The Galaxy’s mightiest bounty hunter has been called upon to save us all from the Void King. Sounds exciting right? Well, hold onto your seats because this bounty hunter is a goose! That’s right! A GOOSE!! Set as a side scrolling, fast-paced, run and gun shooter, Mighty Goose, published by PLAYISM and developed by BlastMode, is wildly exciting and highly addictive. I was lucky enough to be able to review this fantastic game and I played in on the PlayStation 5.
With the help of your trusty operator, Chonk, Mighty Goose sets out to save the galaxy. Spread across several missions, you will encounter various enemies and bosses. Each of which have their own strengths and weaknesses that you will need to discover. Throughout each mission, there are weapon drops to upgrade your armoury. Starting out with the basic weapon, single shot pistol, you can upgrade to a Machine Gun, Shotgun and a few others I will let you discover. Each weapon you pick up along the way has a limited amount of ammo, so use it wisely. Not only can you pick up these additional weapons, but there are also several companions hidden throughout the levels. These companions come with their own varying abilities that may help you in your fight against the Void King’s armies. There are also several vehicles across the levels to help you in your battles.
The first thing that I loved about this game was the soundtrack. Composed by Dominic Ninmark, it is 80s disco personified filled with funky jazz and synth rock to perfectly accompany the carnage being unleashed as you play. Not only did the music give off nostalgic vibes, but so did the gameplay. At first, I could not quite put my finger on it, and it was driving me nuts. I felt I had played something like Mighty Goose before. Then it hit me, Mighty Goose reminded me a lot of the Metal Slug and I can only assume that the developers over at BlastMode were heavily inspired by this game to create Mighty Goose. It took me back to the days over at my mate’s place, crammed around a single keyboard playing hours on end.
The ‘run and gun’ game style of Mighty Goose is highly addictive. The chaos that happens on the screen leaves you feeling excited and accomplished when you survive the fight. If you do not survive, you’re taken back to the recent save point to go at it all over again. The auto save function is great, but when you reach a boss fight, that gets thrown out the window! If you die during one of these epic battles, you are sent right back to the start of the fight to go at it all over again. It is excruciatingly brutal when you make it almost to the end of the fight and cop a hit that you did not see coming. Before you know it, you are back to square one. Most games that do this can be extremely frustrating, but not Mighty Goose. I found myself enjoying it more when I had to start over and there are not many games I can say I have felt this way about.
After each mission, you head back to your ship and have the option to upgrade your loadout. From spending stat points on various abilities such as increased speed and more. You also have the option to select a secondary weapon ability. By default, you are equipped with the classic Goose Honk. It does not do anything, but the honk is extremely satisfying. You can also switch out your companions that you collect along the way. Switching between loadouts can improve or inhibit your abilities for each level, so don’t hesitate to mess around and try something new if you are struggling.
There is one ability that I just cannot get enough of and that is Mighty Mode! As you battle through a level and kill enemies, your Mighty Meter will fill up with each kill. Once it is full, smash that Mighty Mode trigger and wreak havoc! Each weapon has its own Mighty Mode powerup that makes taking out swarms of enemies a breeze. And if you are lucky, whilst you are building up those combos, you might just be visited by the Goose Pog! I will not spoil it for you, so just wait for it to happen and once it does, you will want to trigger it as often as you can!
Overall Mighty Goose is one of the best Indie Games I have played in an exceptionally long time. Although the game itself might be relatively short, it is addictively fun that you will want to play it over and over. There is also a NewGame+ version that you can unlock after the final boss fight, giving you hours and hours of more gameplay. Also, as I played Mighty Goose on the PlayStation 5, there are a lot of trophies to collect. Some of which will unlock the speed runner within you that you never knew existed! There is also a two-player mode that enables control of the companion. So, even when the game is finished, it is never really over and it is what makes Mighty Goose an incredible exhilarating game.
I cannot recommend Mighty Goose highly enough and the team over at BlastMode should be commended for releasing such a fun and exciting game. Mighty Goose is available now across all platforms on Steam, Nintendo Switch, Xbox and PlayStation. A Playstation 5 review code was provided for the purpose of this review by StridePR on behalf of PLAYISM.
