Itadaki Smash (Nintendo Switch) – The test

The Beat’Em Up have recently been on the rise, with an offer that is expanding in view of many games released recently, Itadaki Smash has just made a name for itself among its friends. The game developed by Main Loop Games therefore brings us an extra dose of knuckle soup with Japanese sauce.

Yokai Smash

Itadaki Smash is therefore set in a universe mixing Japanese folklore as well as food, if you hadn’t guessed it from the pun of its title which can be translated as “Bon Appatate” (we couldn’t have better … sorry). The story therefore leads us to control Katsu, owner of a popular restaurant who is the target of a company called Tengogo, who have just stolen his secret recipes. Your objective will therefore be to dismantle Tengogo and recover your recipes before your restaurant sinks.

As always in the beat’em up genre, the story does not fly very high in terms of depth and will only serve as a pretext in the background to justify the mass settling of scores by your characters.

The story mode will be the main attraction of the game, offering a classic experience with lives and the possibility to continue in case of Game Over. You can start the game with one of the 4 characters available, the main difference between them being the weapon they use.
A total of 16 levels are present and this mode will take you a little less than 2 hours to go around, rather fast for the genre knowing that one of the major flaws will be a great lack of replayability given the lack of progression of character and the ability to run straight to the end of a level, rarely being blocked by a requirement to clear all enemies on screen. This lack of progression is felt quite easily because nothing prevents you from running and ignoring all the enemies to complete levels in record time almost without fighting, a shame for a game whose principle is to make us fight hordes of ‘enemies.

In terms of content, apart from the story mode, an arcade mode is present for the purists, the latter offers you to redo the levels of the story but with a limited number of lives and a cancellation of the complete progress in case of game over , a survival mode with some scenery will allow you to train / let off steam on endless hordes of enemies and finally a versus mode is in the game to play locally with friends against each other.

As for the gameplay, unfortunately Itadaki Smash is full of good ideas but is hampered by a very heavy character movement, nothing is very fluid or airy which limits you a lot in the possibilities of combos. We find the classic normal / powerful blow, the “A” key is dedicated to grips which allows you to counter enemies who are adept at blocking, it is possible to sprint by holding the “R” key which is a fairly rare thing in the kind that usually requires double tapping the stick/arrow in one direction. Finally the part a little more unique comes from the special moves, a blue gauge recharging with drinks to pick up allows you to use a special attack consuming the gauge with “L” or, use a special attack of secret recipe when you have unlocked the 4 recipes to be collected from the bosses of the game, these special recipe attacks are a kind of ultras that sweep the entire screen at once.

There is little room for creativity unfortunately given the general lack of fluidity in the range of movements to which are added inconsistent hitboxes, this is felt all the more during boss fights which boil down to simple cramming of buttons without any concept of dodging, it is literally possible to beat the bosses by hammering the “L” button to chain your special move and not take a single damage, the last boss being the only one to offer a minimum of challenge. Even the classic elevator level loses its flavor as it is so simple thanks to the grab key, it is just possible to spam and throw all your enemies overboard, removing all danger immediately…

One of the strengths of Itadaki Smash will come from its rather atypical visual style, the gameplay is presented in 2.5D showing 3D characters evolving in a setting composed of both flat and raised elements, the artistic direction mixes a manga style with a rather cartoonish side, evidenced by the different enemies represented by food, so you’ll fight Japanese demons (yokai) just as much as giant foods, whether it’s sushi, blocks of tofu or of leeks. The game plays a lot of its light side and its humor which is transcribed in the few dialogue scenes which can intervene between two levels, special mention to the reference to the first Streets of Rage offering us the famous bonus level of the car to be demolished.

On the musical department we are unfortunately in very generic sound effects at the limit of unbearable, all served by uninspired and forgettable music.