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2024 video game
Antonblast
Developer(s)Summitsphere
Publisher(s)Summitsphere
Director(s)Tony Grayson
Producer(s)JB Long
Designer(s)Tony Grayson, JB Long
Programmer(s)JB Long, Massimo Gauthier, Alex, Tony Grayson
Artist(s)Max / Ozone, Fallatious, Juniper / Pinpan, Toaddan, Kyoobot, Hari Edween, R__K, Patrikus Droilus, Crisppyboat, Tony Grayson
Writer(s)Tony Grayson
Composer(s)Tony Grayson
EngineGameMaker
Platform(s)Windows, Nintendo Switch
Release December 3, 2024
  • Windows
  • December 3, 2024
  • Nintendo Switch
  • December 13, 2024
Genre(s)Platform, action
Mode(s)Single-player

Antonblast, stylized in all caps, is a 2024 platform game developed and published by independent video game studio Summitsphere. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, the full game was released on December 3, 2024, for Microsoft Windows, with a Nintendo Switch version later released on December 13. The story follows the demolitions expert Dynamite Anton and his coworker Annie as they set out to recover Anton's collection of spirits stolen by Satan.

Plot

Satan is admiring his own "redness" in his magic mirror, until it informs him that a demolition worker named Dynamite Anton has skin redder than his own. Satan demands that his army of moles discover what Anton likes the most and steal it to bait him into his lair. After the moles break into his apartment and steal his collection of spirits, Anton and his co-worker Annie go out to seek out those responsible. The pair are supported in their quest by casino owner Brulo, who promises to revoke Anton's ban from his establishment in exchange for ridding it of a Satanic curse.

After finding all of the spirits, the pair reach Satan, who proceeds to drain the player's color, making him redder, and he tosses them aside. The spirits rejuvenate and transform the player into into a demon, enabling them to defeat Satan. A petulant Satan bombs the entire world in retaliation as Anton and Annie retreat to their apartment, the only structure left standing, to celebrate their victory.

Gameplay

The player character: Dynamite Anton is seen using the "clutch" dash move in "Slowroast Sewer", the game's second level.
Anton, the player character, uses his "clutch" dash move in "Slowroast Sewer"

Antonblast is an action-platformer. The player takes control of either Dynamite Anton or Dynamite Annie as they rampage through several areas populated by Satan's minions to reclaim Anton's stolen spirits. From Brulo's Casino, which acts as the game's hub world, they can access several different levels, each of which houses a spirit. All of the spirits must be retrieved to challenge Satan and complete the game.

The player's primary means of attack is the "Clutch", a dash that destroys enemies and obstacles. Clutching in a rhythm set by a meter enhances the speed of the dash. Pressing the button just before striking an enemy or obstacle sends the player into a high-speed "Slingshot", allowing him to barrel through a series of obstacles without stopping. Pressing the same button in mid-air performs a spinning "Hammer Vault" that allows them to bounce off the floor to greater heights. The player can also roll and slide along the ground, or perform the "Antomic Blast" to plummet through the air and enter dumpsters.

The player character: Dynamite Anton in his stone form and on top of a timer, activates the "Happy Hour" phase of the first level: "Boiler City" which can be seen in the large "Happy Hour" text on top of the image.
Anton, the player character, activates the "Happy Hour" phase in the first level: "Boiler City"

Populating levels are poker chips of different values, cassette tapes that can be played at Brulo's Casino, spray cans that unlock palette swaps for the player character, and a special collectible unique to the level. The player can spend poker chips at Brulo's Casino on permanent upgrades to their maximum health, temporary power-ups for the next level, or additional cassette tapes and spray cans.

Each level is divided into two layers: the background and foreground. The player can move between layers by jumping on special springs, and use color-coded detonators to remove blocks with a corresponding color and potentially transform the opposite layer. At the climax of each level, the player activates a clock-like detonator that that triggers an event known as "Happy Hour", giving the player a time limit to return to the level's beginning before it explodes. During "Happy Hour", certain blocks that previously obstructed the player's path become intangible, and vice-versa, thus creating a new route the player has to traverse in order to finish the level. Several levels instead pit the player against a boss; either one of Satan's "Bossbuster" moles, or a larger-scale boss with multiple phases.

Development

Old banner used for Antonblast's Kickstarter campaign and the Steam page in 2023.

