Antonblast plays like a Wario Land made by the devil

A couple hours into Antonblast, a new side-scrolling action-platformer that’s inspired by Game Boy Advance-era Wario Land and Crash Bandicoot games, I wondered if I knew what I was really doing. Sure, I’d beaten some of the game’s hard-as-hell bosses and blasted through a handful of challenging levels, yet I felt like I was barely hanging on.

Despite the visual assault of Antonblast, and my performance playing it, I was having a, well, blast. It was like playing Wario Land 4 while riding a roller coaster and having a bit of a buzz on. Then at certain points, the game’s frenetic mechanics started to click — in those moments, I felt like I started to speak the strange language of Antonblast.

This is a game that features a dedicated “Scream” button, after all. (Seriously, you just hold it down to make its main character scream loudly and endlessly.)

Barely controlled chaos is the beating heart of Antonblast, in which almost everything is resolved by smashing it with a huge hammer or blasting through it like the Tasmanian Devil. As Dyanamite Anton (or his similarly drunken coworker Dynamite Annie), I’m sent into 2D levels that move in all directions, jumping and crashing my way through exploding crates, and getting into the flow of dashing and bashing stuff. There are moments of serious, hardcore platforming, during which I must try to avoid poisonous lakes and pools populated with electric eel-like machines. But most of the time, I’m simply accelerating forward like a tornado, blowing everything to bits.

At some point in each level, I find blasting machines, depress the plunger, and new sections open up. Some of those blasting machines trigger the finale of the level, during which Antonblast screams at me that “IT’S HAPPY HOUR!” and it’s time to race back to the beginning of the level to exit it. Seemingly, the instruction is for Anton to go get hammered back at his home base, and in these levels-but-played-in-reverse moments, everything becomes even more manic.

The reason Dynamite Anton’s doing all of this is because Satan himself has stolen Anton’s booze (which Anton had, in turn, stolen from someone else). The goal is to recover those sweet spirits and leave destruction in Anton’s wake.

Despite thick layers of chaos, Antonblast is about platforming precision, paying attention to the game’s environments to find secrets and hidden routes, and perfecting one’s runs. That’s evident from the game’s first boss fight against a professional wrestler. From the very moment you jump into that fight, you’re forced to react, read the wrestler’s movements, and replay until you’ve figured out the dance. Much of Antonblast can be frustrating at first, but once you’ve learned its language, frustration gives way to fun.

While Antonblast may play like the Wario Land games of yore, it has its own distinct visual style, drawing on graffiti and in-your-face ’90s video games and cartoons. It’s a wildly kinetic game, both in how it plays and how it’s styled. At times, the visual chaos can become overwhelming; Antonblast’s substance suffers from too much style.

The devs at Summitsphere keep the noisy action of Antonblast consistently fresh over its 12 levels, thanks to a variety of movement mechanics, enemies, and bosses. With plenty of hidden collectibles to find, and multiple ways to replay each stage — there are time trial and combo-focused run options — there’s a surprising amount of depth to the game.

Antonblast is available on Windows PC via Steam (and plays great on a Steam Deck), and it just got a slightly delayed release on Nintendo Switch. Any fan of Wario Land or Pizza Tower should probably check it out.

Antonblast was released Dec. 3 on Windows PC and Dec. 13 on Nintendo Switch. The game was reviewed on PC using a download code provided by Summitsphere. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.