I’ve never liked shooter games. In fact, I’d probably go as far as saying the genre is my least favourite. My clumsy coordination and instant panic the second I sense danger doesn’t do me any favours, but I also can’t ignore the fact that the dull colour palette which often accompanies some of the best FPS games, is so uninspiring it puts me off playing entirely. I figured this would always be the way, and I’d actively avoid any game that involves me wielding a firearm for the foreseeable future, until the fateful day I saw Don’t Stop, Girlypop! on Steam.
You could colour any game with various hues and douse it in virtual glitter and heart icons, and it would probably pique my interest in some way or another. Lucky for me, Don’t Stop, Girlypop! feeds this insatiable need for all things cute and pink while disguised as an action-packed arena shooter, resulting in me feeling brave enough to actually pick up a game from the genre I’ve sworn to dislike. Although the demo only whisks you through a portion of the game, it’s enough to get a feel for just what awaits you in this frilly, fast-paced shooter.
At the start of the demo, you are introduced as Imber, a faceless yet powerful force, and tasked with taking down an evil mining corporation—Tigris Nix. But, rather than them stealing something like money or killing for the sake of it, you’re fighting against them as they’ve started draining the world of “The Love”, aka the very thing that keeps your planet alive. As you navigate through various areas of woodland, you’ll encounter enemies called Wasp. These serve as your low-level grunt, which spawn on mass and take only a few hits to kill, but the sheer amount of them that appear in different areas introduces the element of challenge you’d expect for an arena shooter.
As you progress further, and once you’ve failed to take down the head of Tigris Nix, you’ll enter a facility which houses even more enemies. This includes Mantis, a slightly more difficult enemy to navigate, but nothing that will put you off playing. As you navigate through the new area, you’ll also get to test new weapons such as a katana and more powerful guns, all of which follow the same fun, pink colour palette as the game itself. Most importantly, you’ll unlock the ability to customise your appearance (your arms) in all sorts of different chrome shades. If you want to really lean into the Y2K vibes, though, you can douse yourself in denim and leopard print.
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As the title suggests, you should actively avoid stopping for long periods of time. If you do, you lose the combo you’ve stacked up, and you won’t cause as much damage to enemies. Fortunately, you’re given every possible chance you can have to dash, dive, and jump around the arenas you’ll fight enemies in, and the game gently encourages you to make use of all the available space by littering enemies on all sorts of platforms high and low. The movement it’s so fluid, which makes constantly being on the move a lot easier, and the skills you learn in the brief demo, such as wave hopping, are enough to keep you on your toes.
You’re constantly supported by your hot pink flip phone companion, too, which is all the encouragement I needed to convince myself that I was an untouchable force and capable of taking down literally whatever boss or enemy headed my way. The narration is fun and animated, and exactly what I wanted from a game with “girlypop” in the title. It feels more like you’re talking to a friend rather than being shouted instructions at, which is usually the case with games of this vein and is probably another reason I feel like I took to it like a duck to water.
With that said, there are a few sections of the Don’t stop, Girlypop! demo, which even I found slightly clunky, and I’m sure someone who’s sunk hundreds if not thousands of hours into FPS games would have a far harsher reaction than I did. . Areas where you have to utilise your grapple ability take some time to master in a way that matches the fluidity of the rest of the game, and there’s always so much happening on-screen it can occasionally be hard to keep track of where your enemy is. They aren’t glaring issues, but are just enough to disrupt your flow and cause a little annoyance.
But since we’ve got no release window, let alone a concrete date, I’m hopeful that a few changes to iron out these creases are made before launch to ensure the entire game remains as fast and fluid as it could be. Which will inevitably result in me caving and labelling myself as an FPS enjoyer, given they have cute customisation options and a colour palette that feels like a sugar rush.
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