It's the future and plants have evolved into gun-toting hostile natives! Warm your thumbs up for this twin stick shooter--it's time to make some fruit salad.
Juicy Realm is a unique, rogue-like, twin stick shooter from Chinese indie game studio SpaceCan Games. You play an explorer, dumped into an empire from the future where plants have evolved and are fit on taking their spot at the top of the food chain.
It's bizarre and lovely all in one--Juicy Realm's cartoonist style is exactly the pairing needed for this twin stick shoot 'em up. The animations are fantastically fluid and you can't help but smile at the palette of bright colours as you mow your way through the ASDA veg section. These plants take no prisoners! They're equipped with weapons and a grit to contend with!
What makes Juicy Realm so much fun is how off the wall it all is. Bullet-hellish in its own right, you have enemies that descend upon you from every direction imaginable--and they have quite good aim too! The challenge is definitely there which is something that's essential for twin-stickers: I've always felt like this particular control scheme is an illusion of control and Juicy Realm does a fine job keeping your over-confidence in check. Also, the guns feel nice, even if they are a bit generic at times.
Co-op is a blast too. It's well done, and is always a treat to get in there with your mate for some manic fun. At the time of this review, there's only local multiplayer available, which for a lot of us can be a bit of a problem. If you have the means to pick up an extra controller though it's totally worth it. I think Juicy Realm really shines with its co-op mode.
Juicy Realm does have its downfalls. Every level is static, meaning bosses and things are in the same exact spots every time. In a rogue-like setting, it's important for a lot of people to have randomization to keep from things going stale quickly. This makes the replayability a problem with this title--if you don't mind repetitive runs, then it shouldn't be an issue, but the majority of Juicy Realm's players are going to want something a bit more to keep it fresh and interesting. I should mention here that the price tag on Steam is £7.19. You get about three to six hours of game play. It's adorable and fun, but these factors are also something to consider to get your money's worth. Besides little bugs (that it appears like the developers are updating with patches still) I can't say there's much wrong with the game itself.
In closing, I would have to tag on a 'recommend' for Juicy Realm. It's not an outright 'MUST BUY', but it's definitely something to be interested in and do a bit of research with Let's Plays before purchasing. The community seems to have some pretty split opinions down the middle with it--so it's smart to see where you fall before diving in!