Antonblast was designed and self-published by the indie studio Summitsphere (shortened to Summit), mainly by its founder, Tony Grayson, who worked as co-coder, main-designer, and sole composer for Antonblast and its predecessor. Antonblast is a successor to the studio's previous release, Antonball Deluxe, a Breakout clone with controls inspired by those of Mario Bros. which contained both the original Antonball (renamed Antonball Classic) and Punchball Antonball. Since Antonball Deluxe proved to be a mild success, Summitsphere started work on Antonblast in June 2021. Fans of Antonball noticed similarities between Anton and the Mario character Wario and suggested that Summitsphere make the next Anton game follow the style of the Wario Land series. Coincidentally, Grayson had already considered the concept, including Satan's role as the main antagonist, in 2017 prior to Antonball and Antonball Deluxe's conceptualization.

Design evolution of the player character, Dynamite Anton. Top left contains Anton's previous design from Antonball Deluxe, top middle and right contains Anton's early redesign process for Antonblast, bottom left contains old key art of Anton for Antonblast from 2022 to 2024 and bottom middle contains the current iteration of Anton's design and key art for Antonblast in 2024.

During the early stages of Antonblast's development, Grayson wanted to change Anton's design and characteristics to be "more interesting" and more distinct from Wario. Taking his characteristics in Antonball on how Anton "looks really pissed off and wants to punch a hole in his wall" and combining it with a "working vibe", Anton became a demolitions expert alongside Annie, inspiring the names of the characters to be changed from Anton Ball and Annie Bell to Dynamite Anton and Dynamite Annie respectively and the demolition platforming aspect of the game. Several other characters: Annie, Danton and Nina also recieved redesigns to match with Anton's new design. Antonblast's biggest influence is from the Wario Land series, particularly Wario Land 4 and Virtual Boy Wario Land. Despite Grayson describing himself as "the biggest Wario Land fan", he did not like the controls of most of the games in the Wario Land series due to "Wario stopping on a dime" and not liking how Wario Land 4 in particular "forces you to go fast." However, Grayson appreciated the controls of Virtual Boy Wario Land for being "really fast" with an "actual dash button". Anton's hammer and the hammer bounce was inspired by Amy Rose's hammer jump ability in Sonic Adventure, with Grayson stating: "Why hasn't anyone made a game with that move, it's cool!"

Believing that the gaming industry did not feature many "destructive platformers", Grayson drew from Broforce and Tembo the Badass Elephant for inspiration. Grayson noted his mixed feelings about the two, praising them overall but feeling that they overemphasized the destructive gameplay aspects. Grayson pitched Antonblast to 30 publishers only for all of them to decline due to their belief of Antonblast not being safe enough to publish. This lead Grayson to look at Renegade Kid for inspiration. He learned the team used to work with publishers at first but decided to go solo for Mutant Mudds and then hold up Kickstarter campaigns for their other games so they would not need a publisher. Although hesitant, with Summitsphere running out of options on developing Antonblast with a sustainable budget and wanting to keep the company afloat, it lead to Antonblast being first revealed on May 17, 2022, alongside a Kickstarter campaign with an accompanying demo featuring the game's first level, Boiler City. In just, Summitsphere cites Wario Land, Crash Bandicoot, Metroid Dread, Sonic CD, Cuphead, and Shovel Knight as influences.

Within 72 hours, Antonblast reached its crownfunding goal of $75,000 and at the end, the campaign garnered a total of $144,566. Grayson thanked the Kickstarter campaign for allowing Summitsphere to be saved from being shut down, commenting: "If we did not succeed (in Kickstarter), and we did not get our pay out by June, we would've been on the streets. No more Summitsphere." He also noted that some of the 30 developers who rejected Antonblast emailed back after the campaign's success, asking Summitsphere to work with them, only for Grayson to decline. The graphics are pixel art created from hand-drawn animations, scaled down before being implemented into the game. According to Grayson, he was in talks to feature Crash Bandicoot's original voice actor, Brendan O'Brien, in the game; However, O'Brien died before he could make an appearance in the game. Antonblast was featured at the Guerrilla Collective Showcase 2023, where a new public demo was announced featuring a new playable character: Dynamite Annie, updated mechanics and an additional level, Cinnamon Springs.

In Nintendo's Indie World Showcase on April 17, 2024, a new trailer for Antonblast was revealed, announcing a new demo was to release on the Nintendo Switch the same day featuring a brand new title screen, updated graphics, and an updated moveset. A release date for the final game was also announced: November 12, 2024, along with an update to the previous Antonblast demo on PC containing the same contents as the Switch port demo. On October 12, 2024, Summitsphere announced the delay of Antonblast to December 3, 2024, due to the Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene attacks in September affecting some of Summitsphere's team members ability to work on Antonblast and release the game on time. However, in the same announcement, they revealed the release date for a final demo to make up for the delay, titled "One Blast Demo". One Blast Demo was available to play at Steam Next Fest 2024 on October 14, 2024. It was later released to Steam with an overhaul of Boiler City, a new level replacing Cinnamon Springs, an opening cut scene, a hub world and two new modes: Time Trial and Combo Chain. On November 12, 2024, Summitsphere announced they were teaming up with Fangamer to release Antonblast physically on Nintendo Switch sometime in 2025. On November 21, 2024, the final trailer for Antonblast premiered at The MIX Fall Showcase 2024.

