Local co-op games are a thing of the past these days. I have many a fond memory of playing local co-op games in my teenage years, and I would always encourage developers to include it more now, not that I am likely to take advantage of it much these days, but it would enable to give a younger generation the same experience I had growing up. But like I think for the most part it has gone now, and unlikely to make a return on the scale it once was (I’m not including sports games in that general sweeping statement). But now and again you’ll get games where sitting on your sofa with a mate playing games on the same console will be an option, so it’s a bit odd to see a game like Clash which is impossible to play without another controller hooked up.
Clash comes from indie developers FennecFox Entertainment and is described as a ‘fast paced 4 player fantasy arena fighter’, which sounds very exciting indeed. But the unfortunately the excitement ends at the descriptions. Clash’s extremely limited options make it fall flat on its face before it even begins. There is no back story or explanation of what is going on here, you just have 4 random characters to play as, all of which just act as a skin to the same moveset. They all jump, throw a shield up and perform the same rush attack (a 1 hit kill by the way). It doesn’t matter whether you look like an octopus or a panda typed thing, you’ll all be doing the same whizzing about the screen.
There are 4 maps, each of which houses a different game mode. The maps themselves are fairly unimaginative, but the colours are nice I guess? I’m clutching at straws I know, but there doesn’t seem to be a huge amount of thought gone into the level design at all. They all have a central platform with a combination of side platforms slightly higher or lower than the centre. There is no explanation as to when a game will finish either; it seemed to vary from game to game. Once I won when I was 10 points in from, and another when I was 15 points in front. It didn’t make a huge amount of sense.
I convinced my girlfriend to play this with me for the sake of this review. There have been times in the past where we have enjoyed our gaming experiences together, but Portal 2 this is not. We had a few giggles at managing to bypass each other with rush attacks over and over but that quickly grew old, and it descended to more of a ‘is this finished yet?’ Thankfully we both agreed to end the experience fairly rapidly. For achievement hunters, I think this may be an easy ride, after around 20 minutes playing I had unlocked almost 200G, so that might be an incentive for you. Unfortunately I think Clash is going to be a very hard sell. A local co-op only game in almost unheard of, this doesn’t have the backing of a massive franchise or brand to get the interest piqued, and I don’t know anyone who owns 4 controllers anymore so I don’t know who this is aimed at. I’m all for more games from independent developers, but I don’t see what audience this is tailored for. Even a good, engaging gaming would struggle with local co-op only, and this is not good, or engaging. Your time with the game likely won’t last much longer that it took you to read this very short review of a very short game. My advice – avoid.
**Thank you to the XCN for the opportunity to review this game**