Death’s Hangover is an Arkanoid like paddle game in where we play as two friends on a quest to take down Dracula. They have been tasked with that deed by Death who has given them life once more although in the bodies of females. It is all told in a tongue in cheek manner with most of its humor being hit or miss. We start our journey at the bottom of Dracula’s castle and must make our way to the top via branching levels. The first level teaches you the basics of this title such as the ability to slow down or speed up the ball at will. This allows for a variety of things like giving you more time to reach the ball with your paddle should it be far away or zooming right past an obstacle that is hindering your progress.
Much like the old arcade games this is inspired by if the ball gets past your paddle that is a life lost. Unlike them, however, is the fact that you are not aiming to break everything in an area. Your goal is to make it through each of the areas doors by first slamming it open and occasionally attempting to target at a trapped soul Death wants freed. These souls are challenging to get as they are always placed in hard to reach places that will have you accidentally shooting yourself to the next level if you don’t have good aim. You will need a certain amount of them to unlock the real ending and final zone of the game. On the other hand, you can also use them to cheat death and revive right where you failed instead of restarting the entire level again by using them.
There will be many enemies trying to stop you ranging from bats, monks, and skeletons that you need to defeat by using your ball before they reach you. Some can also fling projectiles, causing you to pay attention to both the bottom of the screen and wherever the ball currently is. This is where the ability to slow it down really comes in handy since one hit will kill you. Your paddle is not entirely defenseless though; there are a variety of power-ups that allow you to fight back. Up to two can be carried at any one time and getting multiple of the same power will cause it to evolve into a more powerful version. A few of those abilities are a bomb to blast apart anything near your ball, some spikes you can shoot out of your paddle, and a tower you can lay down to provide automated firepower against your foes.
Picking up a third different power-up will overwrite the one you currently don’t have equipped, so keeping a close eye on what you are about to collect is a must if you are stocked up with your favorites. If you die, you’ll lose the power you have equipped meaning that neither are ever safe. Each level has a room in where you must survive against a wave of enemies and is where they will really come handy. At the end of each stage is also a unique boss fight who will give you a run for your money and make up a good portion of this title’s challenge. They all have different ways of defending themselves such as throwing projectiles at you or slamming their tentacles onto your paddle. All of them also have a sizable life bar to make sure you have plenty of time to make a mistake it can capitalize on. Once again a single hit is all it takes to destroy you so these battles are always tense yet enjoyable affairs.
Strangely enough, the bomb powerup is grossly overpowered against any boss. If you manage to hold onto one until you reach them, it will kill a boss in a single hit. Hidden throughout some stages are keys that will allow you to access different paths through Dracula’s Castle that lead to new levels. This adds a nice bit of replay value and a reason to go through the Arcade mode again. It can be quite a challenging game at times with stuff like guard rails that your ball can break through if it hits them enough times and running water that alters its pathway. The last zone in your epic fight against Dracula himself, in particular, will test your skills for a multitude of reasons. You’ve gotten enough souls to get in so now they will put everything you’ve learned to test by requiring a decent aim to progress and good combat skills for any hope to survive.
After you’ve defeated the big man himself, you’ll come to learn that there are 18 endings to see overall. The story and content is nowhere near enough to justify replaying it that many times, though it is a worthwhile addition nonetheless that adds some backstory to the characters. Once you’ve gotten the true ending by defeating Dracula, a new mode called Story will be unlocked. It plays exactly like Arcade mode but with the added inclusion of 2D puzzle sections. They are too simple to offer much enjoyment and dying in them will actually lose you a life, making it a mode you’ll likely only try once out of curiosity.
It is great fun trying to find secrets and pulling off trick shots against your foes. The store page states it has 96+ levels, but that is slightly misleading. Levels, in that case mean different screens that you travel through, so one stage can have many. There is also a level editor to create your own stages. Its tools and preset objects are very limited however, do not expect to make anything matching the developer made ones. For the PC platform, it is rare that they offer demos to let you try the game, and with so many bad titles flooding Steam that is a problem. This is one of those titles that does so, which is always praiseworthy and shows that they are confident in their title. And with good reason as it is a ton of fun and has a great soundtrack to boot. It has some flaws, but overall Death’s Hangover is quite an enjoyable title with a decent amount of content to keep you coming back.
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