If I told you someone decided to make a game about babies pooping on the floor, you’d probably ask “are you shitting me?”. To which I’d return with, “I shit you not”. That’s because Art Games Studio S.A. have gone and done just that with Pooplers. And we’ve been fortunate enough, if you can call pooping babies fortunate, to test the game out for review.
The game itself is a party game, in which up to four players take control of a baby and spend their time evacuating their bowels all over the map. The baby who smears the most faeces on the floor wins. Pretty simple. However, your mother is walking around and if she catches you, you’ll go back in your crib for a time out. Allowing other babies to out poop you.
To help you ruin your mother’s nice clean house, apartment, graveyard or construction site (just a few of the maps available) power-ups will appear. These vary between a doughnut that increases the size of your poop trail, a speed boost that allows you to run rather than crawl, and a smoke bomb that will turn other babies poop to your colour. There are a few others too.
As a party game, Pooplers works really well. It’s great fun to play and will have everyone in tears of laughter, although I don’t think it is something you can play for too long a period. But it is just that. A party game. There are no extra modes. Each game is the same with the only differences able to be made is the map, round time, and the number of rounds you play.
You might not think a party game just being a party game is an issue. And it isn’t I guess. But for me, there was so much more potential here. I mean it’s only available for local multiplayer. But this would be a great game to play online with friends. And not just that, but besides a tutorial and a practice mode that lets you play with bots, it offers nothing else.
The practice mode could easily have been made a single-player mode, in which beating opponents or completing challenges on certain levels unlocked customisations. Because there is a tonne of customisations, from changing your babies poop and skin colour, even what they wear on their head. So much potential to reward gamers by unlocking all of this.
It’s frustrating because this game is really good, but it’s like it was almost half-finished. There is so much more that could’ve been done with Pooplers. And that’s saying a lot because when I first saw the graphics from the trailer I thought they’d be my biggest gripe, but surprisingly, whilst they aren’t sensational, they work for the type of game Pooplers is.
The main redeeming quality of the game is that it’s not very expensive at all. At just £8.09 on the eStore at the moment, it is a bargain, and worth every penny spent. And it’ll be sure to give plenty of entertainment to gamers who download it.
Overall, Pooplers is kind of like when you go the toilet for a good poop, but once you’ve gone you can’t go any more but don’t quite feel done at the same time. It is genuinely a fun game but it feels half baked. It will be great to play with family and friends, especially during lockdown. But sadly if you don’t live with them you will have to wait until this all blows over because it only supports local multiplayer. And whilst the graphics aren’t fantastic, it fits with the humourous nature of the game. It’s just a shame it doesn’t offer more, because this game could be so much better than it already is.
The Pooplers TL;DR:
- A party game that is sure not to be a party pooper;
- Lacks online multiplayer, and much else for single-player gameplay;
- Graphics whilst not fantastic, do fit with the humorous nature of the game;
- Pooplers could be better than it is, but for £8.09 it’s worth the money.
73%
Pooplers is developed by Art Games Studio S.A. and published by Ultimate Games S.A., and is currently available for the Nintendo Switch. You can find it on the Nintendo eStore by clicking HERE. And whilst you wait for it to download, you can click HERE to read more of our game reviews.
