The video game industry is one that has been built on trends. If a game reaches escape velocity and becomes a big hit, it’s inevitable that others will?? be lining up to get a slice of that turkey. This has had some unfortunate consequences.

For some formulas, there’s plenty of room in the market for pretenders. Consumer hunger may wane over time, but genres like open-world, survival, RPG, or fighting have always had an audience. However, this doesn’t hold true with Games as a Service, whether it’s subscriptions or microtransactions. Publishers rushed into the MMO market following the explosive success of World of Warcraft, and now we have a trail of very expensive corpses littering the past two decades.

But investors never learn. So, in order to drum up some excitement, publishers from all over are trying to jump on the bandwagon, and there’s a tinge of schadenfreude watching so many hollow efforts fail.

Which brings us to Foamstars. I’ve most likely already given away how I?? feel about it.

Honestly, I went into Foamstars with as open a mind as I could muster. I like Splatoon. Foamstars obviously lifts heavily from Nintendo’s multiplayer shooter. It could be a good time.

You play as a hip young person who has the ability to squirt foam. They have harnessed this unique ability to fight crime and also participate in a competition to see who is the best foam squirter. Each event is a 4v4 affair but in different configurations. One has the team split into combatants and supporters (Happy Bath Survival, which is a great name), another has you whittle down the team’s life stock (Smash the Star), and another is pretty much just Tower Control from Splatoon (Rubber Duck Party.)

The big difference between Foamstars foam and Splatoon’s ink is that the foam can stack into colorful mounds of cryptid fluid, which works�okay. There’s no analog to Splatoon’s classic Turf War match style, so the foam is mostly functional. You can still surf across your team’s foam, just like, well, you get the id?ea.

To knock out an opponent, you have to deplete their health bar, at which point they’ll be encased in a cocoon of froth. You c?an then surf into them to claim the “chill�(because foam is about love, not war), or a teammate can free them.

While Foamstars wears its influence on its sleeve, it does enough to differentiate itself from Splatoon. A match in each feels similar but not quite the same. If that’s not enough, you can tell the difference because Foamstar’s personality feels entirely forced.

There are six characters to choose from, with one unlockable through gameplay and the other through money. Okay, that’s not entirely true; Mel T can be unlocked by raisin?g your Season Tier up to 31, which doesn’t seem impossible based on the pace of leveling I had while playing. Anyway, we’ll talk about m?icrotransactions in a bit.

The fact that you’re stuck with these few characters is kind of annoying to me??. Customization for them comes down to a small assortment of outfits, weapons, and surfboards. Very few of these are unlocked through gameplay. Most of them have to be paid for. But we’ll get to that.

My biggest issue with the characters is that they’re annoying. They’re overly cheerful, spout as many bad puns as they do foam, and some of the voice acting is just grating. I wound up switching the vocals to Japanese, just so I could play without constantly cringing. Splatoon has ??its own share of bad jokes and puns, but at least the characters speak jibberish.

However, if you’re down for some cringing, there’s a shockingly insubstantial wave-based defense single-player mode with an inconsequential story about very little. It’s so bare that it’s practically see-through, but there are some very dim attempts to explain the lore. It feels like such an afterthought. It’s pretty bad when Splatoon’s single-player feels more developed.

There was one moment when the game crashed completely during the first round of Happy Bath Survival. Straight to the PS5 menu. I went right back into Foamstars, where it told me that the round would be recorded as a loss, which is pretty normal to prevent people from just logging out and scrubbing a bad game. I don’t really care if the loss is on my record; I don’t even know how to check it. However, it told me to “Please check [my] network connection and try again.�I was incensed. Check your game, Square Enix?, and watch where y??ou wag that finger.

Growing pains, I get it. Few online-focused titles have smooth launch days. Every time I queued up for a match, it would take five m?inutes to get in. I’m sure in a week, it won’t be such an issue. Besides, sitting around for five minutes gave me time to write this article and take a look at the real-money shop.

