Trash Punk

Genre: 2-Stick Shooter

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local)

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in 2 in 1: Trash Punk & Moto Rush GT, along with Moto Rush GT. It is included in 2 in 1: Trash Punk & S.N.I.P.E.R – Hunter Scope, along with S.N.I.P.E.R. Hunter Scope. It is included in 2 in 1: Trash Punk & Urban Flow, along with Urban Flow. It is included in Trash Punk & Food Truck Tycoon Black Friday Pack, along with Food Truck Tycoon. And it is included in Trash Punk & Knights and Guns Black Friday Pack, along with Knights & Guns.)

Trash Punk, released in 2023 on Nintendo Switch, is a 2-Stick Shooter that puts players in the role of an armed anthropomorphic opossum fighting various odd enemies in randomly-generated levels.

The presentation here makes use of pretty decent 2D pixel art with a metal-inspired soundtrack (yes, metal, not punk) full of electric guitars. Overall this works, but it’s let down somewhat by bland, repetitive levels that are nowhere near as interesting as the characters or music.

I feel like this sorta’ sets the tone for the entire game. The gameplay at the center of Trash Punk is sound – the 2-Stick Shooter mechanics are good, and players can only refill ammo by using melee attacks, and thankfully your melee weapon is pretty competent, though it’s not the best thing to be using when facing off against ranged enemies. All of this makes for a good gameplay balance and satisfying combat.

The problem is, this sets a good gameplay foundation that Trash Punk does absolutely nothing to capitalize on. The levels are bland and repetitive, and having them procedurally-generated just makes them nonsensical on top of that, with tons of branching pathways leading nowhere. Weapons are too scarce to be a major element of the game, and if there are bosses at all, I never saw one. The game does gradually ramp up the difficulty by introducing new and harder enemies with each new level you reach, but this did little to alleviate the feeling that in each new level I was just going through the motions.

While Trash Punk isn’t a terrible game, I cannot possibly recommend it when there are tons of truly exceptional 2-Stick Shooters on Nintendo Switch, those with exceptional Roguelike mechanics, massive arsenals of weapons and upgrades, and the sort of variety that Trash Punk could only dream of. With this being the case, why would you ever play this game?

tl;dr – Trash Punk is a 2-Stick Shooter where players take the role of an armed anthropomorphic opossum, and while the core gameplay here is good, this game does nothing of note to build on that, making for a tedious, repetitive gameplay experience that can’t compete with the wealth of other great games in the genre on Nintendo Switch.

Grade: C

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