Flippin Misfits Review

A video game's price is a touchy subject, especially in the confines of a review. A cheap game may have less pressure to impress because of its budget status, which can be a crutch for someone who wants to overlook glaring flaws in their pursuit of undue praise. I try not to factor in pricing when I review a game, but it seems unavoidable when talking about Behavior Interactive's (Dead by Daylight) new party brawler Flippin Misfits. Announced a mere 30 days before release, Flippin Misfits is a $5 multiplayer-only release that feels less like a complete thought and more like a paid prototype. If you and your friends want a fun distraction for the evening, there are worse purchases you could make. Beyond that, it's hard to expect anything more from this low-key experiment in deathmatch design.

The above covers the Misfits in the game's title, and the gameplay explains the Flippin. Players spawn into a colorful world as Muppet-esque astronauts with the ability to walk on walls and shift their gravity at the push of a button. Your character wields a melee weapon, and you attack by jetting near an opponent and locking in on their position, swinging your stick and either bashing their brains in or clashing with their weapon and trying for a follow-up. The whole experience can be very disorienting at first, especially as you try to get your bearings on new maps and point the camera toward the action. Once you figure out the basics, Flippin Misfits reveals why it deserves a spot on the Steam store despite its limited scope.

Deathmatch games are some of the most basic around, and every moneymaking entry in the genre succeeds because of a flawlessly executed gimmick. Flippin Misfits has that in spades with its gravity-bending combat, a mechanic that makes every match feel like something you've never played before. Sure, there have been low-gravity arenas since the days of Facing Worlds, but Misfits takes it to a whole other level. The game combines the perspective shifts of Descent with the tight arena stylings of a nineties shooter, and it's a shame that this solid core isn't explored further by the full package.

Make no mistake. Despite how enjoyable it can be to smack a neon spaceman into the void while playing multiplayer, this is still a budget release with a tiny scope to match. There are a handful of maps, player customization is limited, and there are only a few mechanics to add variety when monotony sets in. Some maps (and a rather annoying player perk) add explosives that home in on passing players, an impediment that can make for chaotic chokepoints and annoying deaths alike. Other maps rely on an "outdoors" setup where one wrong move can send you careening into the abyss. Thanks to these factors, you can see the potential at play for a few hours, but there isn't enough to support anything beyond a weekend fling.

On the graphical front, Flippin Misfits goes for the colorful style of Fortnite but pushes beyond that into an even more cartoonish galaxy. The misfits are alien blobs with stout proportions, and their world is full of a mix of neon lightning and vast outer space facades. It's a familiar style in 2022, but it works for what the game looks to achieve. In a way, it's nice that there isn't a battle pass full of hats, weapon charms, and dances to unlock here. The style is set in stone, another aspect that feels like a throwback to a simpler time of multiplayer mayhem.

At the end of the day, it's hard to recommend Flippin Misfits if you're looking for a game online. Even though it only takes four players to fill a lobby, I regularly started with a one-on-one scenario a couple of days after launch. The only possible way to get into a full game reliably in a month will be with a group of friends, but that isn't entirely bad. If you have a group of online friends looking for engaging multiplayer experiences, you can do far worse than loading up Misfits and smashing each other for a few rounds. It would be better if the game supported local play, but the inevitably empty online state of the game will make that happen regardless.

Flippin Misfits Review | Final Thoughts

Still, for that kind of limited enjoyment, it's hard to fathom ponying up any amount of cash in a world with so many free-to-play options. Outside of multiplayer groups, Flippin Misfits is a curiosity of game design that will only be useful to those who enjoy seeing experiments in what's possible in video games and super fans of Dead by Daylight looking to support their favorite developer. It's a fine starting point, and I hope someone eventually picks up the baton and sees what a full version of the Misfits' world could offer.

TechRaptor reviewed Flippin Misfits on PC via Steam with a copy provided by the publisher.