Hellmut : The Badass from Hell
- Genres : Action, Arcade
- Publishers : 2tainment
- Developers : Volcani.cc
- Players : 1-2
- Consoles : Nintendo Switch
- Languages : English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian
- Release date : May 03, 2019
In a few words, Hellmut is a Rogue-like in Pixel-Art particularly well realised, ultra-addictive and very exigent with the player.
In this game you incarnate the remains of a crazy scientist that angered the devil for a story of eternal life! Hence the savant’s “remains”, the devil is really in a bad mood. You only have the skull, the brain and a piece of the spine left from the scientist.
Ka-Ra, most certainly another powerful demon, finds the situation amusing and offers you finally eternal life, but in which conditions??? You are condemned to incarnate the mutant creatures in order to fend off hordes of demons to entertain His Majesty Ka-Ra for eternity…
Now that the setting is put into place, let’s get to the game.
Hellmut, the game
Released for the first time in 2018 on PC, Hellmut got the opportunity to be released on Nintendo Switch on the 3rd May 2019. It’s a fun, far-fetched, addictive and particularly exigent game.
It presents itself under the form of a run randomly generated with eleven levels that you will have to complete. Each level randomly generates rooms filled with monsters, a little like in “The Binding of Isaac”.
You will have, if you accept it, “explode”, “pulverise” all the demons in each of the rooms without dying in the hope of beating the boss and go onto the next level. I promise you that “explode” and “pulverise” are the most appropriate term considering the number of monsters present in each room!
Honestly finishing a run is really, really, really difficult! I still haven’t managed it… In order to do so, you will have to have mastery and patience. That is why the game is so fun, the more you play, the further into the levels you go and approach from the final boss! Finishing the game would be a wonderful reward.
You will also be able to strategies in order to carry out your extermination by equipping yourself with weapons and armour that you will find in chests or in the shop. You will also be able to improve your gear by collecting soul stones and unlocking new transformations.
Be strategic or go for it… I don’t know which is best :p. I have to say that I tried going for it without any success and the chilling out method in which you buy the equipment etc… was also as catastrophic… the game doesn’t like me XD
Now, let’s get onto the gameplay!
The gameplay, the music and the graphics
The gameplay
I have to say I was a little unsettled by the gameplay, because you need to use the 2 joysticks of the Switch remote. I rarely played on Nintendo that used the 2 joysticks at the same time like in Hellmut. The first stick will allow you to move your character and the other to direct your weapon against the enemy while the triggers will allow you to shoot. It’s something you had to get used to!
This configuration disturbed me, because I really am not used to use so much buttons and at the same time. I tried to configure them in another way, but this option is not available in the game. That’s a shame!
I ended up by getting used to it, but it still is another difficulty for me.
I tested the game in the portable and TV version. It adapts itself perfectly to each screen and the game is particularly fluid. I had a few very minor lags when the monsters spawned in the rooms in the portable version, but nothing too bad.
I had more fun playing with the Switch Pro Remote on the TV or portable version. It is a true comfort and since I bought it I use it for every game I play.
The graphics
The Pixel-Art is well used, nice and gory. The monsters are cool and vary from white skeletons to green zombies with trashy monster explosions: blood splashes and pieces of red, pink or green flesh… ewww.
It’s gory, but the use of Pixel-Art allows the sensitive souls to also play.
Let’s get to the music and sound effects.
The sound ambiance
Concerning the sound effects, theirs is nothing to say, they are perfect and stick perfectly with the game. For the musical background you will have the choice: “modern”, “retro” or a mix of them. Personally I preferred the “retro” soundtrack. It is nice and sticks nicely to the game’s graphics.
In conclusion
Hellmut : The Badass from Hell is really nice be it for its ambiance created by the developers or the addictive side the game has. It allows you to unwind, but asks for a lot of focus and patience to complete a run.
The game is a true challenge for the players.
Furthermore, to turn up the competition side, the game proposes a local coop mode and a “Tournament Party” mode that will allow you to face your friends. I haven’t had the occasion to test those two modes during my test.
To conclude, I would say that Hellmut is a nice game, nicely done and that’s worth the detour. It will be appreciated by the exigent players that are looking to surpass oneself to finish a game, less by the players only looking for the fun.
