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Ever since rocks and sticks formed the first proto-drumkits, mankind has understood the uplifting power of a good bop. So too does Billie Bust Up, an upcoming 3D platformer that’s just as much of a Disney-style cartoon musical.
I gave the demo a play/listen at EGX 2023’s Rezzed Zone, and it’s the only game in the show that had me sneaking back for seconds. After a quiet introduction to the controls – which will feel familiar if you’ve played any 3D platformer from the past two decades, with the exception of a shorter but faster “goat hop” as an alternative to the floaty main jump – it takes only a single cutscene before breaking into the rousing opening number. Leading bovid Billie has crashed a ghosts-only party, see, and its shapeshifting beast of a host won’t permit entry until she’s fashionably deceased. Something he’s all too happy to help with, and sing about.
Structurally, the following sequence (and meat of the demo) is a genre-standard, run-towards-the-camera chase scene. But it’s elevated massively by both the quality of the accompanying alt-orchestral song, and how closely it entwines the playable action with the gleefully bloodthirsty lyrics. When the ghost host suggests stab wounds as an efficient means of death, he slashes out with a giant combat knife. When he ponders dynamite instead, a series of bombs appear to detonate on the beat. Okay, maybe it’s not entirely Disney-like.
While this is not a true rhythm-action game in the sense that you don’t strictly need to time your own jumps or attacks to the music, putting the song front and centre does give a captivating flow to what could have been just a rote gauntlet level. Especially since the rising absurdism of the lyrics was reflected in an increasingly, entertainingly daft series of hazards, consistently keeping Billie on her hooves: booby-trapped bicycles, dangerously spinning kebabs, and excessive amounts of bread are all thrown out before the performance reaches its choir-backed crescendo.
It’s just oodles of fun, and my only concern is how often these big musical moments will come around. Once per boss fight makes sense but Billie Bust Up will have stretches of regular platforming and minion-bashing in between, and even if it’s competent at both, there’s a worry these that these will be the filler tracks to the bosses’ true bangers.
Then again, for a debut indie piece, there’s clearly a tonne of attention to detail going in. Someone, likely several people at Giddy Goat Games, spent the time and effort to design, model, animate, and implement a pool of goat-eating lobsters that is onscreen for about seven seconds, all just to match a single gag in single line in a single song. What is that if not absolute dedication to the bit?