Who would have thought that food could be deadly and terrifying? I mean, the thought of a piece of bread throwing a boomerang at you, is probably the most traumatizing thing you could ever think of.
Cranky Watermelon debuts on Nintendo Switch with their fast-paced slice and dice game, Boomerang Fu, a fun and engaging game that is perfect for a group of friends that are wanting to challenge each other. If you’re expecting this game to have a story, you’ll be greatly disappointed as this game has no plot whatsoever and is purely based on chopping your opponent in half with your boomerang.
In Boomerang Fu control of a cast of uniquely designed food warriors, however, as impressively cute as they may look, there sadly isn’t really much more to them. They don’t possess any special abilities that make them unique from each other, so they are all on neutral ground with the same abilities. Admittedly, I found this was a shame and a somewhat wasted opportunity as I personally would have liked to have seen some unique bacon or bread powers.
The controls in this game are extremely simple and easy to get a hang of since there are only the functions to dash, slash and throw your boomerang, so there isn’t any complications when it comes to mastering them. The overall gameplay is fun and engaging, and you can host up to six people tuning in on the action. It is extremely fast paced at the get-go, so it takes a couple tries getting used to the concept of the game. But once mastered, it becomes addictively fun. Particularly when you start using power ups that are scattered within the arenas – that’s when the real fun starts.
You have the option of picking up unique boomerang power ups with my favourites being the explosive boomerangs which detonate and explode, and the multi-boomerangs which split into several boomerangs that attack your opponents. These were usually the ones that really changed the tide of the game for me. The arenas themselves also proved challenging to manoeuvre around, so not only are you watching your enemy’s attacks but you’re also watching out so that you don’t fall off the edge and die. You can also use your surroundings to your advantage, so in some cases portals will open, allowing for you to throw your boomerang though and hit whoever maybe standing on the other side.
Unfortunately, the game has no online features, whether it’s something that will be included in the future is still unclear. There are however several game modes that you can choose from, such as Death Match which is pretty much whoever has the most kills wins. Team Death Match is the same as Death Match but teamed up as opposed to winging it solo. Last but not least, there is Golden Boomerang mode, which is sort of a ‘king of the hill’ type of mode. You can also modify the game sessions to make gameplay either more difficult or easier.
The only problem I had was that at times the game becomes overcrowded and you do lose your positioning, due to so much happening around you, as well as the frame drops that occur throughout the game, which is not overly unbearable but I’m hoping they’ll patch it up in the not too distant future.
To conclude, Boomerang Fu is an amazing game that has a lot of impressive visually pleasing vibrant art and a groovy soundtrack to boot to uplift the experience. The fast-paced intensity within its gameplay, game modes and the competitive nature it possesses really is the perfect party game for a group of friends that are really wanting a fun colourful competitive game to play.
Boomerang Fu is available on Nintendo Switch, XBOX One and PC now.
