G’day mates! Grab ya thongs, crack open a cold one, and get ready for a ripper adventure, ’cause ‘Aussie Bogan Hero’ is here to put some fair dinkum Aussie flavour into the Metroidvania scene. Developed and published by the larrikins at Snag Swag Studios, this sidescrolling belter follows Davo, a mullet-rocking, stubby-smashing battler on a quest through the outback wastelands, dodgy mines and corporate-ridden nightmares, all to reclaim his beloved pub and save the town of Dusty Springs.

With a mixture of over-the-top humour, chunky combat, and a soundtrack that slaps harder than a XXXX on a hot arvo, this demo sets the tone for one of the most uniquely Aussie takes on the genre you’ll play. Sometimes the world does not need a caped crusader… it just takes an Aussie bloke in a singlet.

Aussie Bogan Hero follows Davo, a mullet-rocking, pub-loving battler from the outback town of Dusty Springs, whose life gets turned upside down when the local opal mine digs up more than precious stones. They end up discovering some cursed stones that unleash dark spirits that turn our beloved wildlife into monstrous bush beasts. Swooping in to exploit the chaos is ‘Drill and Thrill’, a shady mega-corporation that locks down the town, blames the locals and worst of all, they shut down Davo’s local pub when they stop delivering liquid gold.

Fed up and fueled by cold tinnies, darts and sausage rolls, Davo sets out on a ripper of a quest across Australia on a mission to expose ‘Drill and Thrill’ for what they really are and restore the local watering hole with ice-cold scooners. Along the way, you will uncover ancient bush legends, battle anything from wombats to magpies to the iconic bin chicken and to win against these wild beasts, you can scrounge together some dodgy upgrades so you have a fighting chance. At its core, the story is about a bogan’s fight for his town, his mates and his watering hole so he can have a nice cold beer at the end of the day.

The one thing that annoyed me about the demo was that I couldn’t play more. Aussie Bogan Hero is one of those games that you can sit down and instantly immerse yourself in the culture. The over-the-top combat and the hilarious Aussie humour are baked into every corner. Along the way, you meet a couple of great battlers that give the world that extra charm, and I’ll admit I had a proper chuckle every time I came across one of the signs saying it was locked till full release with the Aussie slang involved.

I also loved the clever Aussie touches baked into the gameplay, restoring health is smashing down a can of beer, which looked like a Victorian Bitter (VB) can, though the game kicks off in Western Australia, so I half expected to see Emu Export, but that is besides the point. And instead of the usual gems or coins you collect, you get to gather up jars of “Vegemite”, obviously, they couldn’t name it outright for copying reasons, but any Aussie will know exactly what they’re looking at. It’s these little details that make the game feel authentic and give it that cheeky, true-blue charm.

When it comes to the controls, the demo makes it pretty clear from the start with a big on-screen warning; it’s been optimised for keyboard and mouse, but it’s best enjoyed with a controller. No arguments from me there, I grabbed my controller straight away, and honestly, it felt spot on.

The setup was super simple and easy to pick up with movement on the left joystick, jumping with A, swinging a hit with X and pulling off some insane combat rolls with B. That’s about all the demo gave us, but it worked perfectly well for the fast-paced, scrappy backyard brawling style the game leans on. Nothing was overcomplicated, just straight-up fun controls that let you get stuck in without a fuss.

The art design in the demo had that super cartoonish style, not hyper-polished or overly detailed, but clean and colourful and looked absolutely mint. It’s got just the correct amount of charm to fit the game’s over-the-top bogan energy, and it works a treat. What stood out to me were the little touches in the background that created a feeling of the world being alive, like emus sprinting across the desert, cliffs looming in the distance and other bits of Aussie scenery we got to see from the demo. The game is not trying to be realistic, but instead nails the playful, animated vibe that keeps your eyes glued to the screen

The sound design in the demo was a little bit of a mixed bag for me. First off, the default audio almost blew my eardrums out. It definitely needed to be turned down before I could properly enjoy the game. There’s no voice acting, which I would have loved to see, especially with a character larger than life like Davo, but instead, you get audio cues, for example, Davo might let out a grunt, or another character might cackle, which starts their part of the dialogue. In the first instance, it added some personality, but it quickly became repetitive when you’re reading through the dialogue. It works alright, but I would love to see some voice acting added to the full version; it would just polish off the overall experience, as you punch your way through the outback.

All up, the Aussie Bogan Hero demo was a bloody ripper, it’s rough around the edges in spots like the ear-bursting audio and no voice acting, but that’s easy enough to forgive when the rest of the package is lots of fun. From smashing tins to hoarding jars of Vegemite to scrapping with mutant Magpies and Kangaroos, it’s got that true-blue Aussie flavour oozing out of every corner. The cartoonish visuals, backyard brawl controls and cheeky humour had me grinning and fair dinkum, the only thing that pissed me off was I couldn’t keep playing and find out if Davo could enjoy another arvo beer.

Written by: Hayden Nelson