Holy damned crap. Character packs that come with a costume, a weapon skin, a pair of surfboards, and a couple of other things cost 60 Canadian Loonies. I could order in the fancy curry for my partner and me, and the aftertaste would probably last longer? than my interest in what pants my character is wearing.

I don’t know; maybe I’m a bad j?udge of value, but that seems a little pricey to me.

You’d also be betting that money on whether or not Foamstars wil??l be around in a?? year. I can’t claim to see the future, but I wouldn’t take those odds.

Foamstars can be a good time in the heat of a match, though I’d argue most competent onlin??e shooters can be. I had some exciting ?moments of fighting through mountains of foam, but there was a lot that bugged me about it.

For one thing, I never really got a feel for how foam is removed or replaced. In Splatoon, it’s easy; one ink just replaces another. For Foamstars, it would sometimes seem like I could throw everything at a mountain of the other team’s fluids, and it would still be standing. On other occasions, my hard-spread spittl??e would get wiped away in an instant. These are things I can’t think about in the moment.

It can get pretty chaotic and hard to read. Midway through the match, the level becomes just a field of colorful undulations. I never quite got the feel for when and how was the best way to use my sub-weapons. They always seemed entirely useless. I got better with reading the game o??ver time and was able to take out targets with more precision, which makes sense?? that I’d improve, but it still didn’t quite click.

It’s fine. But fine doesn’t really cut it in the world of GaaS. Any game can get better over time, but a live service approach needs to come out swinging to draw attention away from more established titles, and Foamstars can barely get through the ropes. Even if you really enjoy the core game, there isn’t a lot of content to support it. A lot of the arenas feel interchangeable, there isn’t a very good variety of characters, and an overwhelming amount of? cosmetics are locked behind extremely galling pricetags.

It was released for free on PlayStation Plus, and ?given the prices they’re charging to add on to the meager content within, it should probably remain that way. But no, if you want to p??ick it up next month, it will run you $29.99.

If you’re picking up Foamstars while it's free and can look past the hollow nature of its framework, it’s possible to have fun with it. You might even find it appealing. I can even admit to having a bit of fun with it. However, it’s not even close enough to make up for the disgust I feel towards its expensive microtransactions, derivative nature, and irritating characters. The best thing I got out of this experience was the desire to return to Splatoon 3 for some Salmon Run. As for Foamstars, I’m just uninstalling it.

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PlayStation has revealed the PlayStation Plus lineup for February which includes the Day One Release of Foamstars. The Splatoon-like foam shooter includes both PS5 and PS4 versions. Also included in February's lineup is third-person shooter-skater Rollerdome which also includes both PS5 and PS4 versions, and Steelrising, an action RPG set in alternate history Paris. Steelrising is not available on PS4, so will o?nly be downloadable on PS5.

Day One Release and two solid titles

All titles will become free to download for PlayStation Plus subscribers on February 6, which is also the same day Foamstars releases. Published by Square Enix, Foamstars is hoping it can compete with Splatoon for the genre of goofy games where you compete to cover the map in your foam as opposed to your enemies??.

Rollerdrome on the other hand released on August 16, 2022, and allows players to put on their heavy-duty roller gear and compete in the brutal blood sport of Rollerdrome. As you zoom around the Rollerdrome arena you're tasked with shooting other contestants. Taking them out grants you health, while performing tricks in the arena gives you ammo. Destructoid's CJ Andriessen gave Rollerdrome a solid 8.5, saying: "This is an exceptional and welcoming game,? one that takes the best elements f?rom both skater and competitive shooter genres and combines them into a sophisticated and unabashedly cool experience."

In Steelrising, players travel to an alternate history Paris where the French Revolution has been suppressed by a robotic army. The action RPG puts players in the role of Aegis, an automaton, as she explores the streets and rooftops of a Ste?ampunk Paris, fighting off technological marvels along the way.

