This crazy cat’s not as fun as he thinks he is
Biomutant (PlayStation, Xbox, PC, £54.99)
Verdict: Environmental catastrophe ★★✩✩✩
Miitopia (Switch, £39.99)
Verdict: Fellowship of the silly ★★★★✩
THE cat sat on the mat. And then the cat spun into the air, pulled a sword from its back and sliced at three anthropomorphic enemies before dispatching a fourth with a blast of lightning. Meow!
Welcome to the world of Biomutant. It’s like our world, except in a future where we’ve spoilt the environment to the point that it’s now ruled by irradiated animals. You play as one of those animals — a feline thing with martial arts abilities — who has to save a big tree, learn about his past etc.
It’s a likeable setup, and I spent my first hours with Biomutant straining to like it.
In that time, I had mutated the main character to my taste, scrabbled around in rubbish piles for weaponry and encountered a ferret with a quiff. It is gloriously offbeat.
Until it’s not. It doesn’t take long to realise that Biomutant’s weirdness is surface deep. Underneath is a game that shares DNA with 100 superior titles, including The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild, but is actually a devolved version of them.
Its basic actions are clunky and unsatisfying. Its tasks are repetitive and dull.
And then I began to rather loathe these little creatures and their studiedly different ways. If there’s one reason for us to look after the planet, it’s to prevent them from ever happening. n LET’S talk about Mii. He looks a bit like me, but cartoonish and much cuter. He’s travelled across my Nintendo consoles for over a decade now, a digital representation of my physical form.
And here’s a game in which he can really shine, updated for the Switch. My Mii can join with your Miis — Yuu? — to quest through a fantasy kingdom and vanquish the Dark Lord.
It sounds standard, but Nintendo have great fun subverting the form. The end result really is gloriously offbeat.