When Foamstars was first announced, there was no shortage of “Is this Splatoon?” memes, but I was honestly always on board with the idea. I’ve long said nobody owns gameplay ideas, and Splatoon’s complete reinvention of the team-based shooter was a prime foundation for equally as inspired games.
If Foamstars resembles anything, it’s actually the only other notable game to attempt the style: Ninjala—featuring a similar frenetic style and even a similar button layout for specials. However, from the world that feels trendy instead of feeling lived-in, unrewarding gameplay, and the absolutely grotesque amount of microtransactions, Foamstars isn’t a pale imitation of the game that inspired it; it’s just an unremarkable one.
There really isn’t much of a “story” in Foamstars, at least not one that I could find. Basically, it’s just a whacky world where hyper-flamboyant athletes compete in foam-based tournaments in order to be crowned the “Foamstar.” That’s about as much justification for the game’s multiplayer. There is a Missions mode that provides a little backstory and adds personality to each of the characters, but it’s minimal.
Gameplay, while similar to Splatoon, differs in many ways, and none of them feel incredibly satisfying to experience. To borrow a quote from my Ninjala review, it’s “a strange blend of simplicity and chaos that I’m not totally sure how I feel about.” For starters, rather than customizing their own character, players can select different characters, each with their own unique weapon style, special abilities and ultimate attack.
However, this is a serious double-edged sword since, while it does add a certain degree of personality to the game, more than one player can’t choose the same character in a match, so if someone snags a character you like—or have decided to main—before you, you’re stuck using someone you’re completely unfamiliar with. Foamstars tries to mitigate this with the Missions mode, which is a basic Horde Mode that also acts as a tutorial for each character.
Similar to Splatoon, the main gameplay hook is how players can shoot foam on the ground in order to surf across it, and if players hit their opponents with enough foam, they can surf into them for a knockout—alternatively, players can surf into foamed allies to save them. I was really hoping the movement mechanics in Foamstars would feel a lot more satisfying, but they really aren’t. Games are so chaotic in nature that it’s hard to ever really get on a smooth or wide enough area of foam to move with any discernable speed.
“I was really hoping the movement mechanics in Foamstars would feel a lot more satisfying, but they really aren’t.”
Furthermore, the aforementioned chaos also means you’ll probably spend a lot more time off your board shooting at opponents than trying to move in any meaningfully strategic way. What’s more, the necessity to hit foamed opponents with your board feels more like a justification of the foam surfing’s existence rather than a thoughtful gameplay addition, since more often than not, you’ll be surfing over your opponent’s foam—which grants you no speed bonus—trying desperately to get to hit them while surfing before they get saved or you get KO’d yourself.
But it’s just not a very fun experience. At launch, there’s only a handful of stages to get at random. Shooting slow-moving globs of foam just doesn’t have the same satisfying punch as shooting bullets. Surfing around on foam doesn’t have the same unique movement/function as Splatoon’s swimming through ink, and it never really feels like anything you do in a game matters.
The online game modes are fairly generic and don’t really offer a lot outside your standard online shooter. The mode “Smash the Star” is a fairly basic Deathmatch where players have a shared pool of lives and once it’s empty, a “Star” enters the battlefield, killing them will result in a win. Rubber Duck Party is a take on Splatoon’s Tower Control—where players need to guide a big rubber duck to the opponent’s goal.
Happy Bath Survival pits teams of two against each other in the arena while teams of two sit above it, spraying foam and attempting to help their players on the ground. It’s a mode that is theoretically interesting but ends up being somewhat frustrating as you try to navigate a barrage of foam from players above you that is either slowing you down or actively adding damage to you. And because of the way the game is designed, it ends up feeling like chaos for chaos’ sake—with little ability to strategize against players who are literally taking the ground from beneath your feet.
However, one of my biggest issues with Foamstars is its technical issues. When I first attempted Foamstars when it had its Open-Beta Party, I wrestled with the game for about an hour, facing incredible lag and multiple disconnections. I concluded, thinking, “This might be fun when it works.” My first night with Foamstars was about the same experience.
