Game developer Free Lives has had a very interesting and varied portfolio of games. It started with Broforce, a run-and-gun homage that was so good it spawned a licensed spin-off related to "The Expendables" movies. Then came Genital Jousting, a multiplayer game that was hilariously NSFW. Gorn was next, and the ultraviolet and ridiculous gladiator game quickly became an example for VR gaming done right. That was followed by Terra Nil, a strategy game with a focus on environmentalism. Anger Foot is the developer's next title, and it feels like a callback to its older stuff and titles from publisher Devolver Digital's catalog. The result is quite good, if you know what you're getting into.

You play the titular character of Anger Foot, a criminal with the strongest kicks in a city where crime rules everything. One night, after you get the final pair of sneakers to complete your collection, your vault gets broken into, and your prized collection of sneakers is stolen. The collection is split among the leaders of the four big gangs in the city, so your job is to fight them until you get everything back — even if it means taking down the city's big leader.

The story is absurd in a way that will be funny to some and off-putting to others. After all, you are living and fighting in a place called Shit City, which boasts the highest crime rate in the country. Various posters around town encourage all sorts of crime, and the people wax poetic about muggings and stabbings, so it feels like it's cut from the same cloth as Sludge Life. You'll hear things like people arguing how jaywalking is a real crime, despite others' dismissal of it or seeing someone constantly shoot at a river of sludge because they believe that nature is fighting back. It isn't high-brow humor, but it comes off better than other games that try to stretch their jokes a bit too thin.

Anger Foot can be designated as a first-person shooter, considering the perspective and the presence of guns. There's a standard assortment to choose from, including single and dual pistols, machine guns, and a shotgun. Some of the more interesting firearms include a minigun and a crossbow that fires wooden stakes. The game employs the modern mechanic of regenerative health, and you can only hold one firearm at a time, but you also don't need to reload. However, there isn't a conventional way to reload the gun, so you'll need to throw away your gun and pick up another one from enemies that you've killed. This gameplay mechanic may irk some players.

As the name of the game implies, shooting guns is more of a secondary attack, since the main weapon you'll be using is your foot. Your kicks are just as powerful as guns; you can easily kill any enemy with just one kick. Kicks are also useful at lobbing explosives back to their sender, shattering doors and using them to kill enemies, or kicking someone so hard that their corpse causes others to die. Going barefoot is fine, but the melee abilities really open up when you wear different shoes that grant specific new powers and abilities. Some are stylish, like the ability to perform a slide kick or an uppercut-style kick. Others are silly, such as the ability to destroy gravity or give everyone big heads. Some end up being beneficial in other ways, like giving you a respawn upon death or giving you extra ammo for every kick. The variety of shoes at your disposal means that you can change up the game according to your play style, so each run through the same level can feel different based on what you're wearing.

The gameplay loop is straightforward. You're simply going from point A to point B and from level to level. Reach the boss at the end of the level, kill them, and move on to the next world. The game uses a star system to grade your performance, but since you aren't locked from progressing due to a lack of stars, you can concentrate on staying alive long enough to reach the end without worrying about anything else.

Staying alive is important since just about everything dies with one hit. You're the exception to the rule but just barely. Getting shot at point-blank range does spell instant death. Luckily, you can move rather quickly, and your kicks have a longer range than expected. Throwing guns won't kill an enemy, but it will buy you some time while they're stunned. You can chug energy drinks to move at hyper speed for a limited time. Ingesting beer and eating lizards makes you drunk and trip out on colors, respectively.

You can pinpoint the game's inspirations. The one-hit kills and use of doors as weapons are reminiscent of Hotline Miami. The gore and floppy physics are reminiscent of Gorn. The speed mimics just about every boomer shooter in recent memory. It's a cocktail that works because every moment delivers some type of situation that makes you think and act quickly, whether it's dealing with gang members who pop out of the ceiling or groups of rats with machetes that rush you. Some enemies will blindly rush at you, while others actually try to hide and run away from you for a better shot. There's never a dull moment, and while there are times when the game can feel cheap due to a potshot taken from seemingly nowhere, the platforming automatically ensures that leaps of faith never end in you coming up short and falling to your doom.

The default parameters are great once you find your groove and if you're patient no matter how many times you kick the bucket. It helps that the game features little to no load times, so respawning from death is pretty quick. Luckily for everyone else, Anger Foot does feature a few annuities to ease you into the gameplay loop. You can turn on an option to automatically throw your guns when you run out of ammo instead of needing to use a different button to do so. You can choose to make the general enemies easier, tweak down the boss difficulty, or make the overall enemy experience easier. You can even make yourself invincible with no penalty applied, and this ensures everyone can reach the end of the game.

While the developers have estimated that the campaign would run between six to eight hours, it can run higher, depending on how many times you'll die and replay a stage before getting to the end. Anger Foot may not feature bonus stages, but there's still a great deal to do once you see the credits roll. Aside from the two endings, there are plenty of milestones available — such as speedrunning a level, getting kills with a specific weapon, or reaching the end without killing anyone — to unlock the full lineup of footwear. You'll never be able to get them all in one go, as those goals are diverse and often contradictory. For example, one level might ask you to go barefoot for one star but have you wear a specific shoe to get another star. There's also stuff for achievement hunters involving doing certain things in the various non-combat levels. You can even play an endless runner version of Broforce at any of the arcades. Don't expect much in the way of secret passages in the combat levels; they tend to be straightforward, and the few branching paths don't stray far from the main path.

Graphically, the game is stylish in a somewhat garish way. The character designs look like a mix between High on Life and Sludge Life, and while the different enemies and bystanders have different designs, their types never differ. All of the brawling gators, for example, wear the same clothes, and every woman looks the same. The colors for each character make them pop out from the environment, while the constant presence of trash and other debris makes the world feel lived in. It's strangely clean in terms of readability, so you won't be getting lost a lot.

The sound is excellent if you know what you're getting into. The effects are crunchy, as things like gunfire and door kicking are loud and impactful. The game features no real voices outside of a cut scene or two, but the intended tone comes through whenever anyone mumbles their lines. The music is what you'll remember the most, since the tone changes drastically depending on the situation. Looking at your map or going into a non-combat scenario produces calming hip-hop beats. Go into a battle, and the soundtrack changes to being very heavy on the bass. It muffles itself when there are no more enemies to shoot or kick, but it ratchets back up once an enemy is present. It might initially seem monotonous, but it makes for a soundtrack that encourages fast ultraviolence and fits perfectly with the gameplay.

For Steam Deck users, Anger Foot works fine. The resolution defaults to the device's 1280x800, but the game turns on all options and sets everything to high, which causes the frame rate to hover around the 40fps mark. It's still very playable, but turning down the options to their lowest settings will get the game to hit and stay at the 60fps mark, which is what you'd want considering how fast-paced the game is. Battery life on a full charge hits a little under two hours when using the Steam Deck LCD, which is fine when considering how quick the levels can be. Cloud saves are supported, which makes it perfect if you're bouncing between machines to finish the game or finish the challenges.

Anger Foot is a very good game if you're fond of its mashup of ideas. The short levels, fast speed, and mostly one-hit kills all work well with the game's offbeat and goofy nature. It's a boomer shooter that demands near-perfection in execution but has enough tools to accommodate those who may not vibe with that ideal. Anger Foot has a good campaign length and a stylized presentation, so it is a strong option for fans of pure action.

Score: 8.5/10