Angry Barry is a sidescrolling old school beat'em'up developed by Arrogancy Games. Featuring 9 levels of crazy political parodies and 2 player local cooperative the game will set you back for 400msp(£3.40).
Angry Barry pulls no punches with its presentation - straight away you'll notice the fantastic comic book 2d style just from the menus. However much like the titles it's drawn inspiration from the game has a very simple menu, with the usual drop-in cooperative play, through pressing Start when ingame. Once ingame you simply use your standard attack button, special attack button and a grab button to mash through the onslaught of enemies. Barry can pick up almost anything, from large metal bins, to grannies - if you can see it you can grab it! This is a neat addition to what is otherwise a game compromised of simple beat'em'up mechanics.
The 9 levels all see you going through a different environment fighting off a different set of enemies, which at times can become repetitive. The levels seem lengthened at times to artifically increase the overall length of the game, by a background which constantly repeats, along with the same set of enemies dependant on the level. It would have been nice to see more variety in the enemies on each level. Not only that but some of the game mechanics are open to abuse, such as the low kick could literally be spammed through an entire level. Bosses are interesting and often pull upon some form of polticial satire, however seem easier than the standard enemy waves and can be defeated by simply spamming your special hadouken style punch move.
Local cooperative play is a nice addition and works relatively well. A true old-school mechanic is the lives, or rather - there are none! When you die you are out of the game and have to start again. This can be frustrating when playing with a buddy who dies only to find that they can't rejoin you and instead have to sit there watching you play. Also we noticed a bug during co-op play - where if one player hits the second player with a held object, whilst the second player is also holding an object, then said object will be stuck floating above the player's head and be unable to manually drop it without being hit by an enemy.
The graphics really steal the show with Angry Barry. The whole game has a 2d hand drawn feel to it which really adds a ton of charm. Characters are designed all with some kind of political in-joke and the special FX look fantastic. The sounds in the game never really stand out, however offer everything you would expect from a title in the genre such as satisfying hit sounds and simple background music.
Overall Angry Barry is a title which stands out from the crowd due to its fantastic art style, however when you actually get into the core gameplay the game becomes extremely repetitive fast. After the graphical charm wears off you'll start to feel slightly dissapointed at just what Angry Barry could have been. With shorter levels and enemies offering more interesting attack patterns the game could have been significantly more enjoyable. For gamers looking for a comedic charming beat'em'up then Angry Barry is exactly that - falling short on some core gameplay areas the game makes up for it with its truly awesome art style.
Angry Barry gets an Indie 3.6/5
Due to personal issues Strite was unable to provide his written thoughts on Angry Barry. However after multiple short discussions, his opinions are identical to those of mine on the game. The above score is a mutual decision.