Donuts N Justice had better deliver with a title like that. Well, spoiler alert: there are donuts/doughnuts, and justice was firmly served when playing this on the PS5.
Granted, this isn’t really PS5 material in terms of visuals. Still, while there’s a shortfall of games that showcase the power for all of us who foolishly got one on launch (no real benefit), publishers like Ratalaika Games are filling the gap with fast and furious indie games.
Their latest is a 2D action romp for one or two players focusing on the good old days of 80s/90s arcade games. In the news piece, I mentioned Narc, and having finished this multiple times, it is very much like the arcade classic.
Donuts N Justice Review – PS4/PS5
You play one of two characters; Riggs or Gordon. I get the first reference, but not the second. Either way, they both look like the love children of Crockett and Tubbs from Miami Vice, with a dash of Mr Larry Laffer and his white leisure suit.
Donuts N Justice is a side-scroller, so once you go past an area, you can’t go back to pick anything up
The story isn’t important; let’s go with the PR that these two cops love to serve justice. Hard. That’s not a cue for a porn scene, but these guys shoot before interrogating. Arriving on the scene of a shootout, two officers are gunned down and the catalyst for some mayhem.
The moves are simple to learn: shoot right or shoot left with the dedicated buttons/shoulders – moving left and right moves you in the direction, but not your aim.
Additionally, you have grenades to throw, and they’ll take out some perps until you pick up some more. The standard guns have infinite ammo and, surprisingly, very accurate and powerful – much better than the uzi and flamethrower you can unlock.
A Flash Of The Badge
Unfortunately, you can’t choose your weapons as they’re random, but enemies drop badges, and when they do, they go towards unlocking new weapon drops. The rocket launcher is fun, as is the sniper rifle, but again, the standard weapon will suffice.
Later enemies hit harder but are easier to avoid, so if you get past Chinatown, life gets easier
So, there are five levels with a boss after each, with a car chase intermission. What was strange about Donuts N Justice is level two, Chinatown, was the hardest stage. At least, for me. Standard enemies spray ammo which is hard to avoid other than slowing down with a power-up, and the boss, a ninja, deflects hits when he spins.
That said, I struggled as I was playing on a harder difficulty. Even changing to the default was too much, but switching to Thumbsucker difficulty dented my pride too much. Still, it got me past that second stage and opened up the bonuses.
Other than spraying their guts on the tarmac, the enemies in Donuts N Justice also drop cash that can be used in the shop between runs. There’s an abundance of hats on offer, not just to make your cops look good, but give them buffs like more money, a black and white mode, and much much more.
A Hat For All Roles
As a Ratalaika game, earning the platinum was early, but I kept playing multiple times to unlock these extras hats for completionist sake at first, but eventually because they made the game a lot more fun in co-op too.
After completing the game, you unlock boss rush, where you battle all the baddies in one space with a timer. There’s no leaderboards or achievements on offer, just for those looking to test their might and having an extra thing to do.
Donuts N Justice is quite a short game, and other than the co-op experience and unlocking the extra hats, there’s not much on offer. Still, my only real issue was that I couldn’t skip the credits. When you’ve completed it half a dozen times, it would have been nice to get past it. That said, it’s worth noting that this is the work of a solo dev, FobTi Interactive, and not just raising my own hat for the sake of it. It’s an achievement in itself.
Donuts N Justice Review Summary
Short and sweet, Donuts N Justice is a fun pick up and play arcade shooter that will keep you out of mischief for a couple of hours. I could go on and say I’d like to have seen more levels, and perhaps costumes as well as hats, but that’s just being ungrateful. Fun arcade action, as expected!
