Donuts’n’Justice

Genre: Arcade

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local)

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Review:

Donuts’n’Justice is an Arcade-style game released in 2016 on PC and ported in 2021 to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. This game has players moving on a scrolling street from left to right, trying to gun down criminals while avoiding hitting bystanders.

The presentation here is decent but nothing special, with 2D pixel art visuals backed by rock-inspired music you likely won’t hear over the announcer repeatedly shouting “Combo!” and “Ouch!”. It works well enough to instill a classic arcadey vibe, but not much more than that.

The gameplay doesn’t fare much better there. You can move around, shoot right, shoot left, or toss a grenade, and that’s it. Enemies shoot frequently enough that it’s difficult to dodge their fire while you’re also trying to hit them along the same line of fire that they’re shooting, and bystanders weave in and out of your way often enough that you can’t let loose like you might like, especially since most weapons require multiple shots to take out enemies. If you do harm a bystander, be prepared to go without your weapon for a few seconds as “karma” jams it to punish you. Plus, it’s difficult to tell where hitboxes are so you can hit enemies and not get hit yourself.

In the end, I just felt like Donuts’n’Justice was too simple yet tedious and frustrating to be enjoyable. Even those who find the challenge enjoyable aren’t likely to be pleased by the repetitive nature of the gameplay. This just isn’t a game I can recommend.

tl;dr – Donuts’n’Justice is an Arcade-style game where players control a cop on auto-scrolling stages trying to gun down criminals while avoiding hitting bystanders. The gameplay here is just too tedious and frustrating to be enjoyable, and even those who don’t mind these frustrations will likely grow bored with how repetitive this game is. This isn’t one I recommend.

Grade: C-

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