[Console] Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The Game Review

[Aronus]

A bunch of smarmy teenagers with ridiculous haircuts trying to escape the gloved clutches of an alien race of clowns is the kind of absurd and cheesy premise that makes perfect fodder for the asymmetrical multiplayer horror genre. Following in the footsteps of Friday the 13th, Evil Dead, and many more licensed games, the 1988 cult classic film Killer Klowns from Outer Space is the latest horror movie to try its hand at stealing our still-beating hearts with high-stakes murder sports – and it largely succeeded at capturing mine. The chaotic, unabashedly goofy competitive matches had me and my crew screaming with delight round after round, as we turned each other into cotton candy ornaments and popped one another’s red noses. The silly rounds of mayhem do lack variety and eventually begin to feel as shallow as the graves you’ll dig for your victims, which can make the good times fairly short-lived, but the 25 hours I got out of it before hitting that wall were quite memorable indeed.

Bucking the traditional asymmetrical structure slightly, each match pits seven hapless humans against three killers, as opposed to the usual four on one you see in most games that followed in Dead by Daylight’s bloody footsteps. The Klowns are preposterously over the top, and run around turning humans into sacks of cotton candy with ray guns, hunting teens using a balloon hound on a leash, and mowing terrified victims down with an invisible car. It’s truly some of the zaniest stuff I’ve seen in a multiplayer game in a long time, and it never fails to make me laugh. I especially appreciate the little details, like how the Klowns’ shoes make a comical squeak when you walk, alerting everyone nearby to your presence and leaving cartoonish boot prints all over the floor.

 

Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The Game Review - IGN