The intriguing art-style and combat of Boomerang X is what drew me in, but the boomerang itself is what hooked me. The four-sided weapon wielded by your unnamed hero gave me serious Krull vibes, a terrible 1980s fantasy movie I loved dearly in which the main character wields a five-sided version called the Glaive.
As a kid, it captured my imagination – and while that movie doesn’t hold up nearly as well as I wanted it to, the basic premise of flinging a bladed weapon at fantastical baddies is something Boomerang X has finally arced back around to deliver to me. I’m grateful my love of a bad ’80s movie pushed me to give Boomerang X a try, because this stylish twist on a retro FPS is great even without the niche nostalgia trip.
[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/25/boomerang-x-announcement-trailer”]
There’s little in the way of story here: you’re sailing along in a wooden boat only to be shipwrecked on a mysterious island, and the only path off the beach is into a cave where you find your magical boomerang weapon. Along the way, Boomerang X tells you the rest of what you need to know mostly through its environments.
[poilib element=”quoteBox” parameters=”excerpt=I%26%2339%3Bm%20grateful%20my%20love%20of%20a%20bad%20%26%2339%3B80s%20movie%20pushed%20me%20to%20give%20Boomerang%20X%20a%20try.”]
You’ll pass through a ruined village, and if you look into the right houses you can spot the remains of the island’s original inhabitants. There are a few friendly creatures who offer context for the current state of the island through text dialogue, as well as explaining a little of the history of your boomerang. But for the most part it’s very “show, don’t tell,” and that compliments the mysterious attitude of Boomerang X perfectly.
Boomerang X’s cell-shaded graphics work with that attitude excellently as well. I played on Nintendo Switch and didn’t notice any major framerate dips, even when the arenas were overrun with enemies. It’s also available on PC, and I have to imagine playing with a mouse and keyboard is the superior way to play (because it always is for FPS games) but with the Pro Controller and a smart auto-aim system, I still had a great time.
[poilib element=”quoteBox” parameters=”excerpt=Boomerang%20X%20tells%20you%20a%20lot%20of%20what%20you%20need%20to%20know%20mostly%20through%20its%20environments.”]
Once you get past the brief intro, it’s game on. You’re immediately thrown into a battle with mysterious beasts, their only defining features being their dark shadowy shapes and the occasional colored weak points. They remind me very much of the Shadow Beasts in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and that’s not the only Nintendo vibe Boomerang X throws off (but more on that later). Some creatures resemble horrible bloated spiders, while others look like nightmare squid who’ve learned to free themselves from the shackles of their oceanfaring lives.
[poilib element=”poll” parameters=”id=89d7ce8d-4856-4138-9b17-e116af58a944″]
As you move through the world of Boomerang X you’ll discover more kinds of enemies, each with different attacks and powers. Some of them, like the aforementioned spiders, are as simple to kill as aiming your boomerang and letting it fly. Others, like the strange summoning demons a little later on, can only be destroyed with a well-aimed shot at their crystalline weak points. I enjoyed the variety of enemies, and how each new area seemed to bring with it a new challenging foe. Figuring out the best course of attack for some of the tougher creatures added a nice strategic element to Boomerang X beyond just having well-placed throws.
[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/07/08/boomerang-x-launch-trailer”]
In addition to discovering new, tougher enemies as you progress deeper into the mysterious island, you also unlock more powers for your boomerang. At first, you merely toss the boomerang and it does what you’d expect it to do: hits things then comes back. As you go further, you’ll learn how to instantly recall the boomerang or charge it for longer throws, and soon after that you start unlocking its true potential as a weapon.
That includes more powerful effects like slowing time, using it as a grappling hook, and even stronger attacks. Its power scales up perfectly, and I definitely needed to master almost every different type of attack and unique power to win some of the later, tougher battles. Fights are also incredibly enjoyable because they require constant motion, and the clever powers of your boomerang make it possible to move around the battlefield quickly and smoothly.
[poilib element=”quoteBox” parameters=”excerpt=Boomerang%20X%20gave%20me%20a%20serious%20Metroid%20Prime%20feeling…”]
Remember how I said it gives off serious Nintendo vibes? The Twilight Princess comparison is apparent from the very first enemy you face, but Boomerang X also gave me a serious Metroid Prime feeling, and that’s a great feeling for a game to give. You start off with nothing, very little in the way of story or context, and become more powerful and learn about your environment as you progress.
It’s not actually a Metroidvania though, as Boomerang X is completely linear and missing their crucial exploration element. There are no branching pathways, no backtracking, no doors or portals you need to return to once you unlock the proper boomerang power. You simply go into one arena, defeat the enemy waves, and move onto the next. Yes, you gain new powers and increase your shield several times over during the course of Boomerang X, but there’s no wandering here.
[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/06/17/boomerang-x-release-date-trailer”]
I still had a lot of fun within its rigid structure, but I would have loved to be able to explore this tiny island world for myself. That’s especially true because Boomerang X is a pretty short game. I was able to beat it in around three hours, and that was a fairly leisurely pace. After beating it, a New Game+ is unlocked (and I immediately started playing through it again), but I was enjoying Boomerang X so much that I was left wanting more than to replay it with my powers intact.
