I’m always down for trying out weird mashup titles whenever they have an interesting enough concept, and I’m rarely disappointed by my curiosity. That was exactly the case with Gori: Cuddly Carnage, which I had the privilege to test a preview build thanks to Wired Productions. And I’m really glad I did, as I walked out of the first few levels very eager to see the final product in my hands.
A Purrfect, Stylish Gorifest
If Devil May Cry and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater ever adopted a pet together, it would be Gori: Cuddly Carnage. In this flashy hack ‘n’ slash/skateboard hybrid produced by Angry Demon Studio, you get to play as the fluffy cat Gori, a pet wanted throughout the whole galaxy fighting his way against the evil corporation Cool Toyzā¢ alongside his two loyal companions, the cutting-edge hoverboard F.R.A.N.K and the AI cartridge CHIP, who follow our brave cat hero on his journey in search their owner: the Professor who created all of them.
Once the terrifying Adorable Army rebels against humanity and eliminates (almost) all humans in the process, the previously rejected synthetic pet Gori becomes their new target due to his loyalty to them. And despite sending their best and strongest unicorn soldiers to the task, they weren’t expecting to face such an agile, deadly and cute creature on their very first day.
Once Gori shows his claws (and his equally deadly hoverboard which just so happens to be equipped with sharp-edged rotating blades), they’ll know why he bears such a name, as the last thing they’ll see will be their own body pieces flying across the room.
Gori pulls from various inspirations at once and it gives them enough room to show themselves. While it’s your traditional hack ‘n’ slash, gameplay is done entirely by riding your hoverboard, accompanied by a charming platform-like level design that really shows some heart. The comic book style it sports brings the extra charm, making it incredibly visually appealing to whoever looks at it. If Sonic Riders wasn’t a racing game, it would probably play similarly to this. Just with a bit less dismembering and blood.
Gori only attacks his foes personally during his finishers, while F.R.A.N.K and his blades will do the job most of the time. And thanks to this, you’re always hitting the sickest airborne skateboard moves whenever you’re styling on your enemies, which range from cutesy unicorns to not-so-cutesy toys always ready to be ripped apart in the bloodiest way possible. The game’s not named “Cuddly Carnage” for nothing.
The game leans a lot of the “cute game goes bloody” genre as one of its main selling points, alongside its NSFW dialogue that feels like it came straight out of a South Park episode. If you’re not a fan of those, you might be icked out immediately. But there’s more to see than just this, such as the appealing futuristic visuals (because everything has to be a bit Cyberpunk these days), surprisingly great customization and a very easy-to-access Photo Mode to record your best moments while tearing your enemies apart. Oh, we also got a cute cat!
From Cat Owner to Cat Owner
Much like Stray, this is another title for cat lovers. You have a key entirely dedicated to meow. And you can just spam it. It’s almost impossible to stop! There’s also a lot of customization for Gori, and it wasn’t hard to turn him into one of my real-life cats. And nothing can convince me that making a violent but cute cat hack ‘n’ slash wasn’t a cat lover’s idea. If you never got a really bad scratch after innocently giving your hand to your cat to play with, can you even call yourself a cat owner? Cats were born for this type of game, and the developers here get it.
Gori is the only character who goes completely mute throughout the game (aside from meows, of course), and his companions will do most of the yapping, especially F.R.A.N.K. He’s the soul of the party with his constantly spicy remarks and his foul-mounted dialogue. Ironically, he’s the only one to be censored whenever he drops an F-bomb or anything similar. You can pay an almost insignificant amount of money to remove his profanity filter, but it’s honestly much funnier to keep it on.
CHIP, on the other hand, is a depressive, always gloomy AI that does prove his usefulness at all times despite his mood. These two rarely failed to give me at least a quick smirk whenever they started discussing the current mission. Vibes are high at all times, and you meet numerous troupes, parodies and references you discover as you explore the galaxy and its ridiculousness. We got annoying cute mascots, written onomatopoeias and even an It-like jack-in-the-box toy as one of the bosses. Can’t wait for a Freddy Fazbear look-a-like.
As previously mentioned, levels are ingeniously designed around the hoverboard, and they are one of the strongest points of the game. You’re always surfing at high speed through the levels and it doesn’t get repetitive, despite doing the same loops over and over. Exploring these futuristic planets while doing air flips with a talking hoverboard just hits differently. Especially when you’re a cat. A very cool cat with its own theme song. And cool cats don’t look at explosions.
Combat can be a bit weird to get at first, but becomes a lot more engaging once you get the hang of it. New upgrades such as the grenade launcher help immensely with that. However, some enemies can spoil the fun out of you with their obnoxious attacks and higher-than-expected resistances before they’re staggered. Juggling enemies on the air is still amazingly fun regardless, true to the game’s inspirations. They go even harder with features like the Witch Time-like buff you get by perfectly dodging an attack or the combo ranking score going from D to P (Paw-some!).
Out of the bosses I’ve faced on the first three levels, they were either a hit or miss. They all creatively use the environment during the battle but get really annoying if you’re not able to 1-cycle them. One of them, in particular, involved completing a small jumping puzzle before you could trap it in electricity to expose it to your attacks. Missing a jump and having to redo a whole platforming section was mildly infuriating, especially when the boss didn’t bring anything interesting to the table either.
Let Him Sharpen His Claws For a While
There were other letdowns, such as occasional performance issues despite being way above the recommended setting and the never-ending feeling that certain levels were just dragging on for too long. All of them range from 30 to 40 minutes on average, but some of them could do with a few less without compromising anything important. There was only a single collectible type too, and maybe there was space for some more.
But I know that some of these issues can (and probably will) be fixed by the actual release, as I was only playing a preview build after all. And it’s not like the game is completely ruined by it, as I still had a hell of a time slashing my way through fluffy creatures that curse like a sailor and become more twisted as I go forward. You’ll get a lot of giggles from time to time, but it feels just like the perfect palate cleanser if you’re tired from a long day or another more exhausting game.
Despite my gripes on the mentioned points, I still enjoyed meeting Gori and it’s something to keep an eye on during this year. The full game will be available for all modern platforms (including PlayStation 4 and Xbox One) on August 29th, 2024, so give it a shot if you enjoy living the fantasy of a cat single-handedly bringing down an entire corporation in the nastiest way possible. Would love to see it happening in real life.
Gori: Cuddly Carnage will be available on August 29th, 2024 for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Nintendo Switch and PC.
