POPUCOM (PC, NSW) Review

Happy midweek, everyone! Some games come out of nowhere to surprise me in a positive way. I liked what I saw from GRYPHLINE's POPUCOM (why are all these names in all caps?) when I first saw it last year in a Nintendo Direct. I then decided to take the POPUCOM plunge and try the game out on Steam, and goodness me, am I glad I did. You'll see just why with the SuperPhillip Central review. 

Once you POPUCOM, you can't STOPUCOM.

Co-op only adventures have seen quite a boom in gaming as of late. No doubt the biggest names of said boom are games like It Takes Two and last year's Split Fiction. There's also Orbitals, heading exclusively to the Nintendo Switch 2 this summer. Not to be missed either is that of POPUCOM, a color-based third-person shooter and platformer hybrid that not only brings a creative and charming adventure to players but also one--like any good co-op game--requires effective teamwork to overcome.

POPUCOM starts with you creating your character. From face to skin color, the options are relatively small, but as the game progresses, new costumes and outfits become available to truly let your character be your own. 

From there, you're thrust into the world of POPUCOM, where you and your co-op partner embark on a strange planet that is threatened by an evil planetoid creature. This moon-like monstrosity spews meteors and enemies to the planet, and it's your duo's duty to find the means to take it out. This boils down to needing to assemble a rocket by finding and rescuing enough little egg-like characters fittingly called Yolkies to help build the rocket and get ready for liftoff. 

Play locally in split-screen...

As stated, POPUCOM is a color-centric shooter and platformer. Its main mechanic indeed involves color, with each characters' gun containing and firing Pomu gel to defeat enemies and solve puzzles. In the case of defeating enemies, matching colors tend to defeat foes. Sometimes it's as simple as firing a yellow-colored barrage of shots at the yellow weak-point of an enemy. Other times, enemies will be an amalgamation of colors. For instance, many enemies in the game can be defeated by matching three of the same color together. So, if their leg is comprised of pink and green balls, you fire two pink shots at the pink ball to form three, which instantly destroys that part of the leg. Then, repeat with green shots at the green ball to completely destroy the leg entirely, thus dealing damage to the foe.

Partners aren't stuck to just one color, however. After all, that'd be rather limiting to the game's design. Instead, each have two unique colors they can shift and switch between on the fly. This isn't just for offensive reasons, but also defensive ones, too. Such an example includes destroying giant bullets fired by enemies with the same color of gel you currently have equipped.

...or opt to take the POPUCOM fun online!

Adding to the complexity of POPUCOM is that of gadgets. These are introduced one at a time, given to players to try out on a per-level basis at first, before eventually having levels where all four gadgets are required to use. From a barrier shield that can block lasers (pending your character's shield is the correct color) as well as can carry your partner across harm's way or to higher areas, to a glove that can pick up and/or pull objects from far away and grapple hooks, too, the gadgets have myriad uses throughout the adventure.

As pink lasers rain down, use your barrier as an umbrella of sorts to protect you and your partner.

Levels were constantly surprising with new ideas and fresh concepts. They're linear in design, sure, but there are plenty of secrets to be found off the beaten path or just out of view--hidden stickers and captive Yolkies being the main collectibles. These usually demand careful observation to discover, as they're cleverly hidden in some truly tricky locations at times. Thankfully, most levels feature checkpoints that can be fast traveled to, in case you miss something, as well as points to return to if you or your partner need to quit the game. It's convenient to not have to redo an entire level, allowing partners to play at their own pace.

Aside from finding secrets, the levels themselves offer a remarkable amount of mechanics and puzzles. Some of the fun ideas include buttons that both players must stand on at once to operate, rays of light that can be bounced off of you and your partner's barriers and reflected into different mechanisms, and colored platforms that can only be stepped on by the player of that color. The latter mechanic requires the player standing on their platform of their color to hold up their barrier, allowing their partner to stand on it and freely cross. If you touch an orange platform and you're not orange yourself, you instantly perish.

