foamstars has been one of my most hype games ever since it got announced, square enix live services are just a weird thing i'm really interested in, it started with babylons fall, i'm still in love with that game even now, it wasn't a flawless game but it just had so much going on that i loved, the fun story and characters and the really fun gameplay loop and the neat art style, i'm probably it's biggest fan somehow, i platnumed it and put so much time in it, it means a lot to me but none of the other square live services i've played since have really hit the same way, avengers was a fun ps2 style licenced action game but the theme was kind of lame and the multiplayer elements really harmed it, outriders was a lot more fun but still very lame on the vibes and aesthetics, but foamstars is exactly what i wanted and i just know i'll be putting a ton of time into it, here's why.

the style is just there, the ost feels very sonic R and almost every track is amazing, it's just so happy and fun and easily listenable even outside the game, genuinely a contender for OST of the year and we've only heard a few songs from it, now not every song is great, there's a rap song in here i am just not a fan of but every single other track is great! the aesthetic works a lot for me, most of the character designs are really cool! agito's shark theme looks rad as hell, penny guinn is probably the big standout because anything penguin themed will always win me over and her little penguin helper has a helmet like *come on*, soa has the coolest hair and big K/DA energy (i have never played league but those mvs are cool) and mel-t has some peak fashion, her custom board is also my fav too, there's even alternate skins for some characters but you don't have much yet since this is only a beta but it all coalesses into a really good overall style, it's very consistant, even the levels look cool, everything almost feels like a sonic team casino level and that's the best complement possible for a game, the vibes are just amazing, even the hub is super cozy to walk around, though currently it's a little lonely with a lot of features being unusable, but i assume the game will fix this in the full release, same with the map variety because as of rn we only have 2 in the main mode and 1 in the other mode, the netcode is kind of spotty too, i had very frequent disconnects especially on the sunday of the beta.

the gameplay does a lot for me too, it's basically just a slightly different take on splatoon and the game is very aware of that, it's not shy about it at all and i don't think holding it against foamstars is fair at all, it knows it and its rolling with it. it does its own thing anyway even with that basic setup, yes it has he liquid based guns and the ability to cover the floor in it which you can use to traverse faster, but that's kind of it, the focus here isn't on covering the level in that like in splatoon, both modes here are a strict deathmatch, one has a set number of lives for the team with a star player that has to be taken down when all the lives run out and a different mode that's a 2V2 with rounds, this one is a lot less fun. i stuck to the main mode mostly and it's a super enjoyable mode, the gameplay is so fast and there's very little real downtime even during deaths, i like how death isn't even a failstate here, you go into a ball when you hit no health but your enemy has to ram you with the surfboard you use with traversal but if they can't do that and you have a teamate nearby you can actually be saved instantly by them doing the same thing, it makes dying so much less disheartening and i think it helps the flow a lot and i like how it incentivises using the traversal mechanics, i love the traversal in general, you're so fast going across the map this way and dodging enemies as the star player was always a really fun, if tense, time!

the other big thing here that seperates it from splatoon is the fact it's a hero shooter and it's a good one, all 8 characters that are there so far all play really well and they feel fairly balanced, though some of the characters do feel a little too difficult to use for me, it was still easy to find a main and the characters were all good enough that even if she was taken, i'd have someone else i enjoyed to play as. everyone has a different gun in addition to their abilities and i will say that some can be a little harder than others, like the charge shots and some of the spray effects, but the more machinegun and shotgun type ones are very beginner friendly and none of the abilities ever feel useless to me unlike some of the ones in splatoon, there's even ultimates and some of them, like soa's ball are really fun to use because it actually effects how they play massively, there's so much variety here, though one downside is the fact it can, as of the beta, be very hard to tell where your shots are going as some of them have arcs rather than straight shots and while you do have a reticle it just doesn't feel clear enough, but i'm sure this will get fixed in the final game, there also isn't any solo content available to try either, though they do say the full game will have a campaign, so that's exciting! overall i'm very positive on it, it gives me the same feeling i had enjoying babylons fall back earlier in the year and i really hope i can get just as much into this one when it comes out, please keep an eye out for this one, i feel like it'll be a lot better than we even expect.