Hellmut: The Badass from Hell | Switch Review

It’s no secret that I’ve somewhat recently become a fan of roguelikes. It will be hard to top my love for games like The Binding of Isaac, Moonlighter, and Rogue Legacy, but I’m forever chasing the white rabbit that is my next obsession in the genre. Although Volcanicc‘s Hellmut: The Badass from Hell isn’t the golden unicorn I was hoping for, it’s still a worthy entry that deserves some love. It adds its own brand of humor that is very welcome and is just crazy enough to keep it from going too far.

Hellmut isn’t a brand new game. The title released on PC back in early 2018, but has recently found a new home on the Nintendo Switch. This platform is a perfect place for a game like this, as a run can take you less than an hour to complete. Its bite-size nature makes it feel like it has found its true home.

Put Your Spine Into It

The story in Hellmut, admittedly, isn’t why you should play this game. You character is a scientist whose brain and spinal cord have been removed from his body by a demon. Your goal is to retrieve your body, and it’s going to require a fight through quite a few minions to get there. No exaggeration. That’s the entire story. It might sound like I’m being awfully negative here, but on the contrary. The ridiculous nature of the tiny shred of a plot here is part of the game’s charm.

Forced as it may be, the story opens up the most interesting element of the game: the ability to take on other transformations with your disembodied form. You’ll start as a mere brain/spinal cord combo armed with only a pea shooter and a small laser. However, you’ll learn quickly that you can enter the bodies of random characters, and I mean that in both senses of the word. These transformations are the meat and potatoes of Hellmut. Not only do they offer a sense of humor (I mean, your first transformation is a Rat King that fires bouncing rat babies), but they offer an interesting balance that makes searching for more transformations the reason to keep playing.

Well, I’ll Be Doomed

It’s difficult to not think of a certain action-shooter that has you slaying demons of hell when playing this roguelite. Even the developers themselves made references to it on their Steam Page. The key difference here is that Hellmut is a twin-stick shooter rather than a first-person shooter. You character can fire its bevy of weapons in any direction whilst dodging the onslaught of pixelated demons who thirst for your demise.

You start with a choice between two transformations at your disposal. Once that transformation’s HP is depleted, you revert back to your incredibly weak original form, and you lose the ability to use that character. At that point you pray for the best, because you’re going to have a bad time. Die in this form, and it’s game over.

The pea-shooter only feels so weak, however, because the arsenal at your disposal in your transformations is glorious when it comes to experimentation. Finding a new “hero” is a delight as each weapon has its own unique flair in feeling punchy. Every hit feels impactful, and it’s a joy to clear a room of demons before moving on to the next. Not to mention you’ll get to play as a viking, a robot, and a spirit all within the same game.

The “rogue” element comes in procedurally generated dungeons. Think The Binding of Isaac with fewer poop references and more over-the-top carnage. Most levels offer a portal to what is ostensibly a timed bonus level. Clear the area in the allotted seconds, and you’re rewarded with an extra transformation. Now you’ve got the ability to swap characters at your leisure.

Roguelike vs. Roguelite

One of the reasons I’m drawn to this genre is because I feel like I’m always moving towards something, even after I perish and start a new run. In Hellmut, I feel like I’m starting from scratch every time. Any upgrades purchased from the random shops along the way are lost once you start again. On top of that, the upgrades outside of new transformations feel very minor at best. This forces you to save your upgrades for a “primary” character. The push and pull here is the overuse of your favorite beast with which to slay demons. You don’t want to use your main too often, because if he dies, you lose him forever (unless you’re lucky).

I’ll be direct and say that this isn’t necessarily a fault of the game. This is merely a personal preference. I like to see my time on a run be meaningful towards the next run. Sure, I’ll understand enemy movement better on my next attempt, but I want to see some fresh stat increases when I have to begin fresh.

Thankfully, Hellmut is much more forgiving than a lot of other twin-stick shooters. It never reaches full-on bullet hell status, and the game isn’t incredibly difficult once you get the hang of how it works. Enemies are relatively easy to dodge, and most projectiles can be hidden from quite easily. Like most games in this category, it eventually clicks, and that moment doesn’t take nearly as long as most to achieve.

Hellmut: The Badass From Hell Final Verdict

What makes this game worth your time is the attention to detail put into its pixel art. Sure, the tone is supposed to be humorous, but the bright color palette has offered the prettiest Hell I’ve seen in a game since Dante’s Inferno. It’s incredibly satisfying to mow down hundreds of sprite-based enemies in bloody fashion, but I wish I felt a bit more satisfaction after failing. Perhaps I need to put a bit more time into Hellmut: The Badass From Hell to see what warrants its $29.99 price tag, but with the time I’ve put in thus far, I would recommend waiting for a sale. Or perhaps picking it up on Steam where you can get it half the cost. Still, this is solid arcade goodness that’s definitely worth your attention.

This review is based on a review copy provided by Indie Games Marketer for coverage purposes and is also available on PC.