Upon first glance, World Gone Sour appears to be a cheap licensed game all about shoving Sour Patch Kids down your throat. For the Sour Patch Kids in this game, that is just what they want you to do.
World Gone Sour, developed by Playbrains, is on the surface a simple platformer where you play as a green Sour Patch Kid who’s only goal in life is to be eaten. Quickly at the beginning of the game, the narrator, who is voiced by Creed Bratton from The Office, shares with us that if a Sour Patch Kid is not eaten they are driven insane and attempt to kill other innocent Sour Patch Kids. This is emphasized by then showing a Sour Patch Kid stabbing another Sour Patch Kid in the back. Much to my surprise this game is incredibly dark, and not intended for kids. From a creepy eyeless doll controlled by an evil sour patch to mutilated Sour Patch Kids throughout the levels this is not intended for children
The gameplay in World Gone Sour is much like many other sidescrollers from jumping across chasms, jumping between saws, and over fiery pits of death. You also are able to save 25 smaller Kids throughout the level who are used to reach items and flip switches in hard to get places. They also are used to change the size of your Sour Patch Kid. There are three sizes available to you depending on how many kids you currently have following you. At your smallest you are easily able to reach hidden places and make some harder jumps and at your biggest absorb more health or hurl your followers like a fastball.
Each stage, besides getting to the end of the level, you can collect green gummy pieces that give you extra lives, five secret trophies, and stars that give you a higher score at the end of the level. The other way to get more points at the end of the level is by getting as many of the unique eight deaths by the end of the level. You can accomplish this by either killing yourself or your minions in these death traps. You can throw your minions into spikes, drown them, or set them on fire. Don’t worry about them dying though because in a few seconds they will spawn again like nothing ever happened.
The game starts off very strong with great pacing and decent difficulty, but at the middle of the game is when things start to go sour. The game’s difficulty quickly ramps up with some very grueling hazards and complex wall-jump challenges that are made difficult with the finicky physics. The jumps in this game are very long which is capitalized on when playing. However the wall jumping doesn’t always work as intended and the enemies have very small hit boxes, which can lead to deaths that don’t feel justified. While the game still gives you tons of checkpoints and green gummies to replenish your lives you will still have moments of frustration leaving you annoyed. Also around the mid-point the narration really begins to fall off which was one of the highlights of the beginning of the game. One last complaint is there is not any online co-op which means its local only – which is a bummer
World Gone Sour despite the flaws isn’t a bad game for it’s price of five dollars. The dark humor, decent platforming, and a great bonus video of Method Man rapping about Sour Patch Kids make it worth the five dollars.
I give World Gone Sour a 3/5
More Stories
Everspace 2 Review
Graveyard Keeper Review
Dead Cells – Multiplatform Review