On paper, Gori: Cuddly Carnage sounds like the height of 2000s cringe, mixing action-platforming reminiscent of PS2-era Ratchet & Clank and Metal Arms with a grim and gritty fairy-tale aesthetic that takes a page from American McGee’s Alice. Somehow, though, Angry Demon Studio has largely managed to get the formula just right, as Cuddly Carnage is just creepy enough to be unnerving, just edgy and trashy enough to sate a certain type of 13-year-old (and 13-year-olds at heart), and somehow still cute enough to be endearing.
Cuddly Carnage takes place in an disconcertingly cute post-apocalyptic future where humanity has been slaughtered by synthetic pets with advanced intelligence, slathering the world in bucket loads of blood and neon paint. All of them have been seemingly possessed by kill-crazy demons, their flesh contorting and mutating in distressing and increasingly lethal ways. Now, the planet’s only hope is the scientist who helped create the “Ultra Pets” and Gori, the sentient skateboarding cat that she sent rocketing into orbit when all hell broke loose.
Much in the same way that Gizmo is our emotional guiding light in Joe Dante’s Gremlins, Gori is, at heart, truly just an adorable, sweet-hearted cat, intelligent enough to understand the world around him and walk on two legs but still unable to communicate in anything except the most heartwarming meows and purrs ever captured for a video game. Like Stray and Little Kitty Big City before it, Cuddly Carnage’s controller even has a button specifically just for meows, and every single time you hear it makes one immediately want to protect that boy with your life.
Not that he really needs extra protection, as Gori not only knows how to skateboard, but his motor-mouthed skateboard, F.R.A.N.K., can unfold into multiple configurations of flesh-rending blades and fire high explosives. One could accuse the game of trying too hard and too much, from the cutesy splatterpunk approach to combat and gore, to the overreliance on swears and F.R.A.N.K. coming off like the less stable cousin of Claptrap from Borderlands. In the case of F.R.A.N.K., in fact, having the option to shut him the hell up wouldn’t have been unwelcome.
And yet, you never feel as if Cuddly Carnage is flying too far off the rails in a way that sabotages its charms. A huge part of the game’s success is just how earnest it is. What separates F.R.A.N.K from the likes of Claptrap is that he genuinely cares for his feline charge and is cheering him on every step of the way. The cutscenes, which tell the story of our hero’s owner doing her absolute best to protect and guide him in a hostile world, are disarmingly effective at instantly investing the player in Gori’s big, bloody adventure. But more than anything, mechanically, everything in the game is so very finely tuned for a good, breezy, neon-bright good time.
The minute-to-minute combat is deeply reminiscent of Lollipop Chainsaw, with their being just enough complexity to pull off outrageous strings of eviscerating combos against the hordes of demonic unicorns that rule the Earth. And that complexity is working in concert with the skateboard mechanics inspired by the likes of Tony Hawk Pro Skater and Jet Grind Radio.
Everyone can easily hop on a grind rail and travel around, but seasoned gamers will have endless opportunities and reasons to kill and look cool doing it. Even still, it’s not hard at all to button mash one’s way to glory, as long as one remembers where the shield button is from time to time. Expert gamers might be disappointed at how little the higher difficulties add to the mix, but it’s hard to be mad when the base experience is such a sick and sanguine little delight.
This game was reviewed with code provided by ONE PR Studio.
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