REVIEW - Supermoves is a great concept that doesn’t quite land
A gentle jog.
By Jonathan Garrett
30/09/24
Reviewed on PC.
Review copy provided by Makea Games.
Supermoves is packed full of bright ideas, but its execution isn’t as consistent or polished as a game of this type needs to be to carve itself reasonable market share and break through. Competitive parkour races and a clear focus on user generated creations make for wonderful back of the box bullet points, but we couldn’t escape the feeling that it felt like an Early Access game straining against the limitations of its premise.
The combination of trampolines, zip lines, and walling running allows you to chain traversal sequences with front and back flips. Levels are nicely varied with plenty of opportunity to master certain combos and learn the best routes forward. However, at least when using a controller, it often became far too easy to lose momentum, or get caught on the environment.
When things click into place, the sense of speed is conveyed in a pleasing fashion and you feel as though player skill is determining the outcome of a particular event. However, when it feels as though you’re fighting the controls or interactivity, frustration begins to creep and it can be tough to sustain interest when jumps and vaulting don’t land as intended.
Games like this are so heavily reliant on a vibrant community to sustain a competitive edge and encourage player retention. Unfortunately, it was tough to put the multiplayer through its paces (yep, terrible pun) with servers that were mostly deserted. It’s a shame, because the playground lobby before tournament rounds would make for a lively holding area as players join, but felt too empty to forge a meaningful connection with this world.
Supermoves is exactly the kind of disruptive and unique premise that tends to thrive in the indie space. Unfortunately, the execution here misses the mark.
Sneaky sneak.
WORTH IT?
At the bottom of every game review, we ask the question: Worth it? And the answer is either “Yeah!” or “Nah”, followed by a comment that sums up how we feel. In order to provide more information, we also have “And” or “But”, which follows up our rating with further clarification, additional context for a game we love, or perhaps a redeeming quality for a game we didn’t like.
NAH.
Supermoves has some nice ideas and a good selection of user created content, but the whole thing feels uneven.
BUT
With an influx of new players, the community may yet shape the experience and encourage further iteration.
TARPS?
At the bottom of some of our articles, you’ll see a series of absurd looking images (with equally stupid, in joke laden names). These are the TARP badges, which represent our ‘Totally Accurate Rating Platform’. They allow us to identify specific things, recognise positive or negative aspects of a games design, and generally indulge our consistent silliness with some visual tomfoolery.
