Politics is a game, and it takes a certain temperament to endure all its trials. Campaigning is one part of it, and it’s a brutal test of winning hearts and minds and navigating an opponent’s subversions, possibly slinging your own. Anomaly President encapsulates all the trials and tribulations in a short demo in an absolutely bonkers way.
Your dad has been captured after being framed by the incumbent for committing atrocious crimes that would otherwise get other people arrested. You set out to clear your dad’s name on his behalf, gather votes, and eliminate your political opponent—literally.
Clearing your dad’s name is a matter of physically removing those who support the incumbent. What’s bonkers is that you’re slicing away at zombies, riot soldiers, lizard creatures, and other deformed abominations. The lack of details about the premise leaves me wanting more. Why are there lizard creatures? Why am I fighting zombies? What is going on here? Thankfully, even in the demo, some of the questions are answered, which indicates that the game’s Dead Cells-like drip-feed of plot points could be spaced out well enough that I keep playing. And I do. Even after I finished the demo, I have the urge to play more and figure out what the heck is going on.
Fighting these strange hordes doesn’t feel as smooth as I’d like, but it’s serviceable. You have a sword (another thing I want to know about), your fists, and some items in the environment. You can parry attacks, kick objects in the environments—both of which give you a quick finisher—and use your special, called an Anomaly. The mechanics themselves function well. In the middle of hordes, you have to balance which attacks you use, creating space, and utilizing your abilities. It’s just pressing the buttons feels clunky. I don’t feel the timing of the animations, so I just button-mash. There’s nothing wrong with that, but there are moments when I want to be precise. I’m a drummer. I play by feel. I’ve been that way since Double Dragon on the NES. But the animations don’t telegraph my timings. So I mash, and it works, and it’ll work for most people. I just wish it felt better.
This is a roguelite, so of course we’ll get upgrades at different phases. How it feels comes up again. I don’t feel the upgrades in combat. Sometimes I’ll get the choice to upgrade my punch damage by 1. Not only does that sound pitiful, but when I use it, I don’t feel the difference. Of course, I’ll feel the difference over time, but I think that’s the biggest challenge roguelites have is making each upgrade feel like an improvement without it being too powerful. I don’t think Anomaly President has that based on the demo.
As the president’s son, some people support your dad’s cause, and one of his biggest causes is defending a group called Fluffies, who look like Pokémon. They’re oppressed. We don’t know how, but you have their support. The more Fluffies you gather to your cause, the more they help fight and support the campaign. They’ll act as Marvel vs. Capcom-style assists during fights and serve different functions in campaigning, like cooking or forging new weapons. For them to be helpful, though, you must keep them happy. So you build out your flying campaign bus with different rooms, and then Anomaly President turns into a sort of Tamagotchi simulator. If you don’t keep the Fluffies happy, they’ll leave your cause. It doesn’t go that deep in the demo, but I like how the developers used the premise to introduce a novel roguelite idea. That’s the beauty of an interesting premise—creativity flows.
Try Anomaly President.
Thank you for reading The Daily Demo! Did you play it? What’d you think of it? I’d love to hear your thoughts.