If you want to fight a kangaroo without fighting a kangaroo, Beers And Boomerangs has you covered.
Kangaroos and boomerangs are some of the most stereotypical things associated with Australia. Beers And Boomerangs doubles down on the danger factor when it comes to kangaroos. Fight them off as you ensure hungry friends are fed, and that none of the ‘roos are successful in their mission to steal from you.
From Witty Platypus and Spelkollektivet comes certainly one of the oddest experiences on the Meta Quest 2. Sure, there are other games where one can fight off skeletons with swords. Or others, where a person can meddle in the past through memories. But there’s a certain charm to knocking out a wily kangaroo for trying to steal one’s supply of Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer. Here we have Beers and Boomerangs, probably the only game that can be considered a true ‘Aussie sim’ title.
If one were to venture exactly what the story is, it might be hard to find. The title itself might be a good giveaway of how one interprets ‘story.’ Throw beers, boomerangs, and kangaroos together and what do we have? The answer to that is Aussie-themed chaos. But it is of the hilarious sort. And one can have quite a bit of fun with the cheesiness offered by Beers And Boomerangs.
Starting the game, it honestly felt like getting back onto a bicycle. Learning to play that way in VR wasn’t as easy as the trailer made it out to be. Campaign Mode, of course, had to be tackled first. Propped up on a board was a map of what was likely the wildlife preserve in which the game takes place. This map in Beers and Boomerangs showed various nodes, each of which has a possible three-star rating. Each mission had anywhere from 3 to 5 objectives.
Completing a handful of objectives sounds easy enough, right? In practice, it might be easy. But having certain restrictions was a little frustrating. Attacking short roos required simply tossing a boomerang at them. Such a thing was done by grabbing at my waist while clicking the lower trigger on either Meta Quest 2 control. To ‘throw’ the boomerang, I let go of the trigger while thrusting my hand outwards. It can be a little awkward at first, but it doesn’t take long to get used to the mechanics of Beers and Boomerangs.
Hitting any creature three times in succession would supercharge either boomerang. Thanks to the supercharge, hitting multiple enemies became quite a breeze. It’s nice if one can manage to continue catching the Aussie hunting weapon. But if one drops a supercharged boomerang, they have a handful of seconds before the ‘energy’ dissipates. Once that happened, three successful hits had to be made before a supercharge would show up again.
At times, one might encounter a level where one has to fight and avoid multiple antagonists. Avoid the death clouds released from the hind ends of drunk koalas. Dancing through the clouds, one will also have to prevent the kangaroos from stealing all the beer. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the only way to stop the annoying creatures in Beers and Boomerangs from spawning was to fist fight the parents they kept coming from.
If one is lucky enough to survive through most campaign missions, the opportunity to slow down time will come up. To do this, one must slather some Vegemite on a piece of toast. This was probably one of the funniest aspects of Beers and Boomerangs, considering the distaste the majority of the world has for the product.
There was also a ‘defense mode’ and ‘cooking mode.’ Defense mode was straightforward, as the player simply had to defeat wave after wave of Australian animals. It might sound easy on the surface, but once a player gets past wave 5, things start to get intense. Koalas will spawn two at a time on trees in every conceivable direction. In addition to the small thieving kangaroos, adult kangaroos are also thrown into the mix. But what does one do in this situation?
Luckily, the adults in Beers and Boomerangs could be taken out with about four boomerang strikes. Although giving them the old ‘one-two’ would happen faster. That, however, requires bridging the gap using the fast move, which was done by pulling back on the right controller’s analog stick. It’s a nice feature, but one might rush right into a boxing kangaroo’s punch. Spend too much time fighting off the kangaroos, and you could end up burning the food that your friends requested.
The Beers and Boomerangs cooking mode required me to both cook food for people and defend against the ‘roos. This mode, personally, was more hilarious than campaign or defense mode. Two individuals behind a picnic table will continuously request things from the player. It can range from things like a ‘tinny’ (can of beer), and ‘tallneck’ (glass bottle of beer) to burgers and hots with various adaptations. Thanks to my lack of knowledge when it comes to Aussie-speak, it wasn’t the easiest to get through. Which had me laughing to the point that I could barely complete the objectives.
The artwork for Beers and Boomerangs was relatively simple. But it allowed for some hilariously drawn characters. Koalas have relatively simple features in real life, so it wasn’t hard for developers to adapt their look to a 3D version. Adult kangaroos were designed to have boxing gloves, and it was pretty obvious by their expression when one was within range of their strikes. And the ‘customers’ in the cooking mode were simple 2D ‘paper’ avatars with recorded voice lines.
Musically, the title was every stereotypical sound one would hear in Australia. Luckily, for anyone who plays, the friends who ask for food in cooking mode can be heard crystal clear. What was funny about the sound of the game was the kangaroos. The adult kangaroos had an especially odd sound. When defeated, they sounded a bit like a small dog expressing frustration. Depending on what gets one to start laughing, this might make it hard to take the rest of a particular challenge seriously.
Beers and Boomerangs was certainly an entertaining experience. There is most definitely a learning curve when it comes to boomerang throwing. But practice can be in the ‘starting menu space’ before deciding to fight off an actual opponent during a run. The game is in the Oculus App Lab, meaning the game is unfinished. But that doesn’t mean one can’t have fun. Challenge friends to beat your high scores, and then actually write your names on a plaque for the leaderboards. I highly recommend this title to anyone looking specifically for a party game.
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