Fashion Police Squad – Review

It’s time to hit the streets because there’s a crimewave of sock with sandals, screaming Karens and guys in Speedo’s that can only be cracked by the Fashion Police.

Fashion Police Squad is brought to us by publishers No More Robot’s and developers Mopus Games who are a small 3-person studio from Finland. I’ve never been to Finland, but it’s clear they have great fashion sense and a real appreciation of retro shooters.

When you first jump in to Fashion Police Squad, you’ll take control of Sergeant Des who will get his hands on a variety of fashionable weapons, starting with the simple 2-DYE-4, which is like a shotgun that blasts dull outfits with colour, and then the Tailor Made sewing machine which is perfect for re-stitching some dodgy garment, grenade like gnomes and later the ‘Wet Ones, which can also be used to soak the floor for fast approach and jumping further.

Combined with the belt of justice, you’ll find a variety of ways to take down the many fashion criminals you’ll come across, from using the gnomes to steal the socks from the sandal wearing tourists, to blasting the potato sack wearing Karen’s to give them some waste-line definition.

Initially gameplay feels very familiar to anyone who’s played a retro shooter, it’s fluent without being too fast, doesn’t require perfect aim, and rewards you with smooth, fun gameplay without being too challenging.

As you progress, the initially simplistic FPS mechanics are thrown around a little and as well as platforming with the whip as a grapple and the “Wet Ones” to allow farther jumps, you’ll start to get some variety especially when you make your way through the subway tunnels.
There’s also a rooftop section which does feel a little grapple heavy in places, but you’re rewarded with a Silent-Scope style sniper-thon as you’re tasked with keeping the carpet clear of fashion howlers until the commercial break.

Throw in a vehicle-based section, and lots of nods to various other retro games and culture, such as a funny Metal Gear Solid section, and you’ll find those first few linear levels are long forgotten, especially when you start taking 30 minutes to get through some of the latter levels.

Level design plays a big part and while sometimes things look a little too familiar, enemies all look the same and you’ll often be able to reply on using your environment to sidestep behind walls, or hop onto a ledge to avoid enemies, there are a few occasions where there’s a few too many enemies who will soon sap our life bar, you do have the FAB special which lets you run around slapping enemies, giving a 1-shot fashion slap for a limited amount of time.
The FAB meter is shown at the bottom of the screen, but I found myself not using it as much as I should, because I always felt like I might need it soon, and didn’t want to be caught out waiting for it to recharge.
You can speed this up by collecting pick-ups from around the world, such as mock-tails and there’s enough health pickups to keep you energised heading towards the next checkpoint.

Checkpoints are fairly well spaced out and while there where a few occasions where I seemed to miss a checkpoint and have to replay a section, I know I’d completed, usually after each small set of battles, you’d encounter a checkpoint as expected.

The game is also split into Missions, with your score and performance shown at the end while you watch all the fashion victims strut their newly found swagger on the catwalk. With just over a dozen main missions and a handful of challenge missions, you’ll find the game is likely to last about 6 hours, especially if you backtrack to grab any Swag (collectables) you missed, or just want to make sure you didn’t miss any collectables and tidied up all the fashion crimes (enemies).

There might be an argument that it does get a little repetitive, especially when you’re using the age-old mechanic of going to point B to get a key (scissors) to open a door (ribbon) back where you started, and I did find myself tiring a little after about 3-4 hours.

As you’ll see from the screenshots, the graphics aren’t going to see any flares on fire, but it’s bright, colourful and regardless of how pixelated it is, it’s still well detailed and runs perfectly smooth at all times,
I didn’t test on Series S, but there was a Graphics option to switch to low quality, it’s definitely not required on the Series X, but it’s in the option menu for anyone who wants to boost those frames per second.
Like I’ve covered above, it does look a little too familiar at times, and if you were watching someone else play, there’s only a few missions you’d be able to pin-point, as some feel a little too much like others, but overall, with the platform sections and a few new locations like the Cruise ship, there’s enough variety to keep you moving forward.

The audio isn’t terrible, the background music was never bad enough to be annoying, but never good enough to be much more than “background”, however each enemy has a fairly distinctive set of sounds, so you’ll often know which weapons to use before you head around the corner which can be a big help.

Priced at $19.99 (around £15-£16) it’s not bad value, hovering around the 6 hour mark does feel about right, but I just like it’d be a little easier to recommend if all levels where as fun and unique as the last 5-6, I definitely tired before the story was complete, but I think it was more down to the early and mid-game repetition as appose to the last few hours.

Fashion Police Squad is still easy to recommend if you’re a fan of retro shooters, whether it’s for the mix of modern-day mechanics or the core retro feel with nostalgic nods, the constant fashion innuendoes do age like socks and sandals, but if you don’t mind a little repetition, you’re likely to enjoy the entirety of what the Fashion Police have to offer.

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