Review by Kieran Sutton
Riddled Corpses EX is the PS4/Vita version of the twin stick action / arcade 8 bit shooter developed by developer Diabolical Mind who seem to be running with a theme of 2d, old school looking games with an anime girl on the artwork and hordes of demons to slay… So let’s get to it.
Image not recovered: Riddled Corpses EX. Archived image reference
Story/Characters
The story could be
boiled down to a few words but I’ll do my best to capture the apocalyptic
scale. The science went badly. Now demons. But, like loads of demons. An
extraordinary amount of undead and demons. In the hours I’ve invested I’ve
slayed thousands of foes, the shambling corpses exploding into red pixels or a
fiery blaze. The characters didn’t really seem to matter and the only reason
you’d differentiate them is the weapon and speed balancing. Once you’ve found
one with a suitable shot speed and adequate damage for you the actual narrative
could leave a lot to be desired but then again – who’s buying an arcade shooter
for the plot developments? I certainly wasn’t but blink and you’ll miss it; apparently,
there are cops… from the future?
Image not recovered: Riddled Corpses EX. Archived image reference
Audio/Visual
The levels look unique
and uninvitingly crammed with undead but the overall visual impression left
wasn’t one to remember. The hordes of enemies quickly blur into the same old
sprites and even the enemy projectiles are mostly the same purple-red rings
regardless of the beast firing them. I did like the look of all of the bosses,
who are equal parts grotesque and horrifying flesh mounds made of murder.
The soundtrack however
is absolutely killer; you even have the choice of a new or classic beat to
provide the perfect high energy back ground music for your bullet barrage and
zombie slaying mayhem.
Image not recovered: Riddled Corpses EX. Archived image reference
Gameplay
With almost no learning to do I found this game great to
just jump in and out of; you’ve got to move and shoot. Of course the complexity
builds and early on the sheer volume of enemies is daunting; you’ll need to
grind out a few waves before dying and spending that hard earned gold on new or
current character upgrades. You can also pop some of your coinage into
explosives, additional lives or time stops to give you a strategic edge as you
burn through the story mode and I loved how easy it is to have a buddy drop in
straight away. I enjoyed the boss fights but found that the balance throughout
the levels to be all over the place, a few barely a challenge while other
sections were just a torrent of trouble right at the start. Aside from the
story mode you’ve also got the arcade (beat the game in one session) and
survival (endless) mode to really give you the mindless murder-fest we all need
sometimes.
Image not recovered: Riddled Corpses EX. Archived image reference
Summary
While not an absolute winner in my book Riddled Corpses EX
does fill a gap. I could sit and sink a few more hours in but got pretty close
to exhausting what the game had to offer. Good fun while it lasts but unlike
the hordes of the 8bit undead it’s unlikely I’ll be coming back for more.
Image not recovered: Riddled Corpses EX. Archived image reference
Overall score 5/10
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