In the late ’90s, early 2000s, there were two distinct flavours of aesthetics: boomer shooters, and Y2K girlypop vibes (for the sake of this argument we will ignore every other aesthetic that existed at the time). Boomer shooters like Doom and Wolfenstein were bloody, gory, and had a real “video games are gritty and cool now kind of vibe.” Conversely, products aimed at young girls were often glittery, pink, featured leopard print, and were often about love and harmony. Don’t Stop, Girlypop! is a game that combines these two vibes, and it is very good (and stressful).
Quite specifically, Don’t Stop, Girlypop is a self-described “Y2K arena movement shooter where standing still is not an option.” You really do have to be constantly on the move, there’s even a combo meter that raises higher and higher letting you go faster and subsequently damage more. I had a go at its new demo that just came out today, and let me tell you, I felt like I was having a heart attack, in as positive a way as I can put that.
This is a game where calling it maximalist would be an understatement. There’s flip phones, you can customise your arms to have funky patterns, you can put little bows on your guns, enemies are constantly coming at you from all angles, and you need to be ready to take them down quickly, because everything moves fast in this world. The thing is, I’m not very good at shooters, so in my experience of its demo, I quickly got overwhelmed. Even still I could find myself learning the ropes as I went along, and I’m sure more experienced shooter aficionados could get to grips with it pretty quickly.
Outside of loving its vibe, I’m into the equally over the top story – “Mining corp Tigris Nix wants to drain your world of The Love, a natural force keeping your planet alive. Lay waste to its robot drones to heal the Oasis!” That’s all ridiculous! Yet it matches the tone of its look, and has a healthy amount of corporation frustration, always an added bonus in my eyes.
Don’t Stop, Girlypop! doesn’t have a release date just yet, but you can wishlist it and try out its demo on Steam now.
.jpg?width=1200&height=630&fit=crop&enable=upscale&auto=webp&w=360&resize=360,270&ssl=1 "Rally Point: How Rise of the White Sun makes a rich playground of China’s impossibly chaotic Warlord Era")
