Crackpet Show starts you off by dropping the player into a room filled with enemies, and some weapons and you must not only survive but make it through these connecting rooms. Why? You ask well it is all in the name of entertainment. You soon come to the realization that you are on some crazy game show, and these people just love to watch cracked up animals unleash hell in the arena. Well that is until they all realize they are in the firing line too because sometimes a stray bullet will hit the spectators and they will look the same way the participants do, full of blood and missing limbs.

So after you have decided which character you would like to go slaughter some people with. You will be greeted with multiple things in the backstage area for you to use. This is where you will get a first taste of some of them roguelike and dungeon crawler aspects. You will earn trophy points throughout your runs if you manage to take down mini-bosses or the big bad bosses. These will be used for your skill tree or in this case they are sponsorships, since you are on a gameshow after all. Just like any game that offers the player a skill tree that will give you a permanent perk/buff throughout your entire run,Crackpet show gives the user three different skill trees to climb. You can combine them in any shape or form you would like but we would suggest after numerous runs to switch them up as some overall perks are better than others for certain bosses. These can range from more damage, More likes,having more weapons and throwing in a lot more choices for good measure.

There is also a guy that will permanently upgrade buffs/perks/weapons that you can obtain during your runs and you will have a multiple random choice of which one you would like to spend the upgrade token on so choose wisely, and we advise alternating between upgrading different perks or weapons as the choice on which drops for you to use during your run is totally RNG based, so you do not want to be stuck with a weak weapon. Trust us when we say this because it will happen.

Crackpet show basic premise evolves around clearing multiple rooms from enemies to advance, once a room has been cleared you select the path you want to take to make it to the boss, there is multiple different types of rooms for you to choose from, may it be a room that gives the user more likes – the currency used to purchase weapons,perks,health from the shop. Or you can decide if you need a new weapon or perk which some rooms hold a random drop for one of these, so you can switch up your path to adjust for any thing you need to help you get to the end and clear the boss. You can also encounter hard mode rooms which will give you a lot more enemies to take down, but in turn if you’re successful you get a rare drop for whatever is dropping in that room. Are you going to risk it?

There are a slew of guns and perks for different play styles, or just to mess about and have fun since this game has some nice humor. You will find there are some nice weapons and gadgets that will kill the enemies, in a funny yet oddly satisfying way. You ever wonder what would happen if you drop that anvil you see in cartoons on someone’s head, well the developers have got that answer for you. We recommend trying all guns and gadgets even if you find the one you prefer, You will have great laughs solo or with friends watching the cartoon violence.

When it comes to gun fights and gameplay, this is where crackpet show take a different approach to combat than others in the genre. The game does not feature twin stick but instead opts into a selection style combat, where you will select which enemy you would like to focus on, and quickly switch using the keybinds. It is not a bad take per se but if you are used to twin stick shooters in this type of genre, you will need to clear that thought because it makes the way you approach a lot differently. Combine that with not being able to move when shooting can make some matchups especially against the bosses more complex. We found you can not really side step fast enough at times compared to the speed the bosses projectiles come out, and you trusty blink roll ties to make up for it but even that needs a bit more work.

As this game is still early access we will not fault them too hard on the balancing, but it needs a lot of work on both sides of the spectrum. There are a lot of very unbalanced boss fights where it feels impossible at times, but there are even weapon and perk combinations that you can  use to cheese the game, and literally take down the boss in a few seconds.

Overall the game is a solid performer,especially for an early access title, the developers are constantly taking feedback and changing the game.So i would recommend picking this one up if you are a fan of the genre.