PREVIEW: Crazy Bigheads

Mario Party, without Mario and without the party.

Steam: Early Access
Type: Multi-player
Genre: Party-game, Casual, 4-Player
Developer: Delirio
Publisher: Delirio
Release date: 14 Mar, 2018

Nowadays, life is hard for 4-player party games. There was a time when they were pretty rare and any game allowing local play with friends was greedily coveted. However, now the market is saturated and players can afford to be picky and decide which games are worth adding to their collection or not. There are so many 4-player arena brawlers, but mini-games are actually still somewhat rare. Let’s see whether Crazy Bigheads can find its time in the spotlight.

Presentation is the first thing that players see when they launch a game, and I can’t say that Crazy Bigheads shines in the first impressions department. The audio slider is by default set to 0, and elements of the game show a cartoonish style, some textures are very realistic, and some surfaces and explosions are as loud and shiny as the Unreal 4 Engine powering the game. It’s all a big artistic mess, with no cohesion in the entire space of the screen. It’s as if your date had chosen a pink princess dress with a military jacket and a suit.

No matter, my friends have their controllers in their hand. Even if my “date” is looking funny, I need to play along and introduce them. They want to interact with her, but then they realize that there is no local multi-player. Embarrassed, I let them know that she is not ready yet, she is in Early Access and her developers have planned to add this feature later. My friends look at me as if I was crazy, but I know that I can’t give up yet, I need to give her another chance.

I try some single-player, which is just playing the mini-games on my own. I don’t find this very funny, I need a partner to laugh and share our feelings with. We then choose to date in the “online restaurant”, but there is no one there. It’s fine, we are used to that for indie games, it will just be the two of us.

I want us to have a pleasant evening. We cycle through all the mini-games, but we never interact with each other. We are together but we feel separated, isolated, each one picking up stuff while avoiding obstacles. I realize that she chose a weird perspective for her pictures, and she seems much different when I get closer. Our movements are awkward. We can’t kiss, we can’t punch each other on the arm, all we can do is stare blankly at each other. Something is off, we are not smiling, we are not arguing. There is no connection between us. All the while, I keep thinking of my ex, how she made me laugh. We had a great time together. That’s it, I will ditch this awful date and get back with my ex.

Verdict

For a multi-player party game, there is nothing to do with other people. There is a huge amount of work to be done here and it’s as Early Access as it gets. Only time will tell, but for now it nowhere close to a full game.

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