Gori Cuddly Carnage Review

Fuelled by insatiable demand and desire to eliminate humans, Cool-Toyz Inc. created Ultra Pets; a collection of ultimate companion pets that morph into twisted toys straight from your nightmares to eliminate humanity. It’s up to Gori, his hoverboard, F.R.A.N.K. and A.I companion, CH1-P, to slay the evil, yet adorable, army of nightmarish creatures.

Gori Cuddly Carnage is a 3rd person action and platformer where players, as the titular character, uses F.R.A.N.K. as a means of transportation and deadly weapon. Gori has a default spinning board attack that slashes everything in its path and a overhead smash attack. While it’s great for combo variation, some enemies are only vulnerable against the overhead one.

Unlike the hoverboard from Back to the Future II, this one requires fuel to run. While default movement doesn’t consume any, dashing does require a bit of it, but more importantly, fuel is required for the “level 2” types of attacks. Both attacks have a stronger variation that deals more damage (the default horizontal attack turns Gori into a moving blender) but also consume fuel.

Our little fury friend can also finish off enemies. While smaller one are obliterated by a simple combo, you’ll sometimes see RB prompt on screen. Pressing it in due time will show Gori completely wrecking the enemy; something that would make Ed Boon and Nether Realm studios proud. It’s especially efficient against bigger enemies.

As you wreck fools, you’ll earn money that can be used to customize Gori and upgrade his skills. You can change the protagonist’s fur color for example or unlocked a swear filter where your little hoverboard will be able swear freely and uncensored. You can also purchase health and fuel meter upgrades. Each level has part of keys scattered that players can find and unlock special items in the hub/ship.

The game looks great as a whole as long as you don’t expect AAA visuals; there are a few issues such as clipping or camera stuck behind a wall. One thing is for sure, Gori Cuddly Carnage is one of the most colorful games I’ve ever experienced. Each level as its own theme and color palette; albeit some of them are very similar. Camera isn’t perfect as you’ll sometimes be surrounded and get cheap attacked. Audio voice, the banter between Gori and his crew is very funny and makes things lively. Enemy presentation is entertaining and the overall voice over work is quite solid. The soundtrack is also pretty solid, albeit more often than overshadowed by the banter or trying to focus to survive waves of onslaught.

However not all is perfect in this bloody mess. The main nuisance I came across while shredding cute ponies is the fact that most levels has Gori trying to run away from something; whether it be a big entity or green goo. Once is fine, but having it within almost every level is a new level of annoying repetition. Additionally, the final level, boss included, is longer than the rest of the game combined.

Gori Cuddly Carnage is definitely one of 2024’s most obvious hidden gem. It’s a fun, hilarious, addictive 3D action platformer. The combat, while simplistic, mixed with regular and special attacks, is fun to use. The levels are all fun to explore and the action is top notch. Despite its shortcomings such as the repetitive nature of certain sequences, you can definitely do worst than Gori. If you’re looking for a fun and challenge action game, Gori Cuddly Carnage is a must-play.