Antonblast is a kinetic, visually stunning and frequently bizarre platformer developed and published by Summitsphere. Taking some gameplay inspiration from the Wario Land games, along with elements of Sonic the Hedgehog and Crash Bandicoot, and then filtered through a surreal visual style reminiscent 90s cartoons, the whole thing comes together in a surprisingly cohesive and deeply enjoyable package, providing varied and over-the-top platforming fun that is hard to put down.

True to the classic platformers that the game evokes, there isn’t much of a plot to Antonblast. Satan himself envies the titular antihero, Dynamite Anton, for being redder than him. In an effort to antagonise Anton, Satan steals Anton’s collection of magical alcoholic spirits, so Anton (and his coworker Annie, who is also playable) go on a quest across a variety of crazy stages to take back his spirit collection.

There really isn’t anything more to it than that, but honestly it works in Antonblast’s favour. The game is all about its fast pace, and any exposition beyond the bare minimum to contextualise what is going on would slow the game down. What Antonblast lacks in narration, it makes up for in sheer style, from the grungy, high-contrast colour scheme to the edgy and bizarre character and boss designs, evoking the fluid and surreal art styles of classic animated shows like Cow and Chicken and Ed, Edd and Eddy.

The game’s stages follow a mostly standard formula of reaching and triggering four detonators, which open up new parts of the level, until you reach the main detonator. Once that is triggered, Anton or Annie will proclaim “IT’S HAPPY HOUR!” and set off a timer, requiring the player to backtrack through the map to reach the exit before the level explodes with you in it. The levels generally meet a nice middle ground between linear and open, with plenty of secrets to locate while ensuring the player doesn’t become too lost. Poker chips collected during levels can be spent at the shop in the hub area, letting players purchase health upgrades, cosmetic options and other goodies.

There is a focus on speed and momentum, with Anton and Annie being able to roll and slide dash their way through foes and destructible obstacles. By mashing the attack button with precise timing while running, you can increase your speed in a way similar to the boost function in Crash Team Racing, letting players seeking to master the time trial mode and reach insane speeds do so to their hearts’ content. Players can also jump a bit higher by attacking the ground just as they are about to land, rewarding precise timing and letting players achieve exhilarating momentum by dashing and hopping through levels.

Antonblast manages to be decently challenging across its brisk playtime while rarely feeling particularly frustrating. Despite its retro stylings, the game lacks outdated mechanics like a lives system, and places enough checkpoints throughout levels (including during boss fights, which was a pleasant addition) to make frequent failures less of a concern. The only times that the game withdrew the checkpoints were during the Happy Hour retreats back through levels; while you rarely had to actually go through the entire level, and the game puts up signs pointing where to go so you don’t get lost, you still have to do those sections in one go without getting a game over. This could often be a big ask for some of the longer levels, which took around 3-4 minutes to get to the end without dying.

Antonblast injects an impressive amount of variety into its levels, with a good amount of gimmicks to regularly mix things up. From a level which was mostly underwater, to vehicle levels where you are flying around on a jet-pack or a mech suit, I was never bored during my time. Not all of these gimmicks worked quite as well, mind; the level where you are stuck in a pinball and must bounce yourself around with flippers wasn’t much fun, on account of the aforementioned fine control over the player character being flushed down the toilet and leaving exactly where Anton would bounce to when you hit the flipper feeling rather random and difficult to anticipate.

Once you’ve beaten each level, there is plenty left to do. Levels are peppered with collectables, including alternate colour schemes for Anton and Annie as well as music which can be listened to in the hub area. Levels can be replayed in Time Trial and Combo Chain mode, letting players prove themselves by getting the fastest times and committing the most destruction respectively. The Time Trial mode in particular takes another leaf out of the Crash Bandicoot series’ books by including yellow boxes which, when damaged, pause the timer for a few seconds. It provided a compelling risk/reward mechanic where I would have to weigh up aiming for the timer freezes and potentially wasting time vs tackling the levels most efficiently and ignoring them. Sure, it’s not the most original mechanic, but if it works, then it’s hard to complain about.