In case you missed it when it came out last week, Fashion Police Squad is a fun and colorful little arena shooter from an indie developer at Mopeful Games. You are his Sergeant Des, armed with a sewing machine gun and tasked with uncovering a fashion crime conspiracy.
It may seem like a silly joke, but it had so many positive reviews that I had to try it out.A pretty good game that underlies its fashionable exterior and stays funny to boot If you, like me, wrote this down on the surface, you’re dead wrong.
The heart of Fashion Police Squad is that you have to switch weapons. Your 2DYE4 is a shotgun that paints in bright colors and beams overly colorful outfits, while the tailor-made sewing machine is very effective against ill-fitting or baggy clothes. It’s an assault rifle.
Match weapons to enemy types on the fly, deal with the most dangerous ones first, and work your way down. Like the best arena shooters, the most dangerous areas are like puzzles of skill and speed, and identifying threats and knowing how to solve them is key. The clever movement mechanics of Fashion Police Squad go along with that.
you do it with your belt. By assembling belts to surrounding items like flagpoles, officers can swing and move quickly from place to place. This allows you to deal with pesky enemies and avoid vicious attacks like exploding briefcases and fast melee enemies. (Scooter’s neon brother.) It’s great to swing through pesky foes while blasting them away with a drip flamethrower.
There’s also a kind of Glory Kill, as with a special meter that’s charged, you can raise your glistening glove of style and fly around large spaces, slapping your ever-loving fashion sense on fashion criminals.
Do jokes stay funny? It’s not finished yet, but Fashion Police Squad (FPS)’s fun, bright colors and energy are a welcome break from the understated tones used in most retro-style shooters. (Whatever we call them.)
You can find Fashion Police Squad for $20, 10% off on Steam through August 22nd.