PlayStation's latest showcase has had a bit of a mixed reception from fans. While a good third of the presentation was dedicated to huge reveals like the Metal Gear Solid 3 remake, a Marathon revival, and Marvel's Spider-Man 2's first gameplay trailer, the rest focused on some rather lackluster announcements, a lot of which will also be available on Xbox consoles. But though it doesn't quite belong in the former camp, Square Enix's Foamstars was certainly one of the more interesting games revealed.
A PS4 and PS5 exclusive, Foamsters is a 4v4 party shooter from Square Enix that boasts an incredibly bright art style. With a big focus on pastel colors, Foamstars tasks players with blasting away their opponents with brightly colored foam, all while throwing it across the arena. For fans of Nintendo, Foamstars' gameplay is going to look eerily familiar, with it bearing a big resemblance to Splatoon, but Foamstars has a few unique tricks up its sleeve that could make it a worthy competitor for PlayStation.
Foamstars Has Serious Splatoon Vibes
By taking just one cursory glance at Foamstars, most gamers will be able to tell what series inspired its creation. Almost every aspect of Foamstars seems to borrow from Splatoon in one way or another. The character models, while looking more humanoid, are still very cartoon-y in nature, with bright and colorful hairstyles. Foamstars' weapons also follow a similar trend, with bright lights and panels dotted on each oversized pistol or minigun. And of course, there's the gameplay itself, which seems to follow Splatoon's focus on spraying the environment with as much paint as possible, albeit with foam instead here.
But that doesn't mean that Foamstars is a complete knockoff of Splatoon. While it may borrow heavily from it in both the visual and gameplay department, Foamstars does have its own set of unique mechanics that could end up setting it apart from Splatoon in a big way. The biggest difference between Splatoon and Foamstars is that in the latter, any foam that's shot on the ground stays there for a little while, and can build up.
In Splatoon, once an area has been splatted with paint, there's nothing else to do with it, but in Foamstars players will apparently be able to continue spraying foam on the arena to shape it in unique ways. Foamstars' producer, Kosuke Okatani goes into a bit more detail on a recent PlayStation Blog post. In the post, Okatani states that this foam can be molded to create a variety of advantageous structures, such as a makeshift fortress that will give players the high ground, a wall to hide behind temporarily, or a slide that players can use to surf around the arena. While this mechanic may not end up being quite as revolutionary in practice, it does go a long way in separating Foamstars from Splatoon.
The first Splatoon launched all the way back in 2015, and it's pretty surprising that no other big publisher has tried to put out its own version of the game in the last eight years. With Splatoon 3 being a gigantic success, especially overseas, it only makes sense that Square Enix would want a bit of the pie for itself, and partnering with PlayStation along the way makes a lot of sense. PlayStation could always do with more exclusives, and though Foamstars might not be able to make Splatoon money, it would make for a pretty fun PlayStation Plus Extra title.
Foamstars is currently in development for PlayStation 4 and 5.