Thanks to Ratalaika Games for the review code

Title: Super Weekend Mode
System: PS4
Price: $4.99
Release Date: 04/09/2019

Presentation

Just like Downwell and Switch N Shoot, Super Weekend Mode is a score chaser that goes for a monochromatic looks akin to some of the earliest arcade titles, with bits of color sprinkled in here and there. It’s nothing that hasn’t been done before, and while some sprites are definitely far too detailed to be accurate to those old arcade titles, the game still looks great. The music is all done in a chiptune style, but none of it I found to be that great.

Gameplay

Super Weekend Mode is a score chaser where the main goal of each stage is to shoot at a boss while collecting as many hearts as possible. You get several different characters to use that each have their own quirks, which works as a good alternative to your standard difficulty choices, as you can choose to go with extra defense, more lives, or less health as a few examples, which helps the player to enjoy this game according to their skill level. There’s also the issue to have the game fire shots for you, which you’ll definitely want to turn on for the first few runs as it’ll help with your multitasking.

In fact, multitasking is pretty much the main core of the game. You see, while you could shoot at the bosses by mashing X if you wish, you can also turn on the aforementioned autofire to focus solely on the two paddles at the bottom of the screen, which are to collect all the hearts that rain from the top of the screen, while crushing the orange dust bunnies by squishing them inbetween the two. Missing a heart will cause the screen to become more and more compressed, while taking damage from a dust bunny, skull or any other hazard will cause you to lose a life.

Thus, the main game loop is to collect as many hearts in a row while focusing on the boss battle, as the bigger the chain, the bigger the score. The game provides a handy tutorial for jumping in, but after that point it becomes fairly simple as you progress through each stage and deal with even more complicated waves of obstacles. Just monitoring both the battles is enough of a fun challenge, but having to shoot on top of that is even crazier. Still, the gameplay loop didn’t do too awful much to engage me after the fourth stage, since it felt more like a score-chasing attempt and more like a frantic dancing game.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Super Weekend Mode is a mediocre score chaser with not much to it. The core gameplay loop doesn’t really have much to play around with, and while the customization options are nice, I just couldn’t get myself engaged in this for long. It doesn’t help that the achievement list in this game feels as if the publisher gave up on thinking of clever challenges, since it cuts off very early into the game, so playing the game for that sort of replay value isn’t a good idea either. If you want a more frantic score chaser to add to your library, then Super Weekend Mode isn’t a terrible pick, but it’s not one of the highlights either.

I give Super Weekend Mode a 5 out of 10.