Foamstars was the first game I played at Summer Game Fest's Play Days last weekend, and it definitely started the event off on the right foot - and not just because Square Enix had an open bar. Game journalists come from all walks of life, but one thing we have in common is that we will get fiercely competitive over any game you put in front of us. I had never met the seven other people playing Foamstars with me, but by the third round we were all screaming at each other and threatening to end each other's lives in foamy suffocation. I have a lot of doubts about Foamstars' ability to compete in the live-service team-based shooter space, but I still had a blast playing it. It's too bad everyone can't have the experience of playing Foamstars live in a room full of aggro game journos, because I have a feeling this game is going to get lost in the sea of established online shooters immediately.
When Foamstars was revealed at the PlayStation Showcase last month, many were quick to call it a Splatoon clone, and while it does quite a few things to differentiate itself from Nintendo's paint shooter, that's still a useful place to start. While Square Enix promises several game modes, including a single-player campaign, the one I tried out felt a lot like a Splatoon turf war.
The mode I played was a pretty straightforward team deathmatch. Two teams of four competed to score seven eliminations on each other, at which point the player with the most elims on the opposite team would be designated the VIP. Eliminate them, and your team wins the round. Matches get particularly exciting when both teams reach seven eliminations and trigger opposing VIPs, creating a sudden-death situation where everyone is trying to assassinate a target while protecting their own VIP.
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Foam works a lot like paint in Splatoon. The more your team covers the arena in the foam, the faster you can move around, and the more control you have over the battlefield. Rather than swimming around like Inklings, the Foamstars ride on top of the foam on surfboards. When you surf on your own foam you move a lot faster. Unlike paint, however, foam is three-dimensional. You can build it up to create a wall to hide behind when you need to recover, create ramps to launch yourself into enemy territory, and even build up foam forts to protect your VIP. While Splatoon's skill gap largely comes down to painting technique and efficient movement, Foamstars feels a lot more strategic and team-oriented.
Fighting enemy foamers is a lot of fun too. As you cover an enemy in foam they will gradually slow down until they're almost completely immobilized. At that point you just have to ride your surfboard into them and you'll secure the elim. If you manage to surf into a foamed-up teammate before an opponent does, you'll rescue them and reset their health. Foamstars rewards teamplay and strong communication, which is always nice to see in a team-focused game.
I loved foaming people up and ramming my surfboard into them, just like I loved ramming people with Rev's Shatterboard in Rocket Arena. It's practically the exact same mechanic, which is fitting given that Rocket Arena and Foamstars are so similar. They're both team-based arena shooters that use non-traditional weapons, made by small development teams and published by giant studios. You may not even remember Rocket Arena since it stopped getting updates a year after it launched, and it's hard to believe Foamstars will last much longer.
I don't want to root against Foamstars, but I've already seen this scenario play out too many times. Rocket Arena, Knockout City, Rumbleverse, Bleeding Edge, Destruction AllStars, Breach, Disintegration, Crucible, Lemnis Gate, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt, Rogue Company, Hyper Scape, and CrossfireX all tried to break into the online multiplayer market, and they all failed within a year. Why should Foamstars be any different?
I don't think Foamstars is bad. In fact, all of the games I just mentioned are interesting and deserve to exist. But more and more it seems like no game can compete with the likes of Fortnite, Destiny 2, Call of Duty, and Apex Legends. I want there to be space for weird little games like Foamstars that you play with your friends once in a blue moon, but these days if you're not a mega-hit you're dead in the water, and I don't think Foamstars has 'it'. The characters are generic and forgettable, the gameplay is pretty casual, and the aesthetic doesn't help it stand out. How do you get people hooked on a casual arcade shooter, enough to come back and grind every battle pass and spend money on microtransactions so development can continue indefinitely? Those other 13 games couldn't figure it out, and I have no reason to think Foamstars will.
Next: Foamstars Could Be Exactly What Splatoon Needs