Backlog Busting: Deaths Hangover

Death's Hangover, a bender turned breakout!

Death's Hangover by Retro Army Limited is a breakout style game with a fever-dream of a plot.
Dracula, being the bastard that he is, has stolen all of Death's souls, apparently while Death himself was on a bender, obviously mistaking alcoholic spirits for souls. Naturally, Death resurrects two dead warriors, giving them new lives and new purpose; defeat Dracula and regain his lost souls, though Andy and Bob (now beautiful women) may have other plans. After all, there are 9 different endings after initially beating the game.

Gameplay takes place in a series of rooms and dungeons, with Andy controlling the 'paddle' and Bob being the "ball", Death's Hangover plays as a breakout or ball and paddle game, a genre I admittedly have little experience with. Gameplay takes place in arenas that feature a layout of obstacles, respawning enemies, powerups, and claimable Souls. Bob can roll into enemies, rebound off obstacles or bash down the doors to exit the levels. Fail to catch bob and he will roll down off the screen and cost you a life, though death isn't the end in Death's Hangover.

The aforementioned Souls that are scattered throughout the levels serve a strategic purpose. Once the player runs out of lives, they can exchange a soul for 3 more lives, but beware, it also takes several souls to unlock the door to the final boss. So souls must be kept and used wisely, lest the player wishes to revisit areas or take a different branching path to collect enough souls.

Throughout the game Andy and Bob will interact with eachother between satages. The cartoon graphics are the high point of the game as I'm not a huge ball-paddle genre player. Slowing down or speeding up Bob with the left and right mouse buttons and strategically using powerups got me through the game twice in a few hours, once unlocking the initial ending, then unlocking one of the nine final endings with some nice cartoon panels as a reward.

Death's Hangover wasn't super hard or complicated, a title I bought for under a dollar as a curiosity, not a terrible game, if a little outside my favourite genres. If it's sitting in your backlog then give it a fair try, after all, if I can win it so can you! Until next time, muchachos!