Once upon a time.. in a galaxy far away.. there was a duck.. who similar to Bomberman had a game named after him… and that duck’s name was Ponpu!

When looking at this game, my first thought was a mix of ‘Binding of Isaac’ and ‘Tamagotchi’ looking characters. Ponpu was made by Purple Tree Studio who have admitted that they wanted to develop a game inspired and base it off of the game ‘Bomberman’; with its super cute cartoony style and hype music.

Firstly, I adore the art style of this game, the characters are similar but unique and the maps blend in well, however, some of the maps like the drops don’t scream danger as it all looks the same so I repeatedly fall down the same holes by accident. Couple this along with the kooky characters and the real hype of the charismatic music and you have one hell of an experience. The music in each area was so in tune with the game and the overall vibe that it’s great.

Ponpu is definitely a game much suited for solo play and groups of friends. The gameplay is very funny and I like how they feed into this randomness. Not to say it isn’t challenging, the first boss, I personally struggled to get past it, so it’s certainly not easy on beginners. You will be dying over and over or waiting to remember the boss’s pattern as this is the only way to defeat it as they take multiple hits from your bombs.

I feel like this game would thrive on its multiplayer aspect rather than its singleplayer. The storyline is indeed weird and different but it won’t hold many people’s engagement long to complete the whole game. Fortunately, there are multiple game modes I was excited about trying such as Paint Battle; a 2v2 with your friends, and Coin Steal; where you strive to be the greediest Ponpu. There was also a standard Deathmatch game mode to play with a group of people, a staple for most games.

I feel like this game is something I’d enjoy a lot more with a group of friends so I’ll highly recommend it to people when the game is released, however the singleplayer is something that I could only play for a certain amount of time especially with the rage-quitting over learning the boss.

With a gang of players, you’d more likely laugh ridiculously at the characters, the storyline, and gameplay of the story, and while the main singleplayer is a little pale in comparison to those more creative modes Ponpu is still just as unique and fun.

Written by: Caitlin