PlayStation Plus subscribers will also get access to an exclusive PS+ Fall Guys Icon Pack that grants Fall Guys costumes for a handful of PlayStation characters including Ratchet, Clank, and Aloy. Premium and Deluxe subscribers also get a 2 hour Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Game Trial.

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As reported by VideoGameChronicle, Square Enix confirmed at a recent press event that their upcoming live service game, Foamstars, uses some assets generated by AI. This follows a New Year’s letter from the company’s president??, Takashi Kiryu, that stated the company would more agg?ressively pursue the use of the technology.

VGC asked Foamstars producer Kosuke Okatani about AI, who elaborated on the game’s usage of it. According to him, most of the game was created by humans, but �.01% or even less�was generated by Midjourney. Specifically, as Square later clarified to VGC, the assets th?at were created by generative AI are in-game album covers for the game’s music tracks.

Okatani explained: “In this instance, we experimented with Midjourney using simple prompts to produce abstract images. We loved what was created and used them as the final album covers players will see in the game. Everything else was created entirely by our development team.�/p>

The usage of generative AI has been creeping in from all angles despite a variety of different concerns. Among these are worries about hastily generated games flooding the market and squeezing out small developers, the contraction of job opportunities within the industry, the straight-up theft that is central to implementations of the technology, and the impact on the environment from the high en?ergy requirements. It’s a complex subject.

However, it does remind me that Splatoon, a game that Foamstars seems to be trying hard to be, also does album artwork for its songs. Except those are made by real human artists?. And it’s just funny to me how this endeavor can be derivative and yet still cut corners in the process. It’s what we get to look f??orward to.

Foamstars is releasing on PS4 and PS5 on February 6, 2024.

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Foamstars isn't unique, but it does offer a colorful, exciting shooter ??experience. An announcement trailer has revealed that the game launches on Sony's console's on February 6.

We got a taste of the game last year thanks to the open beta which ran from September 29 until October 1, and it was generally well-receieved. You'd be forgiven for confusing the Square Enix-produced open world beta with Nintendo's Splatoon?? franchise, as both games feature players making a colorful me?ss.

However, Foamstars presents itself as a more action-packed party with options to fight solo or team up in 4x4 battles. The foam isn't there for aesthetic reasons alone. You can also use it to slide on, build ?with it, and much more.

Only time will tell whether this is the iconic shooter Sony has been searching for. As a bonus, PlayStation Plus subscribers will be able to download the game for fre??e from launch until M??arch 4.

The post Foamstars arrives February 6 appeared first on Destructoid.

Bubbly fun

Foamstars feels a bit out of left field for Square Enix. A multiplayer shooter may not be all that strange; after all, the publisher did make a battle royale based on Final Fantasy VII. But this isn't a straightforward shooter. Foamstars features st??ylish fighters rather than grizzled warriors and suds instead of bullets.

We had a chance to play Foamstars at Summer Game Fest 2023, getting in a decent number of matches. The easiest comparison point for the game is Splatoon, and not just due to ?the vicious, viscous warfare waged on each of their battlefields. Both games look at territory as an important factor in winning the day and see the firepower you employ as both utility and knockout power. That said,?? some similarities are a little obvious.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD_XuyEgfOY

Characters have primary weapons that can dispense foam in different methods. The foam builds up and spreads out across the empty arena, creating avenues of ingress for teams to move around in by holding the left trigger to "surf" on the bubbles. Surfing is how you KO enemies that have their health depleted and pick allies back up after they've been knocked down. And much like Nintendo's squid splatfest, you can move quickly across your own foam but get bogged down and s?luggish in the enemy bubbles.

The knockout system is already an interesting twist on this style of shooter. By adding this Kill Confirmed-style method of taking out an enemy, it encourages risk. Foamstars wants you to push a bit farther, err away from caution, and get yourself into scramb?le situations.

House of suds

Where the foam differs from?? the ink is how it piles up. The bubbles don'??t paint surfaces. They stick to them and build up. You can build walls and new avenues of attack, lending a Z-axis to the movement and action.

