Creepy Road

I’m a huge fan of any sidescroller game, they’re my childhood gaming roots, and I still enjoy the hell out of them. Having said that, I was beyond excited to play Creepy Road, a 2D, sidescrolling, run and gun title with platformer elements, that was recently brought to Xbox One by the developers Groovy Milk. At first glance I thought it would be a breeze to complete, and within 10 minutes, my mind changed. This game is fucking tough, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

Meet Flint, our hillbilly hero, he’s had a long ass day on the road and just wants to get to town to see his lover, Angelina. Just another typical work day, right? Fuck no. Shit hits the fan immediately, as you are swerved off the road due to what appears to be a circus bear jumping out in front of you, thus making your journey to town one on foot. Almost immediately, our protagonist is facing off with a large variety of enemies, from barn animals wielding machine guns (yes, cows with machine guns), to demon hipsters waving cell phones around as they try to rip your face off.

The controls are simple to get the hang of, and don’t really offer anything new in terms of the genre. Some of the platform jumping itself does feel sticky at times. I caught myself having issues, though none were game-breaking. One stage allows you to take to the skies as well, but the control mapping doesn’t really change for that either. The variety of weapons is pretty badass, ranging from handguns, to flamethrowers, and even rocket launchers (which are almost a neccessity in some spots). The timing with some of the throwable items seem delayed, but with a bit of practice I eliminated that issue. Point and shoot, it seems easy enough, it’s not. The hordes of enemies the game throws at you gets fucking ridiculous at times, and almost overwhelming. I like a challenge, and this provided it easily.

The cartoon style artwork is what really drew me in, and it’s very well done. I really enjoyed the detail put into the variety of enemies it throws at you during your adventure. Pigs with baseball bats, evil bears riding unicycles, hell, there’s even robot rats in a couple stages, which are definitley paying some tribute to 4 better known green heroes. The boss fights are set up along the likes of Cuphead, being on a much more ‘epic’ scale than the standard enemies you battle along the way. Some of them are a real a pain in the ass, and will take a few attempts to practice & learn their movement patterns, but this made it that much more rewarding.

A game like this doesn’t need a huge or detailed story backing it. It’s simple, fun, and serves its purpose well. It provides one hell of a challenge, and leaves very little room for error when the enemies start swarming the screen from all directions. The corny jokes made me cringe, but I think they were suppose to. Other than a few spots with platform ‘bugs’, it’s an all around great title. If you want a challenge and something a bit shorter to play, scoop this one up, you won’t regret it.