I have to admit that after waiting so long to get my hands on my PS4 Putty Squad wasn’t exactly on the top of my to play list. But I managed to tear myself away from all the explosions and big budget sound effects long enough to give it a go. Luckily System 3 Software have rereleased Putty Squad. Finally!
In essence Putty Squad is a 2D scrolling platformer. You play, unsurprisingly, as a piece of putty with various strange abilities to tackle your obstacles with. You can inflate yourself enabling flight to a limited degree. Morph through certain objects and reappear elsewhere. Or sort of blob up and down ladder like obstacles. Not to mention absorbing food and other one use items by sort of, blobbing on them.
To be honest the gameplay is a little on the mundane side. I’d be surprised if anything I mentioned above excites anyone. There’s certainly nothing we haven’t seen before. Blobbing about with your cutesy little character it very quickly becomes clear that it is very unlikely you will be surprised with Putty Squad. A little change here and there can go a long way with a retro rerelease but there really doesn’t seem to be any in Putty Squad.
Unfortunately there’s nothing particularly special to look at either. Even given the retro theme there’s only so long games can look like James Pond and get away with it. It looks fun and lively but unless you want a retro kick Putty Squad will not impress. The resolution is certainly used but nothing is rounded or smoothed so it makes little difference.
Much more impressive and immersive are the sound effects. Right from the start it’s clear that the audio plays a huge part in Putty Squad, just like games of old. The audio does somewhat bring the whole thing to life but unfortunately the graphics are just so dreary that the punchy audio becomes a necessity. However it’s a very comfortable feeling walking over a power up and having an excessively gruff voice enthusiastically read out its description.
That is if you remember Putty Squad. Sadly I didn’t have that dubious pleasure so perhaps Putty Squad will hold more appeal for those who do. I wouldn’t say at 18-30 I’m particularly outside the primary demographic for videogames and I don’t remember it. There’s a high chance a lot of people in that age bracket won’t either. Some won’t even have been born when the original Putty Squad came out, if I got my maths right.
War Thunder is free to play on PS4. If you’ve got a Plus subscription (which you should) so is Resogun. It’s incredibly difficult to justify Putty Squad at around the £30 mark. I know price shouldn’t come into it but for £20 more you can own a full next gen title. For £30 less you can play War Thunder for nothing. It’s a very strange time to market such an old game at such at high price.
There’s very little to say about Putty Squad. It’s a retro 2D platformer. So if you want to play a game that’s very nearly 20 years old then Putty Squad is number one. It seems like an odd time to release such a game with the PS4 and the Xbox One in full swing. It’s strange to finally get on my PS4 and get Putty Squad loaded up and with a particularly competitive market at the moment Putty Squad really is just a bit of fun for the retro gamers among us.
Reviewed on PS4.
