The Game Bakers have captured lighting in a bottle with Furi. The game is one of the most refreshing and rewarding gaming experiences of 2016. It’s a sort of mix many genres, and while that usually means disaster, Furi pulls it off with aplomb. It’s one part shmup, one part third-person hack and slash, and five parts neon infused insanity.
Furi puts you in the role of a prisoner that escapes custody with the help of a rabbit head sporting buddy. This disco rabbit serves as your guide and helps to flesh out the interesting world that Furi takes place in. Most boss rush style games tend to ditch the story, but Furi does a good job of injecting some real life into everything which makes you want to keep playing if only to see what happens next.
Gameplay pits you against a series of varied bosses that each have unique characteristics and abilities. While getting the basics of dodging, slashing, parrying, and shooting are quite simple, actually pulling these off in battle is a challenge. And while you are going to be dying quite a bit, the gameplay is so tight that you’ll never once lay the blame on the game for your shortcomings. Furi is brutal and will push you to your limits, but it also is fair and balanced enough that you won’t quit because you feel cheated. As this is a boss rush, learning and memorizing the patterns of each challenger is essential and part of the fun.
Each boss is fantastic and their designs are pretty striking and unique. Not only that, but they will often interact with you as the battle progress which expands on the story that is happening around you. Each boss has a number of patterns so that just when you think you have them figured out you’ll be forced to adapt to new patterns and attacks. The stages where the battles take place are also all pretty well-designed and offer lots of room to run around and maneuver during the shmup bits. Furi loves keeping the player on their toes and that makes for a very tense and exciting gaming experience. The audio cues and techno inspired soundtrack also really help to fill out this would and help draw the player in and fans may even dig it enough to pick up the soundtrack that is available. It’s a unique gaming experience and The Game Bakers should be commended for taking risks with Furi as they clearly have paid off.
Graphically the game is gorgeous with its cell-shaded design in this sort of Tron like world of color. In between levels you must travel to your next boss all the while watching the world around you change and morph in some LSD infused nightmare of beauty. Where most games would take you to the next boss straight away, Furi loves to show off its world and let you get visually lost in it. Visually the game has this techno samurai sort of look that feels like a cross between Samurai Champloo and Jet Grind Radio if that makes any sense. What I’m saying is that it looks quite lovely and you’ll wish there was just more off it.
I know many people may be put off by the walking segments that lead up to each boss in Furi, but I thought they were some of the games most interesting parts. Your rabbit friend expositions to the audience and strategically appears as the scenes transition giving this almost David Lynch style feeling. The world of Furi is a weird one and the writing usually plays off of this at just the right times. And for those that hate story and just want to hacky slashy, you can simply tap a button to have our hero automatically walk to the next boss.
The only really downside to Furi is that it ends pretty quickly, especially if you are a veteran of the “super hard games club” that is so popular nowadays. Still, for an indie game it offers up a lot of fun and even tosses you a fair amount of extra content once you finish your initial adventure. Furi really is a case of quality over quantity and I have no problem recommending a game that is fantastic, even if it don’t last all that long. Where so many games are simply trying to capture the style and feel of other games, Furi is happy to forge its own path and be smartly original in an industry that is anything but. In the end Furi is one of the most refreshing and rewarding gaming experiences of 2016 and we highly recommend you checking it out.
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