Extreme Exorcism Review

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With the festive season now upon us, the gaming market is packed to the brim with AAA titles for you to choose from. But sometimes there is nothing better than sitting down and playing something that is simple, fun and incredibly addictive. And that’s exactly what you get with Extreme Exorcism.

Developed by Golden Ruby Games, Extreme Exorcism is a retro 2D shooter that sees you battle against yourself. Each level is made up of a range of platforms with a set of ghost and ghouls for you to kill by using the weapons scattered across the stage. But here’s the twist, once you’ve defeated the first round, you have to defeat them again but also the ghost version of yourself. This ghost version replicates your moves from the previous round and the further you progress, the more ghost versions of yourself you have to face. It sounds simple but as you progress, the challenges you face stack up and it all gets very manic very quickly.

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Extreme Exorcism works best in Arcade mode, simply for it’s pick up and play mechanics. Available to play either single player or with up to three friends, Arcade mode offers you 9 stages to battle across in a haunted mansion and a range of weapons at your disposal. Level design is a little disappointing with only a handful of levels showcasing real variety – most being quite similar in design. The weapons available offer a good selection ranging from a simple baseball bat to a crossbow, meaning that there is a weapon for everyone and it’s fun getting to grips with each of them.

Personally, I preferred playing Extreme Exorcism in single player and seeing how far I could get before running out of lives. The multiplayer arcade doesn’t really work as you all aim to take out the same targets and on relatively small stages, each round ends quite quickly and you lose the appeal of the single-player arcade.

Challenge mode provides a bucketload of challenges for you to work through, ranging from ‘Kill 6 ghosts’ to ‘Complete 15 rounds’. Challenge mode is a little disappointing and feels like it’s been tacked on in order to give the game some variety. It would work if Off-TV play was supported so that you could play and do something else at the same time. The lack of Off-TV play is disappointing, leaving the Wii U GamePad pointless with this title. For those looking a fun multiplayer experience then Deathmatch is for you as you face off against your friends. It’s great fun to get a group of friends together and see who you can take out using an array of weapons

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Visually, Extreme Exorcism looks like a SNES title – bright colours, pixel art graphics with a real 90’s retro feel throughout. It’s a good look, but Golden Ruby could have done much more. Stage backgrounds are pretty but flat with no user interaction, it would have been nice to have seen levels with more interactivity and meat to them. You can have a retro looking game with all the modern level design that we see in many of today’s games.

Extreme Exorcism is a fun indie title to sit down and play in short bursts. It’s an interesting gaming mechanic to essentially battle against yourself which really works, if you play in short bursts. There isn’t enough here to keep you going for hours and the lack of off-TV play is an annoying omission from the developers. But for the most part, Extreme Exorcism is an entertaining title for you to play with your family and friends, it’s simple enough for everyone to get involved and would be an ideal purchase for you to play over the Christmas holidays.

Version Tested: Wii U
Review copy provided by Golden Ruby Games

7/10
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