A Gummy’s Life Switch Review by SwitchWatch
Developer: EP Games
Publisher: EP Games
Release Date: Out Now
Price as of Article: $13.49USD, £12.14GBP
Game code provided by EP Games for review
Gummies have come to life and have invaded cities, football stadiums, parks, and large desserts.
It’s an all out gummy war between some of the sweetest treats from your childhood! Gummy bears, gummy rings, cherries, Twizzlers, sweet & sour sharks, and more!
A Gummy’s Life is a multiplayer beat ‘em up where each player can pick one of the sweetest treats on the block to fight it out in a plethora of interactive arenas.
When you’ve booted up the game, there’s a splash screen of some of the main fighters at the beginning but no intro which is disappointing as the trailer for the game is really great and I would have loved to see it in the beginning of the game as the main intro. Sadly it is not present.
When the game begins, you have 4 choices: Play, Online, Training, and Options. There are no bells and whistles here – it’s clean, clear, and easy to navigate.
Let’s start with the least exciting thing first – the Options menu that contains general Game settings, profiles, basic controls and the credits.
Gummy Training!
There’s a training mode where you can have up to 8 players batting at once. There are 17 characters to pick from by pressing up on the direction pad and you can swap their sugary designs with the left or right direction pad.
Training mode is just how it sounds, a place where you can practice to your heart’s content in large open arena.
Sweets memories!
One thing that’s apparent from very beginning is how good the gummy characters actual look. I found my mouth watering as I was cycling through different characters – they just look good enough to eat!
My childhood flashed into view! Gummy bears from Haribo or sweet & sour cherries brought back lots of fond memories of my childhood – my after school snacks or cheeky sweet treats before school.
It’s all gummy!
Controls are super simple: you move with the left analog stick; you punch left and right with the ZL, ZR triggers; and by holding them you can grab targets and drag them around while they’re unconscious.
Hitting an enemy multiple times may cause them to be knocked out. While they’re unconscious, you can grab them and drag them over the side of the level for easy victory. However, be careful as after a little while they will regain consciousness and be ready to battle again. If this ever happens to you just press all buttons to get back up on your feet.
You can also lift them up over your head with a press of the X button. Using this technique, you can grab, lift them over your head, and you can throw them off the level or into dangerous hazards.
You can also headbutt with a press of the Y button, again if you’ve grabbed onto an enemy you can use this to beat your enemy into submission. You can also kick with A button, and jump with B button.
You can also use 4 emotes: strong, dab, clap, and bow emotes with the direction pad after winning or to taunt your fellow gummys!
Main modes!
Main modes are: play, online.
In play mode, you can select up to 8 players using either joy-cons, single or split, and you can use pro-controller to set up an 8 player multiplayer session.
Nothing better then having friends around the TV for a good old fashion local play brawl.
You can select one of the 17 characters and pick their own unique sugary costume colours.
Then you’re taken to the battle menu where there are 4 game modes to pick from.
Lets battle!
Free-for-all is an obvious one. Pick a fighter and duke it out with up to 8 other gummy players or CPU characters across a selection of levels.
Team Deathmatch is the same but this time you’re split into teams. You have max of 4 teams but it just depends on how many characters are currently playing. You set up CPU characters in game settings in level select menu. Again, the main goal is working with your team to destroy competition.
King of the Hill is where a large marshmallow fall into the arena and first person to touch it receives a crown. Hold on to it for as long as possible, after short while other marshmallow will appear and its your job to get to it before anyone else. This is my least favourite mode.
Hot potato has one character bursting into flames and only way to pass it on is to hit one other. However waiting too long or getting knocked out will result in your termination. This can be quite hectic in multiplayer.
My two favourite modes though have been Free-for-all and Team Deathmatch.
Interactive levels!
There are 15 unique levels to play on and each has a unique or interactive mechanic.
Here are few samples:
One level reminds me of spirit tracks as you are on the back of a run away train (Track ‘n Splash) as you continue to fight the train moves through tunnels and over hills which makes the platforms your standing on very unstable. A lot of ring-outs happen in this one.
There’s another level called: Robot Wars which has buttons on either side of a ring that can be pressed to activate either a trap door or large hammer that can splat helpless enemies easily. There’s even a buzz-saw that moves around outside of the level. Get too close and you may get cut into two. After awhile, a large case drops onto the ring trapping everyone or anyone who decided to stay in the area. Then a large drill appears destroying the floor and sending all gummys in the ring down the pit. Expect few casualties to happen on this one.
The interactive levels really mix things up quite a bit and they’re really fun to play on.
Some more than others though. My favourites were the frogger-inspired level, the candyfloss machine, and the ones mentioned above. They definitely add a little more chaotic fun to the mix, especially when there are 8 players.
The wobbly character physics make everything look ridiculously funny.
What’s wrong!
I’ve got few issues like there’s just not enough levels. I really want more. I’ve noticed that most of the updates that came to the Steam/PC version are present in the Switch version. Just hope EP Games adds more content later on.
Also, after you’ve completed or won a match there are no celebrations, it just returns you to main menu straight away which is a little silly as people like to brag after a victory. Only thing you can do is use one of the emotes after a match. But I would have liked to see a results screen at least as that’s a staple for most fighting games in this day and age.
Update: EP Games said that new content will come soon to the game, such as new levels and fixes to overall controls – all great stuff.
Hidden treats!
There are 17 characters and 4 of them need to be unlocked. So far, it appears to be the only unlockable content.
I feel like this is mainly aimed at the local multiplayer crowd, people who enjoy games such as Gang Beasts on PS4 as they’re very similarly quite chaotic.
Online!
There is an extra bonus game which supports online play and can be played with up to 8 players.
However, so far I haven’t been able to get into a game at all – this could be down to the game only just being released perhaps. But it’s a shame as the game is loads of fun and I think having an online option is a great inclusion. Just hope more people pick this one up.
Update: Did get a few games online and they ran pretty smoothly. But match making is still pretty slow.
Thankfully, the game is definitely best played locally and the ability to add CPU characters is appreciated.
Audio isn’t bad here but for some reason it was incredibly loud when I first started the game. Had to tune it down somewhat in the options menu.
Nothing wrong with what’s on offer and it fits overall theme well. Sound effects were all passive too. Nothing spectacular but fits the overall theme well.
Visual in A Gummy’s Life looks good! Love the character designs as they all look like sugary treats. Levels look nice too and have different visual effects and moving parts which is a nice addition.
Performance works fine but I did experience one crash while I was online. Other than that, everything ran smoothly. Character physics are wobbly on purpose and made the game quite comical to watch!
Game also supports screenshots and video capture which are always a welcome bonus!
Game is £12.14 on eShop which isn’t bad yet it could be a little cheaper. But what’s on offer, especially for local multiplayer, is pretty good. It’s a goofy brawler. Love the interactive levels and the game does support online even though at the moment there are not many people playing. Which is a shame as the game really is fun. My family and I really enjoyed it in multiplayer. And I did enjoy playing single player too with 7 bots which is just as hectic.
Pros
17 gummies to play as
Interactive levels
Local multiplayer is a blast
Up to 8 players locally
Cons
Needs more levels!
Online empty at the moment
No results screen
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