Gori: Cuddly Carnage
Released: August 29th, 2024
Developer: Angry Demon Studio
Publisher: Wired Productions
Systems: PC, PS5, Switch (reviewed), Xbox X/S
Gori: Cuddly Carnage is a psychedelic nightmare, a visually searing maelstrom of color with objects and effects filling the screen to an overwhelming degree. It’s loud, it’s obnoxious, it’s messy as all hell - and I simply love it.
With its “edgy” attitude and throwback sensibilities, one could be forgiven for writing Gori off as a cheap bit of filler skating on the back of one silly idea. I had assumed so myself, but after trying the demo I was hooked after my first combat encounter. Playing the full game, not only did I find the fun holding up, I appreciated just how little it rested on its laurels.
Cuddly Carnage persistently, earnestly tries to hold the player's attention, and through a parade of absurd shenanigans it succeeds.
Earth has been left in ruins after an uprising of animatronic toys wiped out humanity. The Adorable Army is mostly built from tear-stricken unicorns - once adorable Ultra Pets, now a bloodthirsty pack of infected monsters who mutate in nightmarish ways.
Gori is a cute cat, also an Ultra Pet, fighting back against the Adorable Army with his talking hoverboard F.R.A.N.K. in a bid to rescue their creator, Professor Y. Surprisingly, the story is quite endearing in the face of a shocking amount of gore and body horror. There's also a big fish, Goldfin, who thinks he's the last living human and has a ludicrously exaggerated German accent. He's married to a mannequin. His robotic fishbowl has a metal top hat. Goldfin is far from the weirdest part of Gori's adventure.
With its foul-mouthed script and unapologetic violence, Cuddly Carnage is the most early 2000s shit I’ve played since literally the early 2000s. It has a strong PS2-era vibe in terms of both visuals and gameplay, bringing to mind such games as Metal Arms, Fur Fighters, even a little Devil May Cry.
Many, many games could be name checked for comparison. The subverted cuteness evokes Conker’s Bad Fur Day, the hack n’ slash combat smells like Dynasty Warriors, and plenty of action-platformers may spring to mind upon seeing Gori in action. Nonetheless, it doesn't feel so much derivative as it does reminiscent. Cuddly Carnage is like many other games, but there's nothing quite like it.
Much of the gameplay centers on using F.R.A.N.K.’s huge retractable blades to slice ghoulish living toys into bloody chunks - and yes, despite being killer Furbies, the creatures are packed with distinctly organic viscera. Half the time you can’t fully see the action behind showers of blood, but that’s okay - pure chaos is the point, and attacking with frantic abandon will get you through most encounters.
You’ll be zipping around on the hoverboard like a floating blender, flying into hordes of unicorns and other freakish playthings. As well as his blades, F.R.A.N.K has a flail-like wrecking ball for shattering the bubble shields some enemies use. Special attacks require fuel, which can be recharged by hopping onto grindrails or wallrunning (wallboarding, rather) across electronic billboards.
Additionally, Gori gets a shield to deflect projectiles and later picks up a grenade launcher that proves essential for taking out certain enemies and solving simple environmental puzzles. When enemies are weakened enough, they can be viciously executed for a shower of healing items.
These finishers are hilariously ghastly, and you'll soon learn that intermittently tapping the execution command in between your attacks is the best way to pull them off. It's easier than trying to look for button prompts in all the pandemonium.
I must say that I hate the unicorns with guns for arms. They’re an absolute fucking pain to deal with, able to break the flow of combat from off camera, and their deflected bullets only randomly hit them back with low odds. It doesn’t help that your shield’s deployment is rather unresponsive, and there’s loads of the bastards.
Very few enemies are a particular hassle, but the shooty ones are total dickheads and a disproportionate threat to one's score multipliers.
Despite the simplicity of combat, there's quite a lot one can do. Some enemies require specific weapons or attacks to defeat, and it can be important to pull back at times to replenish fuel and grenades. Large enemies in particular are fought with unique tactics in mind.
Particularly satisfying to battle are the flying unicorns with Xenomorph mouths. Grotesque as they are, Gori will automatically snap to them when attacking and kill them in one hit - the kicker is that they appear in such swarms you'll zip from one to the other at a joyful pace.
There are even a bunch of combo moves that combine the blade and the flail. Sadly, they’re borderline obsolete thanks to one issue - regular attacks are kind of useless since the most common enemy type is resistant to them. Most targets are only effectively damaged by a fueled spin attack that soon becomes Gori’s offensive bread-and-butter.
Rank-and-file enemies ought to take more damage from regular combos because there really is no point to them. Fights would be far more varied if that spinning attack wasn't the single most effective way to kill 90% of everything. I barely used the wrecking ball, and never felt a pressing need to invest in upgrades for it. I didn't even know Gori could do those aforementioned combos until I'd nearly completed the whole game - there was simply no reason to use them.
While I'm complaining: Gori's aforementioned shield is largely irrevelant, and the random chance of effective deflection makes it moreso. Enemies spawn all around and often behind you, which is perfectly fine until it's something with an immensely dangerous close quarter attack. There is lock-on targeting, but it's so terrible at prioritizing nearby or dangerous enemies it's almost never a good idea to use it. Locking's handy as a quick way of pointing the camera toward fresh meat, but it's a liability in every other circumstance.
