Caveman Warriors (Nintendo Switch) Review

By Josh Di Falco 07.12.2017

Review for Caveman Warriors on Nintendo Switch

Visit a time where things were much simpler, and a lot less civilized. However, when aliens arrive into town and kidnap the children of four very muscular cave dwellers, the parents band together in a bid to get the kids back. JanduSoft's 2D platformer is another product of Kickstarter, and it shows in the production quality of Caveman Warriors. Whatever the aesthetic of the game, this a tough adventure where dying will become commonplace, as the increasing challenge threatens to test even the most patient. Beneath the layers of colourful characters and difficulty spikes is a fun and manic brawler that can be enjoyed together by many.

There are four cave warriors to choose from, and though the game offers the selection screen before jumping into the play, these characters can be switched between with the shoulder Z buttons. This is useful as each of the characters has their own unique attacks and special abilities, which changes the battle styles and dynamics.

Plus, the best part about Caveman Warriors is that each character actually feels useful and different, without any of them feeling like they got the worse end of the stick. Whether it is using Liliana's spear to garner a longer reach, or using Moe's shaman-bomb to attack enemies, these attacks say a lot about the characteristics of these cave warriors. Jack and Brienne are the brawny characters of the group, as their large physique and choice of weapons, an axe and a club, fleshes them out.

Screenshot for Caveman Warriors on Nintendo Switch

In addition to these characters and their abilities are the character-specific obstacles. There will be times when there will be a scalable wall, or huge stone blocks blocking the path. Each character has their obstacle that only they can overcome, as Brienne can deflect laser bolts, bullets, rockets and anything else that comes across her path, while Moe can send his monkey to distract enemies, and get him through small holes in order to open up the passageways. Liliana uses her spear to create a step on the climbable walls, and Jack can bust through the various blocks to advance the stage, or discover new areas. The game offers various obstacles to exploit each character's abilities, though it does not get any tougher beyond knowing what to use and when.

Stages are split into four sections that are divided by three checkpoints, which greatly bring a sense of relief upon hitting it. Due to the difficulty of the stages, and the high amount of deaths that could arise, reaching these checkpoints brings a healthy dose of life into the game, as they restore the lives and health. Each of the sections contains a battery, which may be hidden in some cases, or just simply hard to reach in other instances. These batteries are vital to unlocking new stages, so simply ignoring them just is not an option. Fortunately, the earlier batteries are easy to stumble on and racking them up to the game quota for the final stage is easy enough as just playing the game.

Screenshot for Caveman Warriors on Nintendo Switch

Bosses act as the final obstacle to each stage, and they vary from the flying behemoths, to an evil shaman with spiritual elements, and a Terminator parody calling himself the Cavernator. While they are obviously difficult at first, they each have simple attacks, and the patterns can be easily figured out.

Unfortunately, knowing the pattern is half the battle, and actually performing the actions are the other half. In the case of the Cavernator's second battle, dodging the falling platforms, while steering clear of his laser beams and bullet blasts, is probably one of the hardest things to perform in the game. In addition, the bosses are so imbalanced because of the varying levels of complexity involved in killing them that, for some reason, the final boss of the game is laughably easy to defeat with little to no damage. However, after enduring the excruciating journey to get there, it might be a welcome sight.

Screenshot for Caveman Warriors on Nintendo Switch

Where Caveman Warriors really comes to life is with the local multiplayer component. Jumping in with a group of four can turn such a difficult slog into an easy, but chaotic and equally heart-pounding experience. Take on enemies as a group, and combine special abilities to get the most out of the pairings, while working together as a team to traverse the many stages. When a character dies, they remain dead until at least one party member reaches the next checkpoint, thus bringing back any of their dead friends. This keeps the game alive, while adding intense drama onto the final character that is still in the game after an extremely harrowing portion of the stage.

While Caveman Warriors is a visually pretty game, with cute comic panels for cutscenes that are simple to follow and do enough to get the gist of the story, the in-game animations suffer from a few glitches. Sometimes, riflewomen will fire backwards due to their arm's inability to face the right way, or the aforementioned boss, the Cavernator will appear prior to beginning his boss fight, and even block the way to his stage and cause unnecessary damage and sometimes even death. This is a shame, and fixing these issues up will go a long way in having a better presentable title without any noticeable mistakes or errors that can impact on the presentation. Other than that, the animations are fluid and well designed, and each of the enemies present a different challenge and require different strategies to defeat.

Screenshot for Caveman Warriors on Nintendo Switch

Cubed3 Rating

6/10
Rated 6 out of 10

Good

Caveman Warriors is a cutesy-looking title that is devilishly difficult as a single-player experience. Though still fun to play through, the large wave of enemies can sometimes be a little insurmountable, while the boss fights can vary from easy to defeat to unfairly difficult. However, playing it in local multiplayer seems to be the way to go, as it is more fun to work together in a team and knock away the enemies. It retains the difficulty, though, as dying is for good - until a checkpoint is reached by the surviving members. Unfortunately, the game suffers due to the animation glitches and that dreadful boss glitch that centres on the Cavernator's second encounter. Despite this, Caveman Warriors is still a game that is worth checking out.

Developer

JanduSoft

Publisher

JanduSoft

Genre

2D Platformer

Players

1

C3 Score

Rated $score out of 10  6/10

Reader Score

Rated $score out of 10  0 (0 Votes)

European release date Out now   North America release date Out now   Japan release date None   Australian release date Out now   

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