Everyone likes to play the bad guy, right? We all want to destroy kingdoms and eat princesses, right? I knew it! Let me introduce you to Boss! The game where you get to do just that.
Straight up, Boss! is probably one of the silliest games I have played in quite awhile. And I don’t mean silly in a bad way – I mean silly in an absolutely amazing way. Throughout my time playing Boss! I have thoroughly enjoyed it, even when I got my butt handed to me because I wasn’t quite ready for an area yet.
So what is Boss!? Boss! is a side-scrolling beat-em up where you get to play as the monster who wants to destroy the kingdom. You also eat princesses… and Mrs. Clause and witches. And boy is it fun. For as completely silly as this game is, it knows what it wants to do and does it well.
You also get to play dress up with Boss! While items like your body design, mouth, and eyes are completely cosmetic, the actual armor helps increase your stats. To progress further into the levels, you will need to raise these stats or just get destroyed. These items have a level requirement to them, and even once you meet the level requirement you will need to actually buy them. Pretty much it’s your typical progression system.
Money is earned from either the unlockable mini-games or from actually clearing hordes in levels. The majority of your money will come from horde clearing, and sometimes you may even find yourself repeating levels just to get that little bit of experience or money to get some new equipment. While playing through to review it, I didn’t have to repeat too many levels but what ones I did need to repeat I didn’t mind. I was able to generally sustain myself just by rotating between what was available at the time. Even if I did die in a level, I was usually able to go back in with what money I had earned and beat that pesky last boss. Thankfully, yes, the game does give you the option to continue from where you left off (as long as you did clear at least one horde).
The mini-games will all challenge you in different ways. Trophy hunters out there, these will likely be the hardest ones for you to get in the game! It can be very easy to lose in a mini-game and end up falling short of the goal for the trophies. While one mini-game will have you actually playing as a hero trying to run away from Boss, another will have you facing horde after horde of enemies in an arena. They are all nicely varied and great in their own way.
My main complaint in the game is that hitboxes on the enemies are… quite odd. Often times when it seems like I should be hitting them I’m just not. This ends with me losing my pretty combo and making me quite sad. Granted, you can throw objects on the ground at enemies, but often I’m just there beating them up. While slightly annoying, it only barely detracts from the game.
Boss! overall controls quite well, with options for either touchscreen or button controls. I mostly opted for the buttons as the touchscreen controls just felt odd to me when I tried them. Though when it came to actually equipping things I 
generally opted for the touchscreen as the buttons just felt too slow.
The sounds of the game fit what you are fighting in general. The music also fits quite well even though you tend to hear the same tracks over and over. Get used to hearing the same sound effects though – even if each enemy “type” (wizard, knight, etc) has their own sound, each reskin of them use the same sounds. At least you know when a wizard is around then though so you can work on trying to not get frozen!
Boss! is definitely worth checking out for side-scrolling beat-em-up fans who have a PlayStation Vita. While the hitbox thing is slightly annoying, the overall game is still quite good and really just quite silly (again, in a good way). I can see myself playing this for quite awhile longer trying to push my scores higher and higher in the mini-games and trying to get all of the items for my Boss.
Boss! Review Score
4.5/5
I would like to thank Fair Play Labs for providing me with a copy of the game for review.
Boss! is available now on the PlayStation Store.