Luckily, engaging opponents like a perpetual buzzsaw remains fun throughout, and there’s just enough requisite variety thanks to enemies that specifically require other attacks to take them down.
Particularly, the grenade launcher becomes a very useful weapon in the later stages, able to perform fueled charge shots that stagger large monsters. Aiming with it causes slowdown, which is useful just to get a gauge of one's surroundings even if you don't want to shoot it.
Cuddly Carnage clearly wants to encourage the use of every skill at F.R.A.N.K. and Gori's disposal, and would just need a little rebalancing to fully realize the idea. Like I said though, the combat is still plenty enjoyable as-is.
Controls are a little loose and the game overall has some notable jank to it, but this is one of those games that stay entertaining and charming enough to get away with it. It’s rough around the edges and it doesn’t really matter. Also, while its graphics aren’t cutting edge, the character designs are fantastic, cute and gruesome all at once.
As well as board-based battling, there’s a good deal of platforming to deal with. This is where those loose controls could have been a problem, but thanks to responsive steering and a generous amount of maneuverability in the air, most whiffs are easily course corrected. Jumping gets a ton of height, and F.R.A.N.K. glides a considerable distance.
Combined with an air dodge and double jump, your significant ability to navigate platforming sections ensures a largely frustration-free time. This ease of use translates to grindrails too - by pressing a button near them, Gori will snap onto the rails. It very occasionally doesn’t work, but for the most part it makes what could have been an infuriating aspect of gameplay a far more enjoyable one.
Lord knows trying to manually land on them is a fool’s errand.
What’s really surprising about this game is how surprising it keeps on being. Rather than coast on the novelty of its premise, Cuddly Carnage continuously offers something new with every level. Each stage introduces fresh enemies and provides its own spin on the general experience.
One stage parodies BioShock’s Rapture and is about creating pockets of air underwater so your projectiles can travel properly. Another has a horror theme, with creepy doll heads that fly around on propeller beanies and can be killed when their brains hang out of their orifices. Each level culminates in an inventive boss battle, though a few of them are long-winded and irritating, with puzzle elements that aren’t apparent or intuitive.
Only one stage holds the game back from consistent enjoyment. Level three takes place in a factory full of toxic slime, and it features chase sequences hampered by significant glitching. Some rooms in this area don’t actually load until several seconds after you enter them, lacking even a floor and leading to unfair failure.
It’s also just a bloody irritating stage overall, even if the Manager overseeing the factory is highly amusing.
Despite this one low point, every other chapter of the campaign is great, and other chase sequences peppered through them are rather exciting. To reference another game, chases taste quite a bit like Crash Bandicoot.
There’s a rating system for dealing damage without getting hit, and scores award cash that can be spent on upgrades and cosmetics. In a truly old school move, all the outfits and skins you clad Gori in are actually part of the game rather than in-app purchases. That element alone feels bloody nostalgic these days.
Gori’s audiovisual style will inevitably put some people off. The colors are garish, the screen is littered with shit flying everywhere, and the techno music blends with endless splats and shrieks that might give some people a headache. Others, however, will intuit their way through the chaos, gaining almost a sixth sense of where they are and what needs killing - as a seasoned hack n’ slash fan, I’m fortunately in the latter camp.
Even as someone prone to migraines and sensory overload, I personally did just fine with its stylistic barrage, but Cuddly Carnage is an unrepentant assault on the brain, one that not everybody will welcome.
You can say the same for the script and vocal performances, too. Like I said, this is a deeply 2000s-flavored game, and that means our talking hoverboard has an “attitude” while overacted toys swear to an excessive degree. Again, it won’t suit all tastes but it’s right up my alley - I believe it’s always funny when cute things or monsters say the Fuck Word a lot, and we’ve got cute monsters doing just that.
Well, some are cute. Many are downright disturbing… in the best way.
Bear-in-a-Box, who takes the role of antagonist for much of the game, deserves special credit. The moment he emerged from his box, his formerly plushy face peeled back to reveal a visage of scowling muscle tissue, and screamed, “I’m gonna fuck you up, bitch,” I was all-in on his bullshit.
Really, that is the best way I can describe my relationship with Cuddly Carnage overall: I am all-in on its bullshit.
I’m really damn glad this game exists and that I gave it a chance. After trying it just a little, I was delighted, and my delight turned to respect when I saw just how much care and creativity went into it. At times I couldn’t believe what I was playing, but that delight never went away.
Gori: Cuddly Carnage is a messy, sometimes incomprehensible shitshow, and I adore it for that very reason. In spite of everything that should work against it, this bloodthirsty and anarchic exercise in rampant toy murder is downright lovable. It’s consistently fresh thanks to each new level offering its own little twists, combat is wonderful in its excess, and I personally love the vulgar humor.
It’s the best game about a toy cat using his sentient hoverboard to dismember killer unicorns you could play this year.
9/10
