Fashion Police Squad (PC) & (Switch)

Fashion Police Squad is a brand new FPS from the minds at Mopeful Games, leaning into the new retro/boomer shooter fad, we get a nice wholesome spin put onto the genre. Let’s take a walk down the catwalk and see what’s fresh.

Being a somewhat (self proclaimed) fashionable guy, I think I’d fit right in with the fashion police of Trendopolis, the games fictional town where we see Sargent Des signing on for the day. We find ourselves on duty following the case he’s on. We go through a less than normal shooter story, though it does have the normal story twists and turns. Here there’s quite a bit of reading between scenes but it never outstays its welcome. You’re back into the action in seconds, and you can always skip if you want.

Fashion Police Squad plays more akin to them classic shooters, nice solid movement but with a bit less of the modern movement additions, no dodge dashing, or no double jumps here. Luckily the movement we do have is good enough to hold up, there’s the addition of a swing mechanic though, where certain areas of the map are required to be traversed with your trusty belt. This can be a bit awkward to control with some of the momentum not fully working in your favour. The parts where this is necessary though aren’t too long and you won’t be too frustrated getting through this.

The games look means your arsenal isn’t as simple as your normal shooter fare. We don’t actually kill enemies, instead we release them from their crimes in fashion. So for this we need tools instead, your main weapon is the equivalent of a shotgun, but it fires dye instead to spruce up the boring plain suited enemies. The weapons all work in a similar fashion, there’s 5 in total, going all the way up to a big fashion gun (BFG get it?) which will fix any issues in sight. Each weapon will fix a certain enemy and some enemies might require 2 or more weapons to get them sorted. If you do find yourself overran you can always use your special slap manoeuvre and clear some enemies fast.

The kind of fashion crimes you’ll come across are all pretty standard, with some being a bit more meme based than we’d like. The standard enemy are the boring grey suit guys, the kind you see on the train first time, going to their boring accounting job, there’s a few variations of this guy as the game goes on so you’ll have to keep on your toes, my least favourite of these was “The Karen”, you can already guess what kind of character she is, but she’s instead in a potato sack. There’s probably a bit less variety than there should be, but each enemy has unique attacks to keep you on your toes.

There’s some decent boss fights too that’ll mix it up, as well as a really fun sniper section which has been almost take right from 90’s arcade classic Silent Scope. You’ll be stopping the criminals getting into the gala being taking specific shots with different ammo and these enemies will come at you thick and fast, covered by dozens of normal party goers. This is enough to mix up the gameplay to keep things fresh and moving at a good pace, another fun set piece was the chase scene which felt right at home here. Lots of fast paced shooting with loads of enemies coming for you.

The further we move through the game, we’re constantly introduced to new and more difficult enemies, we eventually have this full roster of people who need to be shown the light. The areas we can come up against the enemies can be quite tight and it can be quite frustrating, especially fighting in areas with no sides, you’ll find yourself being knocked off the map due to a neon scooter riding weirdo riding at you at break neck speeds. Sometimes this can be negated with some quick movement but also this can happen out of nowhere if you’re not paying much attention

Visually you’re immediately reminded of Duke Nukem 3d with your enemies in that retro pixel style, each different enemy type either has too much colour or not enough, but each is nice and unique. The 3d environments retain a late 90’s look and they fit well with the character models you’re up against. The maps are bright and colourful if a slight bit repetitive, in the city we’ll see the same couple of pun based stores, but you’ll be venturing a lot of different areas, like a cruise ship, rooftops, the beach and even a neon retro video game area. Each of these look great and they don’t get boring.

Fashion Police Squad is a nice little niche FPS for those who might be a bit bored of the usual hellscapes, and might not want to rip and tear as much as everyone does. There’s enough variety here in the game to keep you going, for a few afternoons, with some additional content, enough for a second playthrough. The weapon play feels good and it’s really wholesome and great fun.

We had the chance to look at the Nintendo Switch port of the game and I’m happy to say that not only do I stand by what was said above and the score but also this is one of the best performing and controlling FPS titles you can get on the Nintendo Switch, it has gyro controls, doesn’t miss a beat with the frame rate and has the added bonus of portability and the colours popping on the OLED screen. Essential for fans of the genre and even worth the double dip for people who may already own the game, YAAAAAAAASSSSSSSS