As a young lad, Earthworm Jim 2 was one of my absolute favorite Sega Genesis games, and there was one level in particular that still stands out to me. It sits around the midway point of the game where for no obvious reason, Jim is transformed into a blind cave salamander and you spend it essentially floating through something’s intestinal track and have to avoid all of the walls while managing to shoot, all while continuously staying afloat. I don’t know why it’s still one of my favorite areas, but if you had given 10-year-old me a copy of Kickback Slug: Cosmic Courier, there’s a good chance I would’ve died and gone straight to heaven.

If you’ve ever had the joy of playing EWJ2, this is essentially my favorite childhood level stretched into a full-length game. Kind of. That is, if it was sped up, injected with an optional timer, and didn’t include a fun, irreverent trivia game at the end of it. The title focuses on a pair of aliens, one of which just kind of floats about doing basically nothing, while the slug-looking gentleman Slippy flies around at a surprisingly fast pace by the power of natural gas (yes, the kind that emanates from your ass), or by the recoil of your gun to avoid traps and enemies, hopefully picking up a package, and then dashing through the exit. The physics are on point and work as you’d expect and of course, ramp up in difficulty quickly and without mercy. At least for me.

This is a situation where you’re either going to pick up on the control scheme quickly, or you’re not. My son had no issues jumping right into this and zooming through the levels, leaving nothing but a trail of fart clouds in his wake like it was his job and he had been there for 30 years and was about to retire, never missing a day of work. I on the other hand struggled with the requirement to essentially move at all times with an inverted control style, always aiming away from where I wanted to go. My brain could not figure it out and after about the 9th level, our passing the controller back and forth upon each completion or death leaned more on him completing the levels within his first few attempts as I’d die within seconds. I’ve never wished for an inverted control scheme more in my life.

I would like to remind everyone that this is a Switch title, and in case you didn’t know this already, I absolutely hate the Switch’s OEM controllers. I hate all of them, with the exception of the pricey Xbox-ish Pro controller that I cannot justify buying because I rarely play the system, so I’ve mostly leaned on the 8bitdo adapter with my Xbox One controller or a third-party Hori controller/Joy-Con that unfortunately, both suffer from some minor input lag. In most games, it’s something you can tolerate, but here, this is one of the most difficult releases I have played on the system sandwiched between Hotline Miami 2 and the original of the same series, and is just as addicting as either game. This required us to switch to the original Joy-Con which just doesn’t feel right in my man-sized hands. If you fall into this same boat, this may leave you with a slimy taste in your mouth.

If you can get past the difficulty, there is a lot of charm in the presentation. The generic music didn’t speak to me, but the writing was full of enough puns and such to keep the slight chuckles rolling through the rough spots. I particularly enjoyed the robotic voice taunting us, reminding us we’re replaceable along with other workplace tropes that went over my son’s head but pointed out how horrid the work culture is in the world. The visuals are bright and vibrant, full of gross creatures that spoke to my inner child, and let’s be honest, it doesn’t matter if a guy is 10 or 40, he’s still going to laugh at farts. It’s just something we do. If someone tells you otherwise, they are lying. The only issue with the presentation I faced was an issue with the safe zones of my screen, which is minor, but when you’re dealing with such a precise game, every small amount counts.

Even if I wasn’t the one who made most of the progress through our run, I enjoyed the time I spent passing the controller back and forth with my son as we worked our way through the five different areas. Normally, I am the one who gets us past the roadblocks and tougher areas in the single-player games we play together, so it was a nice change to see him get the thrill of being the better player. If you excel at it where I didn’t, I could see this being a rather short experience that could be completed in just a few short hours, as most of the levels could be completed by a master-class gas expert in under a minute. There is some replay value in the optional timed challenges, which the game was already difficult enough so I don’t see that being something I’d revisit, but it is there as an option, as well as the collectible packages.

Like a rancid fart, Kickback Slug: Cosmic Courier left an impression on my household thanks to being one of the most difficult yet addicting games I have played with my son in a casual setting, passing the controller back and forth. Even when frustration mounted, the gross-out humor and puns were there to hold me back from pouring salt all over my Switch.

7 out of 10

Pros

• Loads of Fart Jokes, Work Puns, and Gross Characters
• Incredibly Difficult Yet Addicting Gameplay Loop
• Fast Respawns

Cons

• Cannot Tolerate Input Lag Whatsoever
• Can’t Adjust the Screen Safe Spaces
• No Fun Trivia Game at the End

Kickback Slug: Cosmic Courier was developed by Kittens in Timespace and published by Bonus Stage Publishing with aPriori Digital. It launched on NS and PC. The game was provided to us for review on NS. If you’d like to see more of Kickback Slug: Cosmic Courier, check out the official page.

 

Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.

Check out OpenCritic for a better idea of how our review stacks against others.