On November 29, 2024, the Nintendo Switch release of Antonblast was announced to be delayed to a then undeclared time period in December 2024 due to the game's performance on Switch not meeting Summitsphere and Nintendo's standards. Additionally, it was revealed that Summitsphere would be doing a Twitch livestream in anticipation of Antonblast's release on PC. When Antonblast released to the Nintendo Switch on December 13, reviews stated that there were many FPS drops and crashes present. Grayson later went to Twitter on December 17 and announced that they submitted a patch to Nintendo that would fix the many bugs and crashes plaguing the Switch release and that they were waiting for Nintendo's approval. Then on December 25th, 8 days after that tweet, Grayson wrote that the patch finally got the green light by Nintendo and the bugs were fixed. Less than a month and a day apart, Antonblast fully recouped its costs in development and marketing, turning a profit for Summitsphere.

Future

Tony Grayson has expressed interest in PlayStation and Xbox ports of Antonblast. Saying "Never say never.". Grayson also hinted towards a potential Antonblast sequel. At first he commented that "I (He was expecting myself (himself) to be really burnt out and tired by the end of this. I don’t want to see Anton again. But then stated "you haven’t seen the last of Anton. The blast of Anton, if you will." On the backer updates of Antonblast's Kickstarter campaign, Summitsphere announced they will be making more updates for Antonblast including a boss rush featuring new bosses designed by Kickstarter backers, minigames and more.

Reception

Full Game

Reception
Aggregate scores
AggregatorScore
Metacritic87/100
OpenCritic90%
Review scores
PublicationScore
Destructoid10/10
GamesRadar+4/5
Nintendo Life8/10

Antonblast has received "generally favorable reviews" according to the review aggregate website Metacritic, and a "Mighty" approval rating on the aggregator OpenCritic. Critics praised Antonblast for its detailed Game Boy Advance-inspired visuals and animations, addictive, replayable gameplay, and soundtrack. It became the top 20 of the best reviewed games in 2024 for Metacritic. Digital Trends' Giovanni Colantonio nominated Antonblast as their prediction for the upcoming Game Awards 2025, he praised the game's "zany visuals, animations, and sound", labelling the visuals as "an aesthetic explosion". Giant Bomb's Scott McCrae's top 10 games of 2024 listed Antonblast on #10, he praised the game for "taking aspects of Ed, Edd, n Eddy and other 90's Cartoon Network shows, the Game Boy Advance, Crash Bandicoot, and most importantly Wario Land."

Demos

Time Extension writer Jack Yarwood praised the demo, appreciating Antonblast for "fill the gap" left by the lack of new Wario Land video games. Hardcore Gamer writer Kyle LeClair included Antonblast in his top 10 list of games featured at PAX East 2023, praising it as a "terrific ode" to both the Wario Land series and to the Game Boy Advance in general. He found the platforming enjoyable, calling the mechanic of jumping in and out of the background "clever", and also calling the destruction in the game "wildly-fun". Kotaku writer Kenneth Shepard included it in his list of indie games releasing in 2023 that he wanted to showcase, praising its pixel art, action, and premise.

