Cyanide & Happiness: Freakpocalypse - Switch Review

Alex Harding -

Cyanide & Happiness began as a webcomic back in January 2005 and since then, the two-dimensional, stick-limbed characters have dabbled in YouTube shorts, a web series, books, card games and now, video games. Cyanide & Happiness: Freakpocalypse adopts the classic point and click adventure genre, the perfect genre to pack as much of the series's humour. Assume the role of Coop, a pubescent high school boy who's constantly at the butt of a joke (even his own). However at the end of the day, Coop just wants to be a hero, just like the rest of us.

Gameplay

There is just so much to interact with here that it can be overwhelming at first, but you'll quickly grow to appreciate just how much depth has gone into every aspect of this game. The exploration is expansive and while the map isn't particularly great with the nuances of the layout, it's serviceable and grander than one would initially expect.

Unfortunately, the translation from PC to console leaves a little to be desired. You can control Coop with the left analogue stick but if he's next to an object, you are still required to use the cursor with the right analogue stick in order to interact with objects and NPCs. It's functional but at times, it can feel a little like simultaneously patting your head and rubbing your belly.

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Story / Personality

If you've ever watched the Cyanide & Happiness shorts, binged The Cyanide & Happiness Show or dabbled in their card games Trial by Trolley and Joking Hazard, you'd know what to expect in terms of its brand of humour. Fart jokes, NSFW content and its reluctance to shy away from poking fun at controversial subject matter, Freakpocalypse is more than willing to force laughs and crack smiles by pushing the limits of appropriacy.

Graphics / Art Direction

Similarly to Ubisoft's South Park: The Stick of Truth and South Park: Fractured but Whole, this video game adaptation feels as though you're controlling your very own Cyanide & Happiness cartoon. The simplicity of the art style lends itself perfectly to a video game adaptation and choosing a point and click adventure feels like a no-brainer as it makes for many witty one-liner opportunities.

Music / Sound Design

The music is always jovial, with a satirical innocence that's coupled with the glaring juxtaposition only Cyanide & Happiness can provide. It can get repetitive, almost mockingly so when you can't work out the answer (standard point and click adventure gameplay, really), but it's clever to not demand too much of the player's attention. Luckily enough, the sound effects provide the much needed variety that (once again) the series is known for and because the series has finally entered into video game territory, of course they had to reference the iconic Legend of Zelda theme when finding an item (da-da-da-daaaa).

The series is known for its comedic, nonsensical voice acting and you'll get that in full swing with Cyanide & Happiness: Freakpocalypse. Coop has that nerdy, hopeless loser personality that is simultaneously self-aware and aloof, which provides a character that sometimes (dare I say it without shedding a tear) hits a little too close to home.

Final Score: 88%

It's a Cyanide & Happiness video game; it's exactly what you'd expect and it doesn't falter from its vision. The humour is laugh out loud worthy and it will surprise you with genuine water spitting moments. Point and click adventures are always going to be awkward to control on console if developers stick with the cursor being controlled with the right analogue stick but it's easily forgiveable here when Cyanide & Happiness: Freakpocalypse proves that just like Ubisoft's South Park games, we've entered an age where we're now controlling live cartoons.

Thank you for checking out our Cyanide & Happiness: Freakpocalypse Switch review, thank you to Serenity Forge (via Terminals.io) for providing the review code and thank you to our $5 and up Patreon Backers for their ongoing support: