Sugar Mess – Let’s Play Jolly Battle

If you enjoy independent indie game coverage, consider supporting Indie-Games.eu on Patreon. It helps keep the site independent.

• DEVELOPER: JollyCo
• PUBLISHER: JollyCo
• PLATFORMS: Meta Quest, PICO, Steam, and PlayStation VR (coming soon)
• GENRE: Arcade Shooter
• RELEASE DATE: May 31, 2023
• INITIAL PRICE: $7.99$€
• REVIEWED VERSION: PICO 4

Sugar Mess is an interactive arcade first-person shooter that is suitable for all ages. It follows the story of the Sugar Prince and his mysterious enemy through an interactive book format where you turn the pages yourself and gradually uncover the narrative. Each page brings a new colorful environment where you will face several types of enemies/sweets, which you then shoot and destroy.

This title offers more than just shooting action; in it, you’ll solve various puzzles, ride in a mine cart like you’re at an amusement park, and test your rhythmic skills. You’ll be able to use three different weapons, while puzzles can be solved quickly or skipped. You will also find a fun arcade mini-game where you collect sweets and try to avoid enemies while fighting for the highest score. However, it wasn’t very fun because it was very difficult to control both the left and right hands due to delayed controls, which could be frustrating.

Gameplay and Features

The gameplay is quite straightforward: you take a gun in one or both hands, which you must also manually reload with ammunition. Besides shooting at cakes and donuts, you’ll also face various bosses in the form of robots, each with its own set of challenges. You’ll need to adapt to them, using 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 achieve the highest possible score.

It’s helpful that you can destroy enemy projectiles like candies and snowballs, and you also have two useful consumable items: rockets that destroy everything in a certain radius and a health pack for healing. It’s important to watch your health because if it drops to zero, you lose the level and have to replay it.

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

Final Thoughts

Sugar Mess looks outstanding on the PICO 4, with high-quality details, vibrant colors, and diverse music. Its appearance will not disappoint you, given the evident effort put into the design, where every character has its 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 images that illustrate the story itself, and the interactive map located in the main hub where you select levels is even more impressive. Although it’s short, Sugar Mess is a perfect choice for those just getting into VR.

However, like most games, this one isn’t without its flaws. I was particularly disappointed with the weapons we use for shooting. 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 where you ride on tracks are not interactive enough; perhaps too much attention was paid just to the ride and too little to additional elements that would enrich the gameplay. In fact, there are places where interaction exists after you shoot at them, which adds an extra dimension to the game.

Ultimately, Sugar Mess – Let’s Play Jolly Battle is a casual game that you can complete quickly, but which simultaneously provides a high-quality experience. There are no bugs or performance issues, and the price is affordable. The controls and accessibility of the game were good on the PICO 4 platform; whether you were sitting or standing, the game adapted to your preferences. The ability to quickly switch weapons in hand was also interesting, and the weapon responsiveness was of high quality. If you don’t have much time to play or are looking for short burst of fun, Sugar Mess will fill your free time.

Review copy provided by the publisher