I sometimes complain about too much nostalgia in games because not everything was great about games (or everything else for that matter) in the 80s and 90s. But then you have a game like WG Cells’ Fantastic Plastic Squad (FPS), currently in soft-launch, that’s all about taking fun gameplay mechanics and wrapping them in a warm blanket of 80s Cartoon nostalgia that, well, brings back so many memories. I’ve been playing the game for the last couple of days, and I’ve been quite enjoying it both for its fantastic theme but also for its solid gameplay mechanics. While I haven’t played too much of it, what I’ve seen so far is very promising, especially given the fact that the game will also play on Apple TV.
The game has you collecting various action figures and fighting your way across numerous levels, most designed after house rooms. As you collect action figures, you can upgrade them (like most of us did in our imagination when we were playing with action figures), customize them, and so on. You guide your action figures using virtual thumbsticks that worked pretty well when I was playing the game. Your figure shoots automatically, a welcome addition I think as it minimizes any touchscreen control issues. FPS offers plenty of customization in terms of sensitivity, so you should be able to get the game controlling the way you want it to. I’ve also been told that it plays perfectly with a controller, but I didn’t use one so I can’t talk about that part. There is also the option to put your figure on ‘autopilot’ if you need to take a break for a second or you simply don’t want to have to guide it across the level in a fetch-type quest.
The game offers both a single-player campaign and PvP multiplayer modes that will have clan support, tournaments, leaderboards, and so on. As you can imagine, I couldn’t really play the multiplayer modes because there aren’t that many players playing the game, but I can see those being a huge part of the game, especially if the game plays nicely on the Apple TV. Add to this the many, many action figures you can collect and the pretty good gameplay, and we might have a winner here. And, above all, the game has Glamazons (which look a lot like Thundercats), Transformer-like robots, and pretty much every other 80s toys you can think of! The game really oozes 80s flavor.
I have to say that I was impressed by the attention to detail in FPS; they decided to go the 80s theme route and really went all the way. There are 80s references everywhere, from the menus to the figures to the levels. I caught myself smiling more than one time because of the various references ‘hidden’ all over the game. The game should release worldwide before the end of the year and will be F2P. I can’t comment on the F2P before the game’s released, but I’m hoping it won’t be intrusive. So, get your Walkman ready because it’s 80s time.
