Caveman Warriors (PlayStation 4) Review

Jack, Liliana, Moe, and Brienne are prehistoric Homo sapiens enjoying the day with their kids when, out of the blue, aliens show up and abduct the tykes. This enrages them, so they set off on a quest to find them. Caveman Warriors is a brawler with elements of the platforming genre thrown in; each stage begins with a humorous cut-scene showing the current status of the plot before commencing with the brawling. As one of the four cavemen (or cave-women), players will smash, jump, and plod through various enemy and platforming challenges that get in their way. At the end of a level, there's a boss fight.

Caveman Warriors' gameplay takes inspiration from a multitude of old titles, including Super Mario Bros., Final Fight, and even Metal Slug. Each character has a personal weapon and special ability they can use when the going gets tough. Jack wields an axe and can charge through foes and certain structures, Liliana has a spear that can be thrown against specific surfaces in order to get to higher ground, Moe uses a pair of bone boomerangs and can launch his pet monkey out to distract enemies, and, finally, Brienne has a large club she can use to deflect projectiles. In single-player mode, the gamer can switch between the four at any time by pressing the shoulder buttons.

Levels take advantage of these characters' abilities; for example, there might be someone constantly shooting in one direction, by switching to Liliana, she can use her club to deflect the firing. Defeating enemies, as well as breaking open boxes and other containers, can net the player healing items or bonuses that increase the overall score. Additionally, there are batteries hidden about for the player to find and collect. At a certain point in the story, bonus levels become available that can only be accessed once a specific amount of batteries is collected. Many of them are easy-to-find, but some require a keen eye to find them.

Although charming on the outside, Caveman Warriors is no slouch when it comes to challenge. Enemies come in three flavours; dim-witted foes that bum-rush the player once within their line of sight, enemies equipped with a ranged attack, and large bad guys that require multiple hits to take down. Things start off easy but quickly become challenging, which can lead to multiple deaths. Generally, the challenge is fair, but there's one area where things come off as cheap, and that's knockback.

For the uninitiated, knockback is when the character takes damage that launches them back a couple of feet. It's something that made old school titles like Ninja Gaiden and Castlevania infamously difficult, and it's here in full force in Caveman Warriors. Some levels that put an emphasis on platforming can be frustrating to complete since there are obstacles and other hazards that can knock a caveman into a bottomless pit. When this happens, some health is lost, and the character respawns, but it becomes frustrating when such an incident happens over, and over, and over.

Despite the levels themselves being fairly difficult, the boss fights that close each stage leave a lot to be desired. They may be interesting to look at, but their patterns are easy to memorise, and can be taken down in no time.