QCF: Regular Show-Best Park In The Universe

e live in a day and age where a blue jay and raccoon can make a living being hilarious through the lenses of rose-colored glasses of nostalgia, and it works... really well. Nostalgia is a strange thing, regardless of whatever we hold close to our hearts. Regardless of its age, the argument over whether or not it’s a product of the time becomes nullified; it’s a beast of philosophical proportions and a prevalent one within media -- especially video games. In this case, though, it’s been a mine of delight for nerd-culturist and artist J.G. Quintel and his wildly successful property, Regular Show, a program full of homages and references to video games. It only makes sense that a video game adaption would soon follow suit.

Aside from all the Master System love that runs rampant through the animation, one could only assume that that game involving the Regular Show would involve some retro game conventions. Well, it’s a beat’em up, so you’d be correct. Just to clarify, The Best Park in The Universe is a beat’em up-ass beat’em game and not unlike other apps available market, The Best Park in The Universe is heavily rooted into the designs of traditional video games. Beyond being fan service that extends into a game full of tributes to the culture of games itself, Heavy Boat manages to create a product that takes the best of both worlds and does a pretty good job.

Mordecai and Rigby have been entrusted to improve the park in the absence of their personified gumball machine boss, and in the process, they get overwhelmed at the concept of their duties actually involving work. So what do they do? They give into their indolence at the first opportunity, thanks to an interstellar stranger who promises to enhance the park on their behalf. The dude is actually a creep, and the duo needs to fix the mess before they lose their vacation and job.

The presentation involved with the setup for the game is as authentic as it can get, and feels like a lost episode for the show with homages and tributes abound within the graphics and design of the stage. The whimsy of cartoon being brought to life is important, considering that the genre is known for a dearth of innovation; this is why the charisma of the show does a great job of keeping you engaged, even with a mechanic as simple as beating up jerks until you move a few steps to the right and repeat. Now the actual formula itself, while good, doesn’t stop it from falling prey the shortcomings of its own layout.

The first real finicky things is the control. It’s surprisingly good considering the amount of input the game demands, but the responsiveness isn’t always consistent, and can hinder the experience during moments when you’re surrounded by a mob of four dudes who can kill you within a combo or two. Movement is mandated through a point-and-click structure that involves tapping where you would need to go within the stage while attacks are down through swiping over your character. As you progress, you’ll start learning more complex attacks that involve swiping a certain angle or direction of subsequently after a specific attack. While it’s mostly intuitive, switching between movement and attack doesn’t always compute. With this sort of gameplay involved, it’s crucial for you to constantly map your placement when taking on waves of foes, especially considering that the multiple enemies you'll face flank you instead of attacking in groups (classic beat’em logic for arcade, not so much consoles). Though the controls get tricky when combat gets frenetic, they work most of the time.

Combat is your standard fare. The 6-foot blue jay and angsty raccoon can pummel rogue park employees and zombies with combos or special trick moves that you earn (more on that later). The combat is much more responsive than movement, especially the trick moves considering they need a special swiping input in order to be done correctly. It doesn’t sound like much, but their subtleties in Mordecai flash-kicking (à la Guile) a group of guys in the face is immensely gratifying. Another component is the tag team element between Mordo and Riggs that happens during play. If one of our Regular Show stars gets thrashed up a bit too much, you can just tag over to his counterpart compadre. While this gives you some breathing room, The Best Park in The Universe is deceptively relentless in its quest to kick the living shit out of you.

Best Park in The Universe operates on an experience system that levels you up with invisible stat enhancements and skill points that are used to purchase possible skills within a skill tree. Future skills do assist you with vital abilities like sweep kicks and chops that work great for crowd clearing, but in my two playthroughs, I hit a wall. Forward progression was nigh to impossible without replaying old levels to grind, and while the game possesses all the fun quirks and aesthetics of the cartoon, it gets old.

Also, there exist two other factors that, while not hurting the game, should be mentioned in the fact that their addition could have made the game a lot better. Other than animations and fan service, Mordecai and Rigby are identical in both the way they fight and the bare functions and executions in their moves, which makes the whole tag-team affair seem a bit arbitrary beyond extending play if you let one of them get knocked out. Where Rigby could have been a great close-combat character or Mordecai a distance fighter is completely absent. Instead, you’re just fighting, and with the only variation being the ability/difficulty of the new enemies you encounter as you advance through the stages. The other factor are the items, while again, referential and significant in authentically building the atmosphere of the Regular Show, items only exist as additional experience or health recovery. There aren’t any bats or PlayCo Armboys to be used as interesting weapons or fixtures to add to the game -- just a lot of fists and moving to the right.

For $2.99 you can do a lot worse as a Regular Show fan, and while it’s not spectacular, The Best Park in The Universe delivers the goods in short bursts. Just don’t expect to get a whole lot of it.