This particular gadget, Captain Kitty, is a drone that can grab various objects and move them.

Needless to say, smart and effective teamwork is paramount if you want to make any semblance of progress in POPUCOM. Every challenge within the game requires cooperation between both players. One example of this involves a large platform with four tiles on it, each tile being a direction (up, down, left, and right). To move the platform, you and your partner have to stand on the appropriate tiles to move in that direction. The catch here is that each tile is a specific color, meaning you both can't just stand on tiles at your own leisure. You have to change colors, stand on the correct arrows, and move the platform. Oh, and this is all the while shifting walls of spikes or spinning laser fields stand in your path, so you best time your directional movements well!

Match three of the same color to completely erase the blocks.

In a sense, POPUCOM employs a Nintendo-like approach to its level design. It starts you off getting introduced to the level's main mechanic in a safe enough space before iterating on it with progressively more challenging takes on the mechanic. Heck, it even borrows a Super Mario Galaxy-style "platforms switch when a player jumps", except with POPUCOM's example, the platforms disappear and reappear depending on the player's color. Either way, it's incorporated in a well thought out and designed manner. 

POPUCOM features several boss battles that are incredibly cool and--both figuratively and literally--colorful spectacles. Like the standard levels, each time you take damage, you lose a heart--though it appears in a nearby bubble that can be shot at and burst so you can pick it back up to restore health. Each player gets three hearts to work with initially, and if you're feeling especially sneaky, you can steal your partner's dropped heart to give yourself an edge. That said, it's easier stated than to do to try to recover a dropped heart while evading a boss' multitude of attacks. If both players lose their hearts, it's back to a checkpoint or the beginning of the battle in a boss level's case for both of you!

Bosses are large, but they certainly won't be in charge--not if you and your teammate have anything to say about it!

Apart from POPUCOM's standard adventure, there's plenty to see and do around your hideout as well. You can purchase new cosmetics with in-game currency, change outfits, or play one of several bite-sized games within the arcade. One of my favorites is a 2D, top-down, auto-scrolling shoot-em-up that cleverly incorporates POPUCOM's color mechanics. 

If it hasn't been made obvious yet in this review--you will need at least one other human player to play POPUCOM, as it's a co-op only game. Unlike something like It Takes Two or Split Fiction, there is no friend pass to speak of--that is, if one player purchases a copy of the game, they can't share a second copy with their prospective co-op partner. The game does allow split-screen multiplayer locally, which is a nice touch, but if you're looking to play online, you must find players yourself. There is no matchmaking to speak of, and little in the way to conceivably and reasonably play with strangers unless you meet on message boards, the Steam forums, or Discord. Further, there's no dedicated voice chat in the game either--another limiting aspect of POPUCOM. For a game that practically requires it, this seems like a bit of an oversight, to say the least. 

POPUCOM is a positively gorgeous game. I loved its art style and colorful worlds plenty. On Steam Deck, the system struggled to run the game, displaying blurry visuals and long load times--the total opposite of my experience on PC. The game there ran smoothly, looked crisp and vivid, and loading times were much shorter. The frame-rate on PC stays pretty firm, though this can change depending on lag between players online, of course. On the sound side of POPUCOM's presentation, the music is suitably charming and catchy, and the plops of paint and pops of enemies delivers such great audio feedback.

For those with the means to play POPUCOM--i.e. another player available either locally or online--you're going to get a wonderful cooperative game to enjoy. The levels constantly amaze and delight with new ideas that are iterated on in smart ways, the boss encounters are generally great, and the cooperation required to get through both types of challenges makes for truly fun and rewarding times. That's not to say you and your partner won't get flustered or annoyed with each other or the game every now and then, but overall, the experience will be a strongly positive one. Color me impressed by how much I enjoyed POPUCOM, as it's a seriously special co-operative experience.

[SPC Says: B]