Goons: Legends and Mayhem Preview – A hilarious ice-capade

Imagine a world where ice hockey was a central part of your country, where everything revolves around it. So it is in the magical land of Zambonia, where everyone lives, breathes and plays ice hockey. It’s the setting for Goons: Legends and Mayhem, part arcade sports, part beat-em-up, and part exploration game, mixing together traditional ice hockey with challenges and boss battles.

In the demo build of Goons:  Legends and Mayhem, you are introduced to two of the main characters that you control on this adventure. They are the wizard Brazier and the warrior Helmwing, who witness their land of Zambonia become overrun by the evil magic of The Great Mascoteer. This has turned inhabitants and vehicles into minions that use hockey as a way to try and conquer the city.

As Brazier and Helmwing, you set off on a quest to first fix Helmwing’s vehicle, which looks like it will later be used to navigate around the world of Zambonia. Along this quest, you are introduced to the basics of Goons: Legends and Mayhem’s gameplay. The first is movement with the characters ice skating along the levels, with the movement being really smooth and reactive which bodes well for the main release. You are also taught about coins and the infinite pucks you have. Coins are dotted along your path, as well as hidden in boxes and other fixtures. This is where the infinite pucks come in. You can fire them pretty haphazardly but they will automatically go towards the nearest target, if there is a target in range. You will also be using the pucks to solve puzzles in the environment to open up paths and complete challenges, and will require you to switch between characters.

There are a few enemy types that make an appearance in the demo. The first are like basic melee attackers that try and whack you with their hockey sticks, followed by those armed with bazookas to attack from range. The third type have grenade heads which explode when they get close to your characters. The demo finishes up with a boss battle that is a giant ice truck in a hockey rink which requires precise shots using power shots. These shots lot you manually aim at where you want to hit a target. The bosses have weak spots that you need to target.

Goons: Legends and Mayhem could shape up to be a really fun take on a sports based action adventure game, with a some very good humour. The gameplay has promise using ice hockey as the premise, with already some very good movement and at least two main characters that do bounce off each other (and enemies). Keep an eye on this one, sports fans.