You are a warrior. You're about to have your lunch outside when a giant bird steals it. This is unacceptable. You require revenge. And you will get it with a sword, a grappling hook, and a seemingly unending field of Titans*. Titan Launch Retaliation is a new game from Berzerk Studio on Adult Swim's website. This takes the launch the [animal] games to a whole new level of absurdity. Instead of shooting a turtle out of a cannon or a frog in a rocket ship, you are jumping off the edge of a cliff and stabbing your way through the air. Every creature you kill gives you a boost of energy to jump further until you hit a more complicated boss. Those require multiple hits to kill. Your ultimate goal is to get back your lunch.
The controls are simple even if the game is difficult due to random generation of monsters. All you need is the mouse and the space bar to navigate the menus. In the game itself, you just need the space bar or the left mouse button. This launches you off the cliff, shoots your grappling hook into smaller enemies, and slays the larger beasts.
The randomly generated action is what makes a game like this so much fun. You never know if there will be a new monster for you to grab onto with each throw. You don't know if a lower level monster is going to pop up right when you're going to grab a higher level monster. There are certain fence posts that will pop up--the addition of enemies, the bosses, the backgrounds--based on distance. Those are the only guarantees.
For each monster you kill, you earn money. You use this money to buy upgrades to your character. You can get a longer grappling hook, more efficient boots, or even a cape to help you glide from one enemy to the next. The worst part about Titan Launch Retaliation is the cost increases. For the first two upgrades on each piece, the price increase is reasonable. Then, it just begins to double over and over again. You will be able to get farther with a longer grappling hook, but you're not going to be able to get far enough to upgrade it to the longest hook for many rounds of the game.
Despite the minor shortcoming, Titan Launch Retaliation is a bright and stylish launching game that's worth playing. There's blood, but it's cartoonish splatters. It's no worse than what you find in a superhero comic or PG-13 horror film. There's enough novelty in the game to keep you occupied for a long time.
So are you going to give Titan Launch Retaliation a try? Sound off in the comments.
*Mythologically inaccurate, but I didn't code the game.