Sugar Mess – Let’s Play Jolly Battle

• DEVELOPER: JollyCo
• PUBLISHER: JollyCo
• PLATFORMS: Meta Quest, PICO, Steam & PlayStation (soon)
• GENRE: Arcade Shooter
• RELEASE DATE: 31st May 2023
• STARTING PRICE: 7,99€
• REVIEWED VERSION: PICO 4

Sugar Mess is an interactive first-person arcade shooter suitable for all ages. It follows the story of the sugar prince and his mysterious enemy through the format of an interactive book where you turn the pages yourself and gradually discover the story. Each page brings a new colorful environment where you will face several types of enemies or candies that you shoot at.

This title offers more than just shooting action, in it you will solve different puzzles, ride in a cart as if you were in an amusement park and test your rhythmic skills. You'll be able to use three different weapons, while puzzles can be quickly solved or skipped. You will also find a fun arcade minigame where you will collect candies and try to avoid enemies while fighting for the highest possible score. However, the minigame was not that fun because it was very difficult to control both the left and right hands due to the delayed controls.

The gameplay is quite simple, you take a gun in one or both hands, which you also have to manually load with ammunition. In addition to shooting cakes and donuts, you'll also face different robot bosses, each with their own challenges. You'll have to adapt to them, use different tactics such as avoiding attacks by teleporting from one end of the arena to the other, or moving in a cart to better hit weak spots, all while trying to get the score as high as possible.

Thankfully, you can destroy enemy projectiles such as candies and snowballs, and you also have two consumable items to help you out: rockets that destroy everything in front of you in a certain radius, and a health pack for healing. It is important to take care of your health because if you fall to zero, you lose a level and have to go through it again.

The game wasn't challenging to finish, so I would have liked to see a harder game mode or even a free mode where you fight enemies for as long as possible. Once you pass it, there's not much reason to go back unless you want to improve your score. It would also be useful to introduce leaderboards where we can compete with other players, as replayability is not the strongest point of this game. Still, as a fan of rhythm games, I went back to hitting the drums a few times to improve my score. For me, that aspect of this game was the most fun.

Sugar Mess looks amazing on the PICO 4, with high-quality details, vibrant colors and varied music. Its appearance will not disappoint you, given the obvious effort put into the design, where each character has its own place and purpose in the game. The story is very easy to follow and is told in a way that everyone can understand. I really liked the pictures that describe the story, and even more impressive is the interactive map that is located in the main hub, through which we then select the levels. Despite its short duration, Sugar Mess is a perfect choice for those new to VR.

However, as with most games, this one is not without its flaws. I was particularly disappointed by the weapons we use to shoot. The Shotgun (Toaster Gun) proved to be the least effective weapon, while the other two (Cream Gun and Blender Gun) were extremely useful. The levels in which you drive on the rails are not interactive enough, at least for me, perhaps too much attention was paid only to riding, and not enough to additional elements that would enrich the game. In fact, there are instances where interacting with certain objects after shooting them adds an additional layer to the game.

Ultimately, Sugar Mess - Let's Play Jolly Battle is a casual game that you can get through quickly, but at the same time provides a high quality experience. There are no bugs or performance issues, and the price is affordable. The game's controls and accessibility were good on the PICO 4 platform; whether you were sitting or standing, the game adjusted to your preferences. It was also interesting to quickly change the weapon in the hand, and the responsiveness of the weapon was also of high quality. If you don't have much time to play or are looking for a short entertainment, Sugar Mess will fill your free time.

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Review copy provided by the publisher