up just merely liking.

Antonblast has a very simple plot to get you going. The Devil, vain and jealous that someone could possibly be redder than he is, plots to steal the red spirit bottles of Dynamite Anton and his roommate Annie. Upon finding out about the theft, both set out on a quest to get their spirits back and beat up the Devil. It’s very silly but it works well enough.

Right off the bat, the game has a great sense of presentation and vibe. It has a generally good look to it, at points feeling like a lost 32-bit game, but running much smoother and on more powerful hardware. There’s also a great sense of humour, with each level opening with the Devil taunting you in all sorts of different ways. So far, I’ve yet to see a repeat of his lines, which is pretty rad.

Let’s also get the obvious out of the way – Antonblast is not a clone of Pizza Tower. While both are manic platformers with similar visual identities and inspirations, they both go about it in drastically different ways. If anything, both share a similar influence in Wario Land 4, a game that is criminally unavailable legally these days.

If you’re somehow not familiar with Wario Land 4’s specifics, it’s a platformer where each level sees you getting to a time bomb while picking up collectibles along the way. When you hit the bomb, you’re tasked with fanging it back to the start of the level, escaping before the bomb goes off. These sequences often really shake up the way a level is laid out, offering new paths and routes throughout the level.

Antonblast doesn’t really deviate too much from this formula, but does enough to set itself apart. Levels offer up enough variety to keep you on your toes, with enough gimmicks and ideas to keep you guessing. Individual sections within levels are given their own unique name, which is a neat little touch I’ve not seen in many games like this.

While you’ve got an fairly standard dash attack, which you can chain together for maximum speed, Anton and Annie have a bounce attack which really sets the game apart from its contemporaries. Upon jumping and hitting solid objects, like enemies, boxes and the ground, your character can gain a little more air. It’s a technique that does take a little getting used to, especially since you can chain bounces together to take out enemies and get more air. It’s really satisfying to pull off once you get the hang of it, and fairly unique in this kind of game.

Thankfully, Antonblast really does pride itself on its escape sequences, doing a great job of feeling really manic and tense, but also exciting. They feel less of a slight retread of the entire level and more of a true second half, offering up wild new paths and deviations. They offer up just enough variety too – there was a couple of escapes that genuinely caught me off-guard by their execution, which you love to see.

While there’s a lot that Antonblast does that really does work for me, it’s not without its issues. I wish the extent of it was that the soundtrack is just merely fine and doesn’t do much for me, but playing it can sometimes just be a bit more of a pain than I’d like.

One annoying issue is that the game can often get extremely busy visually, rendering the action a little difficult to read at times. There was more than a few times during my playthrough where something hit me and I’d often wonder what because I couldn’t actually see it.

Then there are some of the level gimmicks which, while mostly decent to good, can sometimes feel like you’re fighting with the game to make them work. There’s one involving pinball which took far longer to get through because it was more frustrating than actually fun to actually make work.

And then there’s the pace to a lot of the levels. While the game does a great job in ensuring things are mostly manageable and you won’t need to stress about speeding through levels, they can often feel just a bit longer than they really should be. And that’s not even factoring in going for all the collectibles per level. Though if you do add in some of the more frustrating level gimmicks, it’s best to factor in a bit more time if you’re planning to sit down for a session.

For as much as I wanted to love Antonblast, and I think the game does a good job of filling the Wario Land sized hole that’s been missing for years now, it’s a game I wish I liked more. It looks great and there’s a lot of love and passion on display, but playing it can be a bit of a pain at times. If you’re willing to knuckle down with this game, you’ll find a surprising amount on offer, with some cool ideas and a real love for this sort of game.

RATING: 3/5 (It’s Fine)

Antonblast was reviewed with a code provided by the publisher. Follow Jamie over at Bluesky!