Anarcute (PC) Review

It all starts with a crocodile - a rebellious, as well as a cute crocodile. This green fellow with soon get to awake the general public from its slumber (which, by the way, is portrayed in the game as actual slumber, with all future-revolutionaries having a 'Zzz' text above their heads), and then get to fight with the Big Evil Corporation, who has filled the city of Tokyo with propaganda posters, and has stationed lots of gas masked, riot police officers all around.

Needless to say, it's all insanely "kawaiiiiii!!!" Yeah, the mob will simply lay waste to whole cities, but it will all be done by a bunch of wide-eyed critters that range from raccoons and sheep, to Shiba Inu dogs and toucans, and while some catchy, and happy, happy tunes are bopping along - and, once in a whole, the player gets treated with some nice little cut-scenes that "explain" the "plot," and which are definitely worth a chuckle… as long as your inner child isn't dead, that is.

Anarcute has a nice and distinct look that's hard not to like, and, luckily, the gameplay follows suit. For starters, this piece of software is almost flawless; perfect controls, helpful UI, and, most of all game mechanics that would still be a piece of cake to grasp, even without the non-obtrusive tutorial included. The main concept goes something like this: start with one or more "units," grab more along the way to make the horde larger and stronger, kick all opposition out of the way, and, finally, destroy key buildings, capture flags, or any other objective required to complete a level.

Controlling this picketing, coloured flare-holding group is simple, and feels as if moving one body around, while attacking simply needs mashing a button. Note, however, that the members of the team act as health points, and can easily get wiped out since cops tend to be more powerful. At first, it's all very forgiving, thus losing more than half of the party won't really mean much, but moving closer to "The Man" forces you to use more than sheer punching.

The campaign is structured in such way that each level introduces a new mechanic that will help the rioters deal with the ever increasing dangers thrown at them. The group can pick up all sorts of items on the ground to use as simple projectiles, cars that go BOOM and destroy a whole battalion, or destroyed turrets that can be used as weaponry. The best abilities, though, are those that activate upon reaching certain party size thresholds; abilities that range from simple stomps, to skills that let you destroy buildings - helpful when snipers wait on roofs.

Furthermore, each stage grants a coin, and these can be used to unlock secondary, and far more specialized powers, like increased unit speed, bigger explosions, projectiles that ricochet, or even the power to "charm" the opposition into joining la révolution! The catch about these is that they are divided between four "tiers," and only one per tier can be activated at any given time, meaning that you must mix and match skills depending on the level that you plan on (re)visiting.

If there's one flaw here, that's the fact that only a bunch of levels do things differently, with escort or "solo" missions. Additionally, finishing Anarcute can take about five to eight hours, and after that there's not really much to do - not to mention that due to the overall length, there's only a handful of boss fights, which is a shame because they are Zelda-level-fantastic. It's possible to unlock more animals, but this is just an aesthetic choice that makes the mob more diverse, not to mention that the vast majority of them will probably be obtained during the first playthough.

The only reason to return back to the fray is to get a higher rank, by keeping as many rioters as possible alive and kicking, leave more cops unconscious, and all these as fast as possible. It turns out that getting the coveted S rank is quite the - pleasantly - tough feat to accomplice, demanding a far more strategic way of playing, which comes in stark contrast to how easy it is to complete this journey when not thinking about scores. Granted, it's not exactly much in terms of replayability, and it mostly has to do with how fun the gameplay was to begin with - and, thankfully, it's quite a lot.