Notes

  1. Score based on eighteen reviews
  2. Rating based on eighteen reviews

References

  1. ^ Romano, Sal (November 29, 2024). "ANTONBLAST for Switch delayed to unannounced date before end of 2024". Gematsu. Retrieved December 2, 2024.
  2. Foster, George (December 2, 2024). "Antonblast Review - Crash Blasticoot".
  3. ^ Cunningham, James (May 17, 2022). "Punchy Powerful Platforming with AntonBlast Kickstarter Demo". Hardcore Gamer. Retrieved August 4, 2023.
  4. ^ Powers, Matthew (December 3, 2024). "Review – Antonblast".
  5. Pendle, Lyle (December 2, 2024). "ANTONBLAST review".
  6. Cripe, Michael (June 7, 2023). "Antonblast Wario Land-Inspired Gameplay Gets Demo Today". The Escapist. Retrieved August 24, 2023.
  7. Philips, Monica (December 2, 2024). "Antonblast Review".
  8. ^ Summitsphere, retrieved June 27, 2023
  9. ^ "AntonBall Deluxe: I Have A Game You're Going To Sign". gamemaker.io. Retrieved December 17, 2024.
  10. "Punch Ball Antonball by Summitsphere". June 9, 2021. Archived from the original on June 9, 2021. Retrieved January 3, 2025.
  11. ^ "'If ANTONBLAST Failed, We'd Be On The Streets'". gamemaker.io. Retrieved December 17, 2024.
  12. ^ indieRift (June 13, 2022). ANTONBLAST - An Explosive Ode to Handheld Platformers of Yesteryear | The Duel Screens Podcast #138. Retrieved December 27, 2024 – via YouTube.
  13. Devore, Jordan (May 20, 2022). "Antonblast has real Wario Land energy and it's coming to Switch". Destructoid. Retrieved August 4, 2023.
  14. Shirey, J Brodie (May 15, 2023). "Original Crash Bandicoot Voice Actor Has Died". Game Rant. Retrieved August 4, 2023.
  15. ^ LeClair, Kyle (March 29, 2023). "The Top Ten Games of PAX East 2023". Hardcore Gamer. Retrieved August 4, 2023.
  16. Erskine, Donovan (June 7, 2023). "ANTONBLAST gets new Dynamite Demo, available now". Shacknews. Retrieved August 4, 2023.
  17. Phillips, Tom (April 17, 2024). "Nintendo Indie World Showcase: everything announced". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
  18. ^ "ANTONBLAST delayed to December 3". Gematsu. October 12, 2024. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
  19. Life, Nintendo (November 13, 2024). "Wario Land-Inspired Platformer 'Antonblast' Scores A Physical Switch Release In 2025". Nintendo Life. Retrieved January 4, 2025.
  20. The Mix 2024 Fall Showcase. Retrieved December 13, 2024 – via YouTube.
  21. "Wario Land-Like Indie Antonblast Releases Explosive Final Trailer". Nintendo Life. November 22, 2024. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
  22. https://x.com/Summitsphere/status/1862614657959145967?t=tx6oJ-Y-uiP8K4Sp3oPCVQ&s=19
  23. "Review: Antonblast (Switch) - Channels Wario Land's Madcap Energy To Great Effect". Nintendo Life. December 22, 2024. Retrieved December 27, 2024.
  24. Summitsphere (December 27, 2024). "IT'S A BLASTMAS MIRACLE! The ANTONBLAST Switch performance patch is LIVE! Featuring: 🎅🏻 60fps framerate boost! ☃️ Bug fixes! 🎁 …and more! Go and download it NOW! 🎄💥". X (formerly Twitter).
  25. Grayson, Tony. "Thanks everyone for playing ANTONBLAST on Nintendo Switch! For those who are experiencing some performance issues, we have patches on the way fixing some glitches we are aware of as well as boosting performance further. We'll keep you updated when we know the ETA 🙏🏻". X (formerly Twitter).
  26. Grayson, Tony (January 3, 2025). "Antonblast recouping costs".
  27. Cichacki, Shaun (December 24, 2024). "Tony Grayson Chats About 'Antonblast' and the Design Philosophy Behind the Beloved Indie Game (Interview)". Vice.
  28. McAdams, Noah (November 12, 2024). "Fangamer announces ANTONBLAST: Physical Edition for Nintendo Switch™ is coming 2025! (And Kickstarter fulfillment updates too!! (UNFORTUNATELY I CANNOT GIVE A CITATION BECAUSE WIKIPEDIA DOESN'T ALLOW FOR KICKSTARTER LINKS FOR SOME REASON EVEN THO IT'S FROM SUMMITSPHERE)". {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  29. ^ "ANTONBLAST reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved January 2, 2025. Cite error: The named reference "OC" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  30. Luster, Joseph (December 11, 2024). "Review:Antonblast". Desructoid. Retrieved January 2, 2025.
  31. Vogel, Mitch (December 22, 2024). "Antonblast Review (Switch eShop)". Nintendo Life. Retrieved January 2, 2025.
  32. Taylor Kent, Oscar (December 2, 2024). "Antonblast review: "Explosively reinvents the destructive energy of Wario Land"". GamesRadar+. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
  33. ^ "These December games already deserve Game Awards 2025 nominations". Digital Trends. December 27, 2024. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
  34. Yarwood, Jack (June 9, 2023). "Wario Land-Esque Antonblast Gets Explosive New Steam Demo". Time Extension. Retrieved August 4, 2023.
  35. Shepard, Kyle (January 7, 2023). "30 Indie Games You Should Know About Releasing in 2023". Kotaku. Retrieved August 4, 2023.
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