Clumsy Rush

Genre: Party Game

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local Split-Screen)

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in the bundle AAA Clock + Clumsy Rush, along with AAA Clock. It is also included in the bundle Little Mouse’s Encyclopedia + Clumsy Rush, along with Little Mouse’s Encyclopedia.)

Clumsy Rush is a Party Game released on Nintendo Switch in 2019 and ported to Xbox One in 2020. This game has players taking the role as anthropomorphic overweight hippos trying to grab a crown and waddle their way to the end of the obstacle course-like stage without losing it.

The presentation here is nothing special, but works well enough for the game. The game uses bright colors and simple, cartoony 3D characters, backed by lighthearted music and silly noises. There is absolutely nothing memorable here, aside from the almost infant-like way the characters in this game waddle.

When it comes to the gameplay, the basic concept here is that players can rotate one leg with ZL and one with ZR, and doing to they must muddle their way to where they want to go. Players can briefly thrust themselves forward and attack by using A to charge forward, but the game discourages using this in place of movement, causing crowned players to lose their crown when doing this.

Controlling the game this was is very cumbersome and frustrating. It’s supposed to be cumbersome and frustrating. It’s clear that this is the entire point of the game – trying to compensate for the game’s terrible controls. However, just because the controls here are intentionally bad doesn’t mean that they’re not bad. As much as this game sees its players struggling with the controls as whimsical, I only say it as frustrating and tedious.

The other issue here should have been obvious right from the start – this game is clearly set up to be a Party Game, yet it only supports two players. Meaning that even if you can find a group of players who find this sort of thing amusing, all but two of them will have to wait to get their crack at it.

I’ll admit that I like the concept of Clumsy Rush – giving players an awkward control scheme and then tasking them with a simple task has potential for fun. Unfortunately, the control scheme here is too awkward and frustrating, and it just makes it difficult to have fun playing this game. What’s more, for a game set up like a Party Game, the 2-player limit doesn’t make for much of a party. There are plenty of great Party Games on the Nintendo Switch, don’t waste your time with this one.

tl;dr – Clumsy Rush is a Party Game where players play as anthropomorphic overweight hippos trying to grab a crown and waddle with it towards the goal. The whole idea behind this game is that it has terrible controls that the player needs to compensate for, but rather than making things fun, it just makes them frustrating and tedious. What’s more, any Party Game that only supports two players is missing the point. Skip this one.

Grade: D

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