Radio Squid is the third game I?ve played from Pixelteriyaki, and in some ways it?s very much like the previous two. Much like Super Weekend Mode and Mochi Mochi Boy before it, Radio Squid feels like a Japanese fever dream, with all kinds of flashing visuals and weirdness flying across the screen.
In this case, you?re controlling the titular squid, who?s…uh…truthfully, I didn?t follow the brief story at the beginning. It?s something about ridding the ocean of a curse, which you do by going from undersea room to undersea room, firing little pellets at various undersea enemies. It doesn?t make a whole lot of sense, but, much like its Pixelteriyaki predecessors, I don?t think it?s meant to.
The key difference between Radio Squid and those other two games, however, is that Radio Squid isn?t all that fun. The pellets you?re firing have an annoyingly long lifespan, and they?re prone to bouncing off walls and hitting you. This is especially annoying when you factor in that you don?t have much control over when you fire the pellets — the shoot out in time with the music, and they tend to ricochet back and hit you constantly. The good news is that you can continue from where you die as long as you have enough coins, and this game is very generous with the amount of coins enemies drop, but it?s not enough to make up for a mechanic that gets pretty repetitive very early on.
If Radio Squid does have a saving grace — apart from the weirdness, which always counts as a plus in my books — it?s the music. This whole game is soundtracked by glitchy-sounding electronic music, and I love it. In fact, I would much rather spend the hour or so it takes to get this game?s Platinum listening to it rather than playing it.
Mind you, that might have been the case even if Radio Squid was really good — the soundtrack is just that solid. But, alas, it?s not. Radio Squid is an unfortunately dull game that?s nowhere near as interesting as its predecessors, and apart from the music, there?s really no reason to check it out.
Ratalaika Games provided us with a Radio Squid PS4 code for review purposes.
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