Sci-fi, fantasy, modern war – there’s many vibes for boomer shooters out there. One thing we’ve not seen yet: an over-the-top, “girly” Y2K aesthetic with blasting pop music. Until now, anyway. This is XboxEra’s review for Don’t Stop, Girlypop!, tested on PC!
Ultrakill for real men
An evil mining corporation wants to rid the world of the power of love, and a mysterious character talking to us on a 2000’s flip phone will help us stopping that. Of course, with the power of several tremendously powerful weapons and thanks to copious amounts of velocity. That’s the basic premise of a shiny and bright boomer shooter, one with overwhelmingly cute Y2K imagery, colours and soundscapes.
Most levels in Don’t Stop, Girlypop! (formerly known as Incolatus) don’t have a complex level design at all, seemingly learning from the same school of thought where last year’s Metal Eden and Painkiller learned. Levels are quite linear in progress – no complex Doom-like mazing, it’s all about moving from one large battle arena to another, with the occasional key hunting and door-opening to break the tempo a little. It really is pretty much all about the fast traversal and combat, with the actual design of levels absolutely not standing out in the slightest.
You quite literally can not stop
Many newer indie shooters, especially the ones winking at the 90’s and 2000’s, allow players to hop around, slide and move at extreme speeds. It’s rarely a requirement, but the games are often designed to accomodate this style first and foremost. Well, in Don’t Stop, Girlypop! you pretty much can not play slow, because the amount of attacks, projectiles and general obstacles are just impossible to survive without hopping around like a rabbit after drinking a can of Red Bull. In fact, your weapons’ efficiency increases the faster you move, so slow and methodical is literally so much harder to pull off because you straight up do less damage. The game even gives ratings at the end of each level, based on your combat movement and completion speed alike. Be slow, and you get shunned.
Maximum speed can be achieved by doing a specific combo of jump, air dash and slide, over and over again, instead of just letting you do one thing or the other. This makes traversal a bit monotonous, as you always have to remember to press the magical 3 button combo that lets you achieve godlike speed. This high pace is partially mitigated by the fact that you can lock onto enemies at will, so you don’t need to be an FPS god to be able to eliminate enemies quickly. With two fire modes for all your weapons, ranging from assault rifles to what is essentially the gravity gun, there’s plenty to master.
Visual overflow
If you’ve seen screenshots, trailers or anything for Don’t Stop, Girlypop!, you sure understand that this over-the-top, extremely flashy visual style is part of the experience. The game is meant to be exaggerated in the effects, the sparkle, the intensity of its colours, and it makes for a compelling ride that, of course, may not be optimal if you dislike overly chaotic visuals. This, however, seems to greatly impact the gameplay as well. Many enemies have poorly readable attacks and small projectiles, and the game spamming the screen with effects basically hides them from sight. There are indicators for enemy directions, but it is extremely easy to lose track or where’s what, and before you grasp what is going on, you may have already suffered lethal damage.
It’s funny, because the game offers all sorts of graphics settings on PC. Lowering the amount of particles and the quality of the assets can not only improve performance, as it should, but it straight-up makes the game easier and more readable. The game even conveniently offers two “console-like” presets – Graphics and Performance, basically. And I’ve found that the less detailed mode is less captivating in its visual overload, but the action results a lot more understandable, attacks become easier to notice. It’s a weird conundrum – do you want spectacle or do you want a more balanced shooter experience?
More style than substance
The game’s colourful “girly” visuals are an absolute riot, accompanied by repetitive but blasting bubblegum pop. You can even dazzle your weapons, adding shiny colours, animal-shaped gems, ribbons and other very shooter-like customization elements. The issue is that the game itself wears thin early on. The arena shooting segments are serviceable, though they happen in unremarkable rooms that you’ve seen a thousand times before since 2016’s Doom soft reboot. But then you get to platforming, wallrunning, and these features just feel a lot less polished and fun. Wallrunning, in particular, feels very clunky, absolutely not as natural and satisfying as you’d see in a Titanfall or Ghostrunner game. On the flipside, at least the controller options are good, which makes me hopeful for a decent console version down the line – the game is currently on PC only.
The action in Don’t Stop, Girlypop!, too, never quite shines like other boomer shooters. The stale level design, the repetitive combat and traversal, and especially how certain rooms just see wave after wave of enemies long after you just would want to move on. Take away the excellent audiovisual experience, and you’re left with a rather average boomer shooter campaign, boasting high speeds and high-octane combat but without too much depth, variety or polish. There are some excellent artistic choices and memorable moments, such as dream-like sequences, the usage of a Tamagotchi knock-off and more. But, as said in the header, it feels more style than substance for the most part, and the 8 or so hours it took me to beat the campaign felt way too long for the amount of quality found in it.
Fantastic artstyle for a serviceable boomer shooter
Don’t Stop, Girlypop! presents a brilliant audiovisual experience, combining over-the-top “girly” Y2K aesthetics with one of the fastest FPS modules on the market. If you’re a fan of the 2000’s pop culture, the high-energy female vocaled pop music of the era and have been dying to dazzle your weapons in a shooter, this game is for you. Those searching for an Ultrakill-tier boomer shooter, however, might walk away disappointed, as underneath it all is a slightly clunky, not particularly memorable sequence of arenas with big hordes of enemies and weak platforming on the side.
Don't Stop, Girlypop!
Played on
PC
PROS
- Over-the-top audiovisual experience
- Plenty of great ideas
- Weapon customization is impressively deep
- Speeeeeeeed!
CONS
- Poorly readable action
- Disappointing level design
- Various undercooked design elements
- Limited variety
