Games

Real Life Gamer: Kill the Bad Guy Review

Kill the Bad Guy is an interesting game for Xbox One. A puzzle game where the player’s mission is to kill a particular bad guy in outlandish ways. From dropping pianos onto them to turning a tree into a catapult. Even flinging a dead dog onto someone. Pretty much, there are many ways for players to get kills. While fun and unique, there are some drawbacks with the game as well.

Real Life Gamer: Kill the Bad Guy Review

Kill the Bad Guy Review

Title: Kill the Bad Guy
Platforms: PC, Xbox One, [Reviewed] Playstation 4
Genre: Action, Indie, Strategy
Developer: Exkee
Publisher: Exkee
Players: 1
Release Date: Original Release: May 28, 2014 (on PC) Console Release Date: January 31, 2017
Price: $9.99

Setting the Stage

The graphics certainly standout in Kill the Bad Guy. Each level is set in black and white monochrome, with the bad guy being the main color. Each bad guy walks a set path, unless new obstacles are set in their way. The goal of each level is to simply, kill the bad guy. This is accomplished in special ways, with each level increasing your score. “Killing the bad guys” is fun and I found myself laughing a few times too. The thing is, the fun is a bit short lived for various reasons.

Problematic Controls

This would have been easier to do, if it were not for the problematic controls. The player has a cursor that they use to select items and also interact with the entire level. In trying to complete the objective, it requires you to combine and link multiple items. The cursor makes it very difficult to combine the items needed, to set up the elaborate deaths. This is where it’s very obvious the game was made with a mouse in mind, instead of a gamepad. There is almost a three year gap between the original Steam release and the console version I reviewed. Perhaps a different way of combining things could have been added in that time.

Just to show an example, one of the requirements for maximum stars is to catch a flying tooth, which appears from the target after you kill it. The issue is that the cursor is difficult to place in the right spot to grab said tooth. It is very frustrating to set up a perfect death on a level, and then miss out on all the stars because the tooth went in a ridiculous direction. Thus, forcing you to redo the level.

Not to mention, there’s very little instruction when it comes to all this. I eventually figured it out, using trail and error, but perhaps a bit more transparency could have helped. This is especially true for the special deaths that increase your overall score.

Physics Issues

There’s also a bad slow down created When using a catapult, or if a car goes airborne. The item flying through the air starts going in slow motion. This makes it much harder to time the impact of when the items might actually hit a moving bad guy. Once again, it’s rather frustrating to link several items together and then have to restart the level when the box, (or dead dog,) misses the moving target.

Examining Replay Value

Later in the game, new objectives are introduced. For example, you may need to keep bystanders alive, or not allow security cameras to witness any actions. This adds some variety just when the game starts getting repetitive. Unfortunately, it is not quite enough. Eventually, it just feels like a variant on the same theme. There’s no point in hoping for something new to show up either, because it never appears.

There’s just not a lot of reasons to replay the game. Once you get all the stars for each level, There’s really nothing else to do. Also, due to the frustrations I discussed above, you may just starting wanting to get through levels and not worry at all about maxing them out.

Pros:

-Graphics fit game style

-Deaths are fun to arrange

Cons:

Gets repetitive

Confusing controls

Slow physics create timing issues

Final Rating

Overall Thoughts 6 Out of 10 When you get right down to it, Kill the Bad Guy is fun. However, there just isn’t much there. It’s a good game for puzzle fans, or for people who just want something different on their Xbox One. The amount of game that is here, is done well, but it does have issues. I’d also recommend perhaps playing just a few levels a day, to avoid the repetition.

Scroll to Top