With Foamstars, Square Enix is taking yet another swing at creating a popular live service title, heavily inspired by the ongoing hero shooter boom as well as Nintendo’s ultra-fun Splatoon series.
What’s immediately clear is that Foamstars is far from another Babylon’s Fall type scenario for the Final Fantasy publisher. While it may not be a total wash out, does this PlayStation exclusive make for a must-play on PS Plus, or can we expect it to sink into obscurity?
The setup here is delightfully playful and simple. The titular Foamstars have flocked to the bubbly, bustling city of Bath Vegas to compete in Foamsmash, a series of gladiator-style games that pit teams against one another across various modes and arenas. Here’s the twist: instead of splintering skulls with a well-placed headshot you’ll eliminate opponents on the enemy team by first lathering them up and then, when they are incapacitated, careen into them with your nifty slideboard.
Each Foamstar has their own unique loadout consisting of a primary weapon and three abilities, one of these being an ultimate-style Superstar Skill. Whether deploying a Tonix’s turret, tossing Soa’s grenades, or firing Agito’s shotgun, every attack will douse the arena in foam – these suds can even pile up to break an enemy’s line of sight, providing cover and fast lanes for rapid slideboard travel. Needless to say, covering the battlefield with your team’s coloured froth is vital regardless of which game mode you play.
It’s a nifty premise on paper and one that offers a more family friendly, hygienic alternative to those grittier multiplayer shooters out there. However, in action, Foamstars can feel simultaneously frenzied and sedate: there are zen phases spent covering every inch of the arena in soap, spliced with sudden, scrappy teamfights. The shot trajectory of foam guns and skills can feel sluggish, which contrasts with the game’s rapid match times. Even during launch week, with an inflated number of online players thanks to the game’s day one release on PS Plus, you’ll spend most of your time looking at results screens or waiting in matchmaking queues. This is made slightly more bearable thanks to an interactive lobby complete with a shooting range and plenty of opportunities to decorate.
At launch there are three competitive game modes that include Shoot the Star, Happy Bath Survival, and Rubber Duck Party, each offering a Foamstars twist on your regular deathmatch, elimination, and capture the flag archetypes. Rubber Duck Party is where I had the most fun in competitive play, creating soap-filled chokepoints, supporting teammates, and straddling the oversized bath toy to escort it to the enemy’s side and victory. Meanwhile, the other two modes often descended into slapdash skirmishes where it’s hard to get a grip on what’s actually happening most of the time.
Foamstars includes missions for solo and cooperative play, too. The former are basically extended tutorials in which you test each hero’s loadout, gunning down hordes of invading creatures as they make a beeline for your energy core. Co-op offers a similar wave-based survival approach, for up to four players, increasing the number and toughness of enemies as you defend your core across 10 rounds. Those first few matches are fun, and there are permanent stat co-op bonuses you can unlock, though it’s all a little too basic.
Foamstars is currently available exclusively with February’s PlayStation Plus monthly games, after which it will become a paid game. Whether it’s effectively free-to-play for you as a Plus subscribers or not, there’s some additional monetisation, though thankfully it’s relatively light. There are some cosmetics bundles that are laughably overpriced, and new characters that can be unlocked by working through the free season pass – if you pay £5 for the pass you’ll unlock them immediately. The main downer is that the season lasts only 30 days, so you’ll need to wade through a bounty of bubbly battles to hit that max rank, and fast.
