Appropriately enough, given that Anton and Annie are demolitionists, Antonblast is a wild deconstruction of other platformers, one that throws caution to the wind to maximum effect. Though each of the game’s 12 levels is stacked with secret passages and collectables, the jagged, psychotic art style (which happily brings edgy animation like Ren & Stimpy to mind) and reckless, momentum-building hammer swings make the whole endeavor feel like a gloriously uncontrolled demolition where anything can and likely will happen.
Within the game’s first five minutes, Dynamite Anton is targeted by none other than Satan, who uses a magic mirror to determine who’s “the reddest in all the land.” Satan steals Anton’s spirits (read: alcohol) to lure him out, and in return, Anton goes about smashing everything in sight. Things start off relatively straightforward, with Anton dodging wrecking balls and explosive crates, before Antonblast defaults to winningly riffing on the platformers of yore.
That much is clear from the illusory bath house that calls to mind Super Mario World’s ghost houses, as well as the Pinball Mire, which effortlessly evokes similarly themed Sonic the Hedgehog zones. But with the exception of a final gauntlet that fiendishly puts every one of the game’s unique gimmicks to the test, the only thing you can expect in each level is that you’ll first have to reach the detonator and then race back to the level’s start before it explodes—an endearing concept inspired by the Wario Land games (and recently reprised in Pizza Tower).
Antonblast is memorable for its level design, so much so that players will be eager to leisurely soak in the details as they learn the lay of the land on their way to the detonator before frenetically making their way back to the level’s entrance/exit. And to its charming credit, that design dazzles with devilish details, from the shift-jumping that allows Anton to leap into the background at set locations, to the funny, occasionally helpful descriptions of each room.
The game is in gleeful, fourth-wall-breaking conversation with you as it introduces breakneck cannons meant to help you flee a fiery conflagration as “Surely This Can Outrun It” only to then surround you with flames on the next screen’s “No It Cannot.” It has a devilish sense of humor, too, as when it introduces a harmless rubber duck in one room as “Sitting Duck” only to then upend expectations when, in a later room, one such duck abruptly sucker punches you.
If Antonblast frustrates at all, it’s only because there’s a slight dissonance between the game’s joking tone and its in-all-seriousness gameplay. Though you have infinite tries, checkpoints are increasingly far apart, and there’s an in-game monetary penalty for each death, which may force some players to replay levels in order to afford each of two permanent health point upgrades.
Bosses, in particular, are battles of attrition, with attack patterns abruptly changing or growing more complex, and players forced to replay large swaths of an encounter in order to learn the proper timing for a second phase, as with an operatic boss fight that shifts from dodging a singer’s explosive expletive @#!$ speech bubbles to spiking rotten tomatoes over a volleyball net. The creativity is appreciated, but the confusing interactions are less so.
A bit of confusion or frustration, though, is a very small price to pay for the giddy creativity on display throughout Antonblast. Indeed, a single level like the Mad Mall feels more inventive—between you having to scramble through a ball pit maze, race on a Segway-like device, and solve a shooting gallery puzzle—than the entirety of other platformers. And you don’t need a magic mirror to tell you how priceless that sort of novelty is.
This game was reviewed with a code provided by Stride PR.
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