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Anger Foot Review
Footsie
HIGH I just love the title.
LOW The boss fights.
WTF Kicking an anthropomorphized brain in the testicles.
Anger Foot isn’t subtle… though with a title like that, I don’t think anyone should expect nuance.
A bizarre ménage à trois between Hotline Miami, Boogerman and John Wick, Anger Foot is a first-person kicker/shooter that blends improvisational gunplay, high flying footwork and scatological humor. While it may not reach the heights of its inspirations (except for Boogerman — it’s definitely better than Boogerman) when it’s firing on all cylinders it can be a hell of a good time.
Planning a night in with his significant other, the titular Anger Foot’s plans are interrupted as gangs break in and steal his prized sneaker collection, and one can easily surmise that this is no laughing matter. Soon enough, I am storming through the apartments, sewers and nightclubs of Shit City (yes, that’s really what it’s called) in pursuit of my wayward footwear.
Who needs doorknobs when an angry foot will get the job done just as well? In lieu of a traditional “use” button, I can mash the “E” key to kick down doors and send adversaries flying. Grabbing limited-ammo guns as I go, a typical scene might have me draining the clip of a nearby machine gun before whipping it across the room to stun a bat-wielding, humanoid crocodile. I can then pivot and send a kick to the gut of what appears to be Grover from the wrong side of Sesame Street. As he sails through the air, grab his falling pistol and headshot the still-reeling crocodile.
Things move fast in Shit City, and death comes easy. While no level takes more than five minutes to complete, Anger Foot proves to be as fragile as the opposition, and his rage can be permanently calmed with a bullet or two. As such, it was rare that I could clear a stage on my first attempt, but blessedly short load times allow for rapid iteration, and there was a satisfaction in finding my perfect line through each map, slowly but surely landing every kick, headshot and jump, anticipating enemy movements and dancing my way to the exit.
This repetitious try-and-die nature of this design is clearly intentional. Completing each level under certain conditions unlocks stars that can be redeemed for new foot gear such as a new pair of stilettos, sandals or galoshes, each of which grants new abilities — things like making enemies explode when kicked, or enabling a double jump. Some are more context-specific, like granting immunity to fire — especially handy as the enemies up their arsenal to include flamethrowers in later stages. My personal favorite was a pair of sneakers that would slow down time when I kicked in a door.
Given levels’ general linearity, there is a surprising amount of room for player expression between alternate paths and the spontaneity of combat. Choosing when and where to pick up a shotgun versus a pistol, and when to send the empty gun flying across the room to stun an enemy is just as meaningful as which shoes I pick at the beginning of each stage. It feels as though I’m carving my own path through each area rather than following a prescripted route and method.
There’s also variety in the level design — in the first half of the campaign, at least. Starting out, each of Anger Foot’s stages feels as though it has a unique concept. In one, a sniper is perched and taking shots from afar – unable to reach my assailant, I must be in constant motion to avoid their aim. In another, I’m leaping across pipes in a cavernous sewer fighting an army of tentacles. With enemies being stationary, there is a clockwork, rhythmic precision to my movements as I take shots before they even appear, anticipating their presence.
Unfortunately, while I can clearly remember many of the early sections, later stages begin to feel more indistinct thanks to generic hallways and fewer mechanical differentiators as the developers come to rely more and more on the volume of enemies. There’s certainly an adrenaline rush in taking down a room of thirty foes, but Anger Foot loses the sense of flow and tempo that characterizes its first half.
Furthermore, the multi-phase boss battles that conclude each area feel out of place and frustrating. These fights, with an emphasis on timing and waiting for precise moments to attack, lose much of the dynamism that highlights the rest of the experience. The worst offender introduces a mandatory parry mechanic, requires memorization of attack patterns, and takes place in a restrictive arena over toxic sludge where one small misstep means restarting the fight from the beginning. These more prescriptive encounters seem to forget the fluid, freeform combat that made the preceding stages so engaging.
As mentioned earlier, there’s obviously an element of humor to the proceedings, and it doesn’t take long to realize that Anger Foot doesn’t take itself terribly seriously. However, beyond the baseline absurdity of the premise, the developers might be trying a bit too hard to make players laugh. I’m no stranger to puerile humor, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t crack a smile the first time I burst into a bathroom to find a surprised enemy, pixelated genitals and all. However, by the time I reached the end and had seen this same gag countless times, it began to lose its luster. Anger Foot is funny on a conceptual level, but the overt, repeated attempts at humor feel like selling past the close.
Anger Foot is at its best in motion. Falling into a hallway hypnosis of garish ’90s aesthetics and murderous footwork, I don’t have to think — I just react. It’s when I’m forced to slow down and hear a joke or fight a boss that requires pauses in the pace that I begin to notice the seams. While these moments aren’t dealbreakers, they’re unfortunate stumbles in an otherwise sure-footed experience.
Rating: 7.5 out of 10
— Ryan Nalley
Disclosures: This game is developed by Free Lives and published by Devolver Digital. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC.
Approximately 10 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game
was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.
Parents: While this game has not been rated by the ESRB, it is certainly not intended for younger audiences. Anger Foot contains violence, blood, sexuality, nudity, vaping and crude humor. While this content is presented in a cartoony manner, it is pervasive.
Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.
Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. Most audio cues have on-screen indicators. However, there are some enemy barks that can give away an enemy’s position that are not represented visually. Therefore, this game is not fully accessible.
Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.
