PlayStation 4 Critic Reviews

A great little game, full of cartoonish violence and great physics-based puzzles.

Mugsters may not hit all the notes of a fast frenetic party game, and it may not have the deepest story to suck you in and keep you playing for months and months. However, the endless variety and sense of curiosity we felt playing, exploring, and blowing stuff up was enough to keep us very, very busy. This is a game with no definite end in sight, and absolutely no boredom to be had.

Small games from smaller studious continue to amaze me with their effortless charm and unbound creativity, and Mugsters is easily one of those games.

Like a puzzle world mini-GTA 2 where failure can be as much fun as success, Mugsters is a shot in the arm of original thinking. All in all, a minor work of genius. [Issue#152, p.80]

Throughout Mugsters, Reinkout has created a game that solidifies how well interactivity and fun work together. The addition of a simple goal and no instructions makes this game an absolute blast to play. While the controls can sometimes be wonky, Mugsters still works well. In general, even the game's side missions (collecting people to save from the levels, destroying certain weapons, etc.) are fun, intriguing, and feel like they're worth the time. Coupled with the vibrant aesthetics and minimal tone and sound, this makes Mugsters a fascinating puzzle game that feeds the player's curiosity like few other games have.

Despite clear identity issues, Mugsters is an enjoyable puzzle game that lets the player take the reins to complete each level how they like. Its distinct visual style and adept sound design also deserve recognition, despite jarring with the gameplay.

Mugsters is a game for people who enjoy puzzle games without much flair or fanfare about them. The emphasis is clearly on the puzzles themselves and, despite a few stumbles, Mugsters proves to be an entertaining game that’s easy to come back to and somewhat difficult to put down; and with a decent amount of levels, with multiple objectives in each, you’ll be spending quite some time getting lost.

Mugsters has the makings of a fun couch coop game. However, there are a number of problems that prevents it from hitting the highs of Overcooked or The Escapists. Frustrating physics, annoying friendly AI and repetitive stages let it down in single player, but there is still fun to be had when played with friends in moderation.

It’s a shame that Team17 have found it hard to strike a balance between complicating things enough to keep Mugsters interesting but not too much to make it tedious and frustrating. The first few levels are a fantastic hook into the game, showing off its terrific abstract graphical style and some fun, yet simple puzzle mechanics, but the more you play, the more it gets bogged down by the burden of adding more. The multiplayer does add some fun novelty, but ultimately Mugsters probably isn’t a game you’ll feel like completing.