A steampunk version of Bomberman with some puzzle elements? Color me intrigued! Mad Age And This Guy has plentiful bombs, fire, and explosions but is it a blast to play?

Developer: SimFabric

Publisher: SimFabric

5 Hours Played // Review Copy Provided // $4.99

Story

The story of Mad Age And This Guy is straightforward. You’re a secret agent called This Guy and you are on a mission to stop evil scientists from using the government’s secret plans of modern technology to take over the world. This is explained in a few slides of text that set the tone at the start of the game. And that’s all. I feel a little bit more care could have gone into it. For example by having the plot move along between worlds. In any case, the plot isn’t particularly strong; I question why the evil scientists would hide the parts of their secret machine in plain sight in the various locations our protagonist visits. If I were an evil scientist, I’d. . . you know. . . put it together and use it to take over the world. . .

Gameplay & Controls

Controlling This Guy is smooth and intuitive. Like in Bomberman, you can move around in four directions and lay down bombs that explode after a little while. Your main goal is to get to the exit of each level, but there are some optional challenges as well. Namely, kill off all the robots and collect all the parts of the secret machine in each level. There seems to be no reward for doing this though. I 100% completed all levels of the first world and nothing seemed to change.

I would be fine with all of this if the core gameplay had been fun, but sadly Mad Age and This Guy gets repetitive real fast. Most of the limited mechanics and enemies get introduced in the first few levels. I quickly found out when and where I should place down bombs to kill the robots, after which the whole game became a question of rinse and repeat. The puzzle elements in each level were similarly repetitive and so it ended up feeling like a grind.

Visuals

I personally enjoy pixel art and I quite like the look of Mad Age And This Guy. I also appreciate the small details that can be found throughout the game. For example, you might see a rat walking around that then disappears into a hole it dug. This doesn’t affect gameplay but makes the environment feel a little bit more alive. However, I can’t overlook that most of the sprites are heavily re-used and consequently the levels end up looking very alike.

Audio

Similarly, the limited soundtrack of what I believe is about 5-6 songs repeats throughout the various levels. It’s fun and swingy and I feel it fits well within the steampunk setting. I initially really liked it but I ended up completing the last world mostly on mute as I was getting annoyed with hearing the same tune over and over. This is in part due to the later levels being larger and each song is only about a minute long after which it repeats itself.

Conclusion

If you’re a huge fan of Bomberman or you simply can’t get enough of explosions, then you might enjoy playing Mad Age And This Guy. It’s a very satisfying feeling to get a chain reaction of explosions going and seeing those pesky robots go up in smoke. However, I personally enjoy explosions only so much.

To me, Mad Age And This Guy felt like a grind with an anti-climactic ending. I tried to enjoy it and I was hoping for some new game mechanics and fun level designs to show up in the later levels. Unfortunately, though, I finished the game feeling disappointed. It all looks and plays nice initially but every next level was just more of the same. Push some boxes. Lay down a bomb to kill a robot. Collect the secret machine parts. Rinse and repeat.

If you’re looking for more… ahem… explosive material, then take a look at our reviews on Bomber Crew and Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes. If you like our content please do consider supporting us by becoming a Patreon or donate a cup of coffee via Ko-Fi. Thank you for your support!