Characters' special skills emphasize these attacks. Some can quickly build lanes for attacking or put up a wall for blocking the other team off. Having "hero characters" lets each of them operate a little differently and focus on ce??rtain goals. I had a blast playing the short-range fighter who was mobile and wielded a bubble shotgun.

[caption id="attachment_385783" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Square Enix[/caption]

But other characters can launch shots over walls, or hit from long range, helping to deal with strategic foam emplacements. Finding ways to attack or escape feels rewarding, and even when the pile of suds can sometimes feel a little hard to read, Foamstars feels like it pushes?? players to move t??oward each other and fight.

These little moments of interplay,? where teams are trying to strike and defend in equal measure, feel tense. Rather than holding down territory, KOs are the focus—the mode we played, Smash the Star, tasked each team with securing 7 knockouts, then knocking out the Star (best player) on the enemy team for the win. So while securing the battlefield wasn't required to win, it did make a big difference when my team was trying to defend our Star or attack the enemy's, or both at the same time.

[caption id="attachment_385782" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Square Enix[/caption]

Popping the bubble

While the makeshift foam arena feels interesting, the actual battlefield we played on was sparse. I'm unsure if that's on purpose, too. It definitely encourages Foamstars players to?? build up and out, but it makes the actual map less memorab??le. Outside of some elevation jutting out in some areas, our field was pretty much just a big, open circle.

My big hesitancy isn't with the arenas, though, but with the model itself. I asked, but didn't get a clear answer, on whether Foamstars will be free-to-play or premium. During our presentation, there was a mention of s?ingle-player content, but Square Enix wasn't talking about that just yet. There are also modes we didn't get to s??ee, aside from the Smash the Star option.

[caption id="attachment_385779" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Square Enix[/caption]

All that is to say, I think there's an interesting idea here. It doesn't feel like Square Enix is directly lifting the territory-control shooter model but putting its own spin on it with a building-and-battling twist. The characters are colorful and interesting, and ?there's a good variety of firing types and skills to make the combat feel varied in each encounter.

It's the big picture I'm curious about. Foamstars could be something worth dipping into and adding to th?e slate of Weekend Games with a squad of friends, but I think a lot of that will depend on what more the team has in store beyond the one mode and map I played at Summer Game Fest 2023.

The post Square Enix’s sudsy shooter Foamstars could be onto something appeared first on Destructoid.

Foam rules everything around me

Square Enix showed up twice for today's PlayStation Showcase. Once, for the anticipated RPG Final Fantasy XVI. And the other time, for the reveal of something a little different: a sudsy new shooter called Foamstars.

Foamstars is a new 4v4 shooter where players fight it out using foam. It looks bright and colorful, with some?? energetic vibes behind it all. Here's the trailer from t?oday's PlayStation Showcase:

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD_XuyEgfOY

As producer Kosuke Okatani explains on the PlayStation Blog, foam is used as both a projectile and a piece of terrain. Foam seems to stick in place, creating walls that can a?lso be used for movement.

Splatoon comparisons seem easy enough to make. But where Splatoon paints the level, the foam of  Foamstars seems to build up and form new terrain all its own. The same kind of territory control-fo?cused party shooter, but with a different angle on it.

Don't pop the bubble

Not many more details were shared today, other than Foamstars is currently planned for both ??PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. More information is expected sometime in the future, and no release date was confirmed today.

I'm curious to see what Square Enix will do, even if I tend to have a bit of skepticism and concern when it comes to any new game that looks like a live-service project these days. It's rough out there for a new shooter, but at least Foamstars looks a bit different compared to t??he more bullets-and-explosions blasters you migh??t see elsewhere.

We'll see how the Foamstars rise or fall as Square Enix shares more info ?about the new game.

The post Foamstars is Square Enix’s bubbly new party shooter appeared first on Destructoid.