Developer: Forust Studio M Sdn Bhd
Publisher: Leoful
Switch Release Date: January 21, 2022
Platforms: Switch, PS4, Xbox One and PC
Reviewed On: Nintendo Switch
Have you ever heard of a platformer based entirely around office humor and kicking your co-workers’ butts to move up? Well, now you can get straight to work with this exciting new Indie 2D Platformer!
Story:
This humorous story revolves around hard work and lots of coffee! You play as Jim who dreams that one day he will be CEO of the company. Demoted on his first day from his current position to the customer service department, he has to climb back up the corporate ladder to take down the CEO of the company and anyone who stands in the way. Through hard work and determination, you fight your way through the corrupted and greedy corporate office setting by beating the pulp out of receptionists, supervisors and more co-workers. Although colorful and fun, these office themes have very similar relations to anyone who’s actually worked in an office setting. Accounting is loaded with piles of gold, marketing has an abundance of paper, and customer service is portrayed as hell.
The dialogue is fairly light, but the story reveals itself mostly through gameplay. There is plenty of office humor and moments where the player may say “this is so true”.
Gameplay:
The Company Man is a 2D action platformer full of different enemies portraying corporate office workers. Abilities consist of jump, dash, shoot and slash, and your main weapon is a computer keyboard portrayed as a blade. The response time is spot on, and makes it easy to quickly avoid dangers. Throughout your progression, you unlock new upgrades for Jims melee and ranged attacks, along with special attacks. Each level is accompanied by a boss at the end; some bosses can be fun to fight against, and some lack an intimidating pattern leaving most of the boss mechanics very simple and easy to solve. I found myself spamming the same attack often during some of the simpler boss fights. Health replenishes at each checkpoint, which is a small coffee station. Enemies (co-workers) drop coins when you defeat (fire) them. These coins can be used at the main lobby coffee shop to spend on character upgrades. Coins may also be attained by finding the hidden loot in each level. Level designs are fun and explosive, but feel similar in scheme as you progress.
Final Score:
Score 3/5 Stars
The Company Man shined in office humor, enemy designs, and combat. It came with easy controls, and a smooth fun gameplay experience, but also fell short with the similar level schemes, lack luster boss mechanics, short checkpoints, and not needing to make much use of the special attacks or other abilities. There wasn’t much of a purpose for specials and abilities when I could get away with spamming melee on normal difficulty.
The game was short and sweet, but the end was tiresome as I found myself just running past most of the enemies to get to the end of some levels. Overall, it was a great experience for anyone wanting an exciting office platformer.
The Company Man can be found on the Nintendo eShop for $19.99 (USD) and has a demo of the first level available now. Will you be picking up this game? Let us know in comments, or hop on over to the Boss Rush Discord!
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