FARTISSIMO is a game demo for the upcoming action roguelite rhythm game by Sound Toy. Reviewing an alpha / early access demo from a solo developer, with no financial stake.

You play as a chubby dragon named Pooty who fights incoming hordes of enemies with his explosive farts. The map is procedurally generated and will crumble away so you have to continue to get kills and move around. You have to time your attacks to match the beat for maximum damage effect. You can play on console or mouse & keyboard. It's not explained well but you have to click and hold to swipe in the opposite direction you want to make an attack. Right mouse click to jump or twice to double jump, space to do a quick dash. With a controller, you move with the left stick and aim your attack with the right stick. ▲ / Y to jump, ✖ / A to dash. There's a metronome that helps you keep your pace.

It has a strong premise and puts a fairly original twist on the genre. Horde Survival + Roguelite + Timed Attack is especially good with just enough charm to stand out. The timing feels satisfying once you're able to hit the combos. Movement is fun but takes some time to master and get into a rhythm. In the later levels, you'll have to make the most of all of your abilities as you time your farts. Music is fitting and there is a full soundtrack in the works. The demo has one song. The chonky dragon is a big selling point, very cute and charming for solo work. I like the way Pooty bounces and stretches as he jumps and dashes around.

Controller may be recommended for some. I prefer keyboard, so it's a personal preference. I think the game is relatively easy to learn and hard to master. Though I feel like the tutorial stage may not be obvious enough for how to use the abilities. Had to figure that out mostly by myself and with the help of a friend. Some new players may feel confused for how to perform the fart mechanic especially. Fartissimo has audio-visual clues. The enemies will bounce to the rhythm which can help you know when to shoot. The replayability feels good. You can earn different scores and try to beat your top score. Even for the alpha version of the game demo it feels like there's a lot of content. There are different challenges to complete such as survive for X amount of time, how many combos can you do without breaking it, defeating a different amount of enemies, find the location, and there are 7 levels, 1 challenge level and 2 tutorial stages. It takes a decent amount of time to complete. The game is fun. I don't find myself frustrated at the game as much as myself for messing up the timing.

The enemies could use some subtle walking animations to give them more life. There is no real procedural variety right now. This may be due to it being a demo, but it needs some meaningful progression. The game could use some optimisation right now. Unity games tend to be very power-hungry and it'll take up a lot of power usage on the default settings. I have 16GB of RAM and I can't stream the game while playing it. If someone is light sensitive or epileptic this game is not for them. The flashing combo can be headache inducing for some. At least it needs a way to turn this down. This game is really missing a Settings page to adjust different parameters such as: Graphics & Video. A way to change the in-game Resolution, Graphics Quality, Frame Rate Limit and to change the Shadows. Needs a way to change Audio & Sound settings. With a master volume. There are a few bugs such as enemies getting stuck in the floor. Sometimes you clip into the podium and the enemies. Or there are glitches with the jumps and dashes where you can fall through the floor. On some levels like the target location doesn't really tell you where which direction you need to go. It should have a compass pointing to the location of the exit portal. The UI should be improved because it lacks cohesion. The health bar and fart meter look very generic and plain. I'd like to see more music for the soundtrack which keep to the same rhythm or BPM to avoid repetitiveness. There are some problems with Saving. It is easy to accidentally click Exit Game and it will not save your progress.

For some ideas on how to improve the game, or future updates; I'd like to see some different variants of the same enemy types. With different types of enemies like slimes, skeletons, wind spirits, ogres, bats, etc. Needs to include some boss variants of enemies. There needs to be a way to heal yourself and maybe enable some different status effects. Slow down time, apply a Fire / Poison or Bleed effect on the enemies. Temporary flight to stay above the platforms or a way to push the crowd back. I'd love to see Pooty with an idle animation when he's not moving. It would be cute to see the dragon have some kind of interactability on the main menu such as being able to drag or click your mouse to pet him or he'd be looking around at your cursor. Could add a level editor so people can make their own win parameters. Or include an endless survival mode where players see how long they can survive. It would be great if players could import their own music and play to the beat of their own songs. Since music should be the key part of this game. Add different platform types, stages or backgrounds.

Overall, the core game mechanics feel good. Especially for one developer. Some systems are promising but clearly need more depth and content. I can really see the potential and whilst there are some details that need polishing - I think it's worth following along to see what the future updates will show. Also, worth wishlisting the game as we await for the full release. This game is a loveable cartoony roguelite worth playing and supporting. (It's just a family friendly fun game with some mildly crude fart humour. Honestly, give it a shot. There's nothing weird.)

5/10