Boomerang X

Easy to pick up, easy to master; that's Boomerang X for you. The game teaches you its mechanics step by step, and in so doing you become a boomerang master until the credits roll. It's addictive by its very nature to draw out every last bit of adrenaline within you, and that's not even a complaint. Achieving a perfect state of flow throughout its 2hr base game campaign, Boomerang X will keep your wits twisting long after the final boss is defeated!

Boomerang X plays like a train thanks to a simple but effective game mechanic: a magical boomerang that allows you to teleport yourself. The game may not look and sound that special, but whoever whizzes through the arenas with mouse and keyboard for the first time, is immediately in love.

From the moment that Boomerang X's demo hit Steam, it was possible that DANG! and Devlover had a hit brewing, and the full experience delivers on that promise. No occasional difficulty spikes can get in the way of this exciting mixture of retro FPS movement and stylish action, and Boomerang X will likely remain a contender for one of 2021's best indie titles throughout the rest of the calendar year.

Above all, I like the way that Boomerang X sprinkles in combat abilities and just-fussy-enough enemy types. It’s all layered on without needlessly complicating the whole thing. This game starts fun, and it ends fun. There’s no time for your mind to wander, or get twisted up trying to remember the controls, or feel too stressed out. It’s a great flow.

Maybe the final challenges will be a little sharp for those who haven’t honed their skills to the max, but Boomerang X is also set to be a speedrunner’s paradise, broken and contorted by those who will accomplish impossible feats. But for someone like me who went in blind to Boomerang X, I can’t help but be pleased at how beautiful, fun, and ridiculous this short journey was–and how easy it will be to pick it back up again when I want to fly around like a wizard ninja.

I understand that the last arena is supposed to be a quote-unquote boss fight, but I feel the drastic shift will sucker punch players right at the end of the game. Don’t get me wrong though, I enjoyed Boomerang X. Enemy designs were clever and paired well with the abilities available, and even though the plot was thin, there was just enough to keep me curious right up until the end.

The biggest potential issue with the game is that it offers too much freedom and too little structure. It might drive players away if they feel that their progress is too gated. But I love the feeling of freedom that Boomerang X offers when it is at its best and the huge adrenaline spike that a good fight against seven waves can deliver, regardless of the result.

Short but sweet, Boomerang X is a perfect distillation of everything that is making the latest old school FPS renaissance happen. Fast, hard and sweet all we want is more.

Equipped with one simple tool offering a surprisingly wide array of capabilities, I was thrown into a maelstrom of crazy fast action and overwhelmed by every wave of enemies. Boomerang X is so addictive I couldn’t put it down. Luckily it offers a lot of flexible options to make the game easier, so you can have fun with it even if you didn’t grow eyes on the back of your head and never developed superhuman reflexes. [10/2021, p.36]

Developer Dang smartly refuses to complicate things, instead relying on its diverse menagerie and devious level designs to keep you on your toes. [Issue#362, p.121]

Boomerang X is a frantic and challenging arena shooter made to satisfy the needs of those interested in speedrunning the game or unlocking every single one of its achievements.

Boomerang X is a wonderful twist on a single-player arena shooter with excellent environmental story-telling, an interesting weapon, and a buttery smooth combat system. Even though it's completely linear, it still has the strongest Metroid Prime vibes I've felt from a game in ages, and I loved battling through each area as I moved deeper into its mysterious island. I just wish it were longer, because I was having such a great time playing it.

The problem with Boomerang X is that I loved it but I can’t even point out even a single great moment as part of my recommendation. It’s a gorgeous outline of a title that doesn’t exist – an enchanting but ephemeral concept that is likely to simply fade out of people’s consciousness, even if they really enjoyed it. There’s currently nothing to anchor it in memory but there’s so much space to play with. I am begging to see more for this one, I just hope it’s not too little too late.

It may be a game whose focus is entirely singular, but what Boomerang X may lack in density, it makes up for with a fast-but-tactile style of gameplay that rarely gets old.

Boomerang X is the 2AM food truck run of arena shooters. You're in and out before you know it, but holy shit is it amazing. The boomerang abilities that form the core of the gameplay are unique and insanely addicting, but there's always new foes and features constantly revealing themselves as the game progresses. It's a brief experience, maybe too brief, but it's still an unforgettable one.

Boomerang X is a fresh take on the arena shooter. Focusing on one weapon, the range in abilities and the ceiling for skill make frenetic combat exciting in just about every instance. The game is rather short, but that works perfectly for the pace of both the story and combat. Only feeling dull in the moments between the action, DANG! and Devolver Digital have an impressive indie on their hands with Boomerang X.

Boomerang X doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it gives an underrated weapon the spotlight it deserves. With tight controls, frantic combat, and plenty of options, I had a fantastic time from beginning to end. I’d love to see what else DANG! can do with a boomerang, but this is an adventure worth taking.

Boomerang X is a game built on a nice idea, but it needs some replayability to compete with the best arena shooter out there.

With Boomerang X, the DANG studio goes straight to the point and brilliantly exploits a lively and enjoyable gameplay, which allows the most beautiful bloody choreographies.

To dismiss Boomerang X as little more than a tech demo would be unfair, but it is also hard to ignore that the game skimps on a lot of elements that would give it depth and replayability or really make the player engage with something more than throwing a weapon to kill waves of enemies, no matter how initially satisfying that can be. Not everyone is going to love the attention-getting and specific art style and level of abstraction, or the bare minimum story or lack of interesting characters. That said, a game that knows how to balance its strengths with just enough story, gameplay, and challenge is worth playing, and Boomerang X definitely knows its strength.

To the game's credit, there is a fair bit of replay value here. The combat itself is complex enough to support multiple playthroughs based on nothing more than the satisfaction of mastering it. There's also a New Game Plus mode to add additional challenges as well as a whole slew of options to tweak the gameplay that would be good for, at the very least, a momentary diversion. However, if the combat doesn't grab you there's not much that additional playthroughs and game modes won't do much to draw you in. So if you're thinking of picking up Boomerang X but are unsure if it's worth the money, do yourself a favor and grab the free demo first. That should be more than enough to decide if the game is for you.

Boomerang X is truly a spiral of interlocking gameplay loops stacked on top of each other. After a slow start, Boomerang X whips up an absolute whirlwind of bullet-time style combat that can be an absolute sight to behold. So much love and care have clearly permeated the gameplay of this title. The problem is that beyond the loop, there isn’t a lot going on. Some frustrating design elements and a feeling of repetition is present, although it doesn’t fully dampen what is undoubtedly some fantastic moment-to-moment gameplay.

Fantastic gameplay paired with a game structure that resembles a tech demo makes Boomerang X worthwhile, even if it doesn't live up to its potential.