Poopdie Chapter One Switch Review
On my review schedule faster than planned, my Poopdie Chapter One Switch review a game made in collaboration with PewDiePie.
We regularly watch PewDiePie in my household, and while I like him, these comments aren’t intended to kiss his arse, nor Bulbware, despite loving Bulb Boy.
And another thing, I like toilet humour; always have, always will. I’m the kind of person that will laugh at a fart at a funeral, or put my initials as ‘Bum’ for every hi-score on a game. I would repeatedly press the fart button on South Park The Fractured But Whole and snicker at any double entendre of nob jokes.
With that all on the table, Poopdie Chapter One is overkill when it comes to toilet humour.
Poopdie Chapter One Switch Review
The references to butts and farts are relentless, and in all truth, I don’t think I laughed at any of it. Not the squeezing out of a poop to fight my battles or the references to Lord of the Rings, only with alternate names.
There’s nothing witty in the writing either. It’s mostly literal and somewhat flat. This also applies to the fetch quests such as find some offal for Edgar, or toilet rolls for a character that’s creating a musical opus, i.e. a bum note.
So far this Poopdie Chapter One Switch review is heading down the pan, and I can see why the publicity has been relatively scarce, considering the millions of subscribers PewDiePie has, surely should be more reviews out there?
Maybe everyone thought it was a turkey and did the classic judgement before giving it a chance? Alternatively, maybe Bulbware was in an awkward position as there are so many people who hate PewDiePie for whatever reasons, but each to their own.
Another aspect is the comparison with The Binding of Isaac. Now, this gives me a slightly better position for the review as I haven’t played it – yes, I know. I also haven’t played The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker either, which I’ve owned for at least five years on the Game Cube.
If Poopdie Chapter One was that crap, I wouldn’t have spent the hours I’ve invested into it, featuring some RPG elements where you can upgrade Poopdie’s stats as well as his arsenal. This means lots of grinding for coins and materials, and I’m a sucker for certain forms of repetition.
Visions of Poop
The artwork is simplistic, yet effective and the style present from Bulb Boy makes its way into the game design from the characters through to the objects in the game.
While it isn’t a monochrome hue like their other title, the colours are bold in places but can get a little samey, and it’s a bit hard to identify items onscreen – especially in handheld mode.
The music and sound effects are quite understated but do the job well, with plenty of fart sounds as expected in the game, though as I specified, it was a little too much and didn’t get the laughs from me.
You control Poopdie, who moves surprisingly fast, but he doesn’t get involved in the fisticuffs as such. You need to direct your minions to do your bidding by holding down ZR and moving a cursor with the right stick, or it’s automated to what’s ever in proximity.
Said minions are poop, complete with smiley faces, that chip away at objects and angry bums with their own health gauges. Poopdie is a pacifist, but he has some scrolls at his disposal such as supercharging the poops, healing them and freezing enemies.
Should one of your entourage die, you’ll need to poop out a new one, and you can only do this if you have the ingredients (later upgrades include uncontrollable poop nuggets). At first, you just need carrots to make new poop soldiers, but other times you’ll need wood for spikey lawn cigars.
Haha “Poop”
Yeah, so the target audience is quite apparent, but I’m not entirely sure if it’s on par. My 10-year old was quite disgusted, who has a similar sense of humour as me, but my 3-year old laughed out loud. Poopdie Chapter One is monotonous, lacking in anything unique that makes it stand out (other than the poop minions) and fails to perform in terms of laughs.
But(t)… the game has kept me occupied in upgrading the stats in-game and seeing where it would take me. It’s much of the same – move forward a section, send out your army to destroy the local vegetation or enemies, head back to the town to level up then repeat, and I enjoy games like that at times.
I certainly wasn’t compelled with the story or humour as I keep banging on, but it’s a pleasant looking game (given the literal content), and it’s not something that has been made overnight.
It’s seldom that I’ll look at other reviews before writing my own as I don’t want my opinion being diluted or feeling that I should conform with everyone else. Still, I have read a few reviews and lines of comments knocking PewDiePie, or people disgusted with the themes.
I’ve played much worse.
It’s doubtful that you’ll purchase any game based on my opinion alone, but I’d like to think you will consider some of my comments. If you don’t appreciate toilet humour or like a grind, then this isn’t for you.
A lot of the hostile comments I’ve read are mostly from people who haven’t played it and reminds me of the senate’s take on Night Trap when originally released:
Developers: Have you played this game?
Senate: I don’t have to, it’s filth.
Though the story and humour missed the mark from my perspective, the gameplay is fine, and while it is repetitive, I found it somewhat therapeutic. I wasn’t in any hurry to dismiss it, nor did I find the game a bore – considering that it’s very much the same thing over and over.
Poopdie Chapter One is a mobile game at best, well, it was initially and available for free, but it translates to the Switch pretty well (though it doesn’t seem to have touch support.)
Don’t put too much merit in the aversion that the game has received; if the content offends you, you don’t have to play it. For those who do, they may feel a little disappointment with the story and constant use of the word poop as I did. That’s not through disgust, but farts were overused, and the dialogue would have been something my friends and I would have written about in our made-up stories as kids.
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