When I could get into a game after waiting three to four minutes, I’d usually get one so lagged out, my foam didn’t show up on the floor till a few seconds after the shots were fired. More than once I got stuck in the game’s respawn animation—players launch in from a ramp, much like in Splatoon—and ended up falling through the floor resulting in another death. The game’s chaotic enough without shots registering fully, players standing around idly, or KO’s happening seemingly out of nowhere.
Now, for the sake of fairness, I have moved to Brazil recently, and the internet infrastructure is a bit different from the one I was used to in Canada, so I was willing to concede that maybe I was the problem. However, after testing my connection with multiple games of Street Fighter 6, I concluded that, while not perfect, it was suitable enough for online gaming. I will add that while this wasn’t really the majority of my experience, the fact that it happened more than a few times was deeply disappointing.
Furthermore, I chose Brazil as my host server, so there really shouldn’t have been an issue…
I think special mention also needs to be made for the atrocious level of monetization Foamstars dabbles in. I think I’ve reached a point where games being “free” shouldn’t get an automatic get-out-of-jail-free pass for charging through the nose for fairly basic elements of the experience. For starters, unlike other “free-to-play” games like Fortnite or Rocket League, players will need a PS Plus subscription to play.
Obviously, Foamstars has a battle pass—because, of course it does—but on top of that, players can expect to pay $14.99 CAD for any character skins (roughly $120 for every character), $5.49 for board skins, $4.99 for gun skins, between $5.49 emotes (although some cost $7.49 for some reason) EXP boosters that range from $1.49 for one, and $19.99 for 30 and a whole host of other stuff.
But don’t worry! Foamstars has you covered with its bundles for every character that include a skin, gun skin, two board skins, a sticker AND 30 EXP boosters for the low, low price of $59.99. I guess we can be grateful it doesn’t have a premium currency to throw on top of the microtransaction pile, but it feels like at this point, after Overwatch, Knockout City, Genshin Impact, Fortnite, and even Splatoon, “live-service” games releasing this threadbare and with this much monetization just feels unacceptable
Visually, Foamstars is kind of just generic. I know Square said that AI only generated 0.01 percent of the game’s art, but the whole thing looks so sanitized and uninteresting it kind of feels like 80% was AI-generated. Characters all look a bit too much like basic anime templates, the handful of levels that are available just look like Las Vegas if it were a C-tier Mario Kart Tour track, and the foam isn’t fluffy or bubbly enough to stand out against the environments.
Actually, that overly sanitized style comes across in so many aspects of the game—and not just cause you’re shooting soap bubbles at each other. I get that the game is going for a relaxed kind of vibe, but it all comes off as so saccharine, and it ruins any kind of personality the game could have had. For example, because Foamsmash is all about having fun, you don’t score kills in the game but “chills.”
Characters are just a bit too nice and too excited to see each other that any kind of competitive edge this game could have had is just filed down to nothing. You can have competition and not be toxic about it. Not to harp on it too much, but both Splatoon and Ninjala manage to have fun, cartoonish atmospheres while maintaining a certain level of competition.
If there’s one good thing I can say about Foamstars, it’s definitely got a wicked soundtrack. Of the handful of tracks I’ve heard during matches, they’re all poppy and upbeat, ranging from fast-paced trance to jazz-infused techno. It almost makes up for how obnoxious all the characters are that I actually turned off the voice volume to not have to hear the same three lines of dialogue at the start of every match, or for every special attack.
Foamstars isn’t bad, but it’s nothing special. Like I said at the beginning, I totally support the idea of making games like Splatoon, but if you’re gonna attempt it, you need to BRING it. Creating another generic online shooter wearing the guise of personality doesn’t cut it against games that actually created unique worlds with interesting, well-thought-out gameplay mechanics. I’m sure some people will like it, but I wanted to leave this party pretty quickly.
