Have you ever wished you could throw a boomerang, but rather than have it return, you return to it? In Boomerang X, you can do exactly that. You can also make it come back immediately, shoot a scattershot, a needle instant shot, blow up the area around you, and slow down time. The game has an interesting set of mechanics to use that work wonderfully together.
This is a quick first-time play-through for anyone decent at FPS games. I played on PC with mouse and keyboard. I don’t believe the experience would be quite as good with a controller, but it is supported.
The first thing to note about this game is its intended replay value. This game can be beaten in around an hour for a skilled player with no prior experience. The new game plus mode dramatically increases the difficulty and can provide a nice challenge, even for the most leet players. This game is for completionists and speedrunners, who are willing to do runs over and over to get the lowest times or completing challenges like “beat the game without taking damage”. Realistically this is a game that you are either going to play for 5 hours or 200 hours.
There is lore attached to the game, but it doesn’t really feel attached. For the most part, it’s just a friendly-looking centipede that talks to you briefly on a few stages, some interesting statues, and some brief cutscenes at the beginning and end. It’s pretty obvious that the lore was not intended to be a key component to the game, but for those who want to dig into it, it is there.
This game revolves around the unique combination of abilities that are given to you in stages through the first play-through. The abilities work together in a way that feels fluid, and powerful. They all seem to work together in a perfect mash-up, that while used efficiently can help blaze through waves making a faster run.
While there is usually a high number of enemies to deal with, only enemies with a yellow marker are the ones required to progress to the next wave. With each wave requiring you to kill a certain amount of the marked enemies. The extra enemies can be used to power up the abilities to get kills on specialty enemies that are harder to kill. This mechanic adds challenge but also utility to the extra abilities.
The bullet-speed ability called “Flux” to slow down time while charging the shot on your boomerang feels like it is used between every shot once it’s unlocked. To the point that my pinky started to go numb from holding down my shift key. For speedrunners, bullet-time is a double-edged sword, while it will keep you alive, it will slow down your run.
Verdict:
If you are a speed run junkie, this game is built from the ground up for you. If you want a decent arena-style game that will challenge you, the new game plus mode is for you. If you like casual games with a rich storyline, this game is definitely not for you.
The game feels finished, I had no bugs and I got decent FPS while the chaos was going on. The styling has a consistent trend and the simple color schemes of the enemies allow for good focus. Which is an often overlooked characteristic of arena-style games.
This game fun, but for my game preferences, it’s a “wait for a sale” title. Though I really like the action type and speed, I am not a speedrunner, and after the first playthrough, I found myself playing through new game plus was more frustrating than fun.
Boomerang X is currently available on Steam and Switch for $19.99.
