If you like twinstick shooters, retro arcade games, and local 2v2 multiplayer games, Heavy Burger is a keeper.

• Pixel perfect recreation of arcade classics
  
• Simple, intuitive, and responsive controls
  
• 2v2, 4P Controller support, great party game
  
• Allows customized gauntlets of your favorite maps
  
• Fairly challenging achievements for hunters

• No online multiplayer. But it does have bot support for solo play
  
• Only 6 maps do wear thin with time. Notably, in pursuit of 100 custom matches achievement.
  
• A missed opportunity to bring in more modes, powerups, or even players from origin games.
  
• No level editor, and you must always use the same starting map and ending (bank) map

Combining a total of 6 games from the 80's collection of Data East's catalogue, Heavy Burger is anything but the sum of its parts. Burger Time's lead chef is armed with weapons from Heavy Barrel, in an effort to stop palette-swapped fellow chefs from getting the gold. You invade neighboring games a la Pixar's 'Wreck-It Ralph,' all the while trying to dodge their enemies and environments as you race for the exit.

Burger is bubbling with retro arcade personality, with fully optimized graphics for higher resolutions. The music fits perfectly, blending arcade chiptunes with electronic synth. The stages will constantly have you on your toes as you react to enemy bullets, onscreen obstacles, and environmental hazards. But, admittedly, the game does suffer a lack of variety after three or four dozen matches, and certainly had so much more potential to pull out of its ingredient IPs.

For a simple twinstick party game that caters to all ages and skill levels, do yourself a favor and try an order of Heavy Burger.


EDIT: 7/28/19 - fixed broken link

Coming out of nowhere with no marketing that I'm aware of, Heavy Burger is a four-player local competitive game that takes the bullet-dumping dodge-rolling twin stick shooter antics of Enter The Gungeon with the endzone-driving pressure of Nidhogg and wraps it all in a celebratory orgy of Data East's 80s arcade catalog, creating a wonderfully chaotic game that perfectly targets a demographic of around zero people.

Up to four Peter Peppers (human-controlled or bots) split into two teams and, armed with automatic burger launchers, scramble to grab a bag of money dropped in the center of the map. The team that takes possession attempts to run the money to the opposite side of the screen while their opponents try to gun them down with shotguns, miniguns, lasers, and other randomly spawned weapons in order to take the bag for themselves. Once someone manages to cross the endzone, the map is "cleared" for that team, and they move onto the next stage that's based on one of five Data East arcade games, each with their own gimmicks: Side Pocket's pool table full of balls that can be shot at opponents; Karate Champ's arena that fills with, well, karate champs trying to punch and sweep our culinary heroes; Heavy Gunner's cliffside fortress full of turrets and trigger-happy soldiers; Lock and Chase's randomly-generated maze that fills with policemen; and of course, Pepper's own Burger Time, complete with falling patties and toppings along with evil eggs and sausages harrassing the players.

Each side tries to keep running the money down their line of stages, ultimately seeking to reach the final Bad Dudes-inspired stage and dive into the bank to cash in their stacks to Bank Manager and US President Ronnie for the glory of victory and a celebratory burger.

Chaos is the name of the game in Heavy Burger. With four players, the screen quickly fills with projectiles being launched all around, combining with the level's particular hazards and AI-controlled enemies to make each stage a mess that verges on the edge of incomprehensible. But the mechanics allow for a certain amount of skill: Players can time their dodges to dive over enemies and projectiles, along with using the recoil of their weapons to run faster and taking advantage of speed boost powerups that appear on the map. E-sports this ain't, but knowing these mechanics can make the difference between slowly waddling across the map or sprinting down the line and leaping over bullets into the endzone.

All of this adds up to a wild couch multiplayer game that rivals the manic energy of Duck Game or #IDARB. Of course, "couch multiplayer game" is still the double-edged sword it usually is. There is no online play, and the only "single-player mode" it can speak for is a series of 24 challenges where you play the game against bots, which I managed to complete in about four hours. The game also lacks the variety that other local multiplayer games have; there are only seven possible stages to play, two of which are the beginning and end maps, and the only customization is how many of those stages you want to play and in what order, along with the number of enemies on screen and the amount of time until the game goes into "sudden death," in which players will take longer to respawn and any stages that are cleared by one side are cleared for the other, which quickly and dramatically evens the playing field.

But if you've got friends to play this with, seven to eight dollars is a pretty good entry fee for what this game has to offer. Even if you don't hold much love for Data East (or even know who the hell they were), the sheer insanity, silliness, and thrilling game design makes Heavy Burger a rare (or at least, medium rare) experience.

Got this as a gift as I'm strapped for cash right now. This game is better than it has any right to be. Data East might be a brand that hardcore nostalgics might feel any affection to, but surely not the mainstream. To mash it all up in what might best be described as a "Smash Brothers, but as a Twin Stick Shooter" might seem as a mercenary design approach. But this game... it just... works. It works as intended. It is customizable to your personal preferences in a way that you would not expect a seven dollar game to be. The way you can balance a handicap match setup is simply sublime, especially because it's comparatively easy to manage. I'm pretty much beat in regards for what audience this game might be tailored, as I'm sure it will at best irritate Data East traditionalists (Or, maybe, slightly amuse them) and straight up baffle people who are not as in-touch with the hottest arcade trends of the late nineteen-eighties, but I can say so much: This game is actually, legitimately good. It's a crowd-pleaser in dire lack of a crowd. It's tacky, it's kitschy, it's loud as heck, it hits all it's shrill notes with astounding craft. Why does this exist? And why isn't _everyone_ playing this?

It's Nidhogg meets Smash TV with a beautiful mish-mash of cult classic Data East franchises, all in one game. And it's simply brilliant.

Screw RDR2, this is the real GOTY 2018!

This is more of a sideways thumbs up.

Heavy Burger does a lot of things right. The presentation is beautiful. Perfect sound bites and music that really capture all of these arcade classics. The gameplay is pretty decent: It's a multiplayer Smash TV/Tug of war game with a Data East backdrop. It's very cool and there's some singleplayer content in the form of challenges. These are just full cpu matches with some weird variation (all stages are Side Pocket/ 2 against one/ etc )

I've played for less than an hour and I feel like I've seen everything the game has to offer. It's fun but...there's like nothing more. Even with an online mode I'd still get bored quickly and move on to something else. Heavy Burger is a good little arcade game like Foosball or Air Hockey. You have a few drinks with pals, play once or twice and move on to the next game. It's 8 bucks as of writing and I feel even that is a little too much for this game.

It's a shame because I really like all the games presented/homaged to. I just wish we could play those original classics alongside Heavy Burger.

Heavy Burger is one of the strangest retro-themed games that I've played, but also one of the best.

You play as a recolour of Peter Pepper, the chef from Burgertime, and try to take the bag of money to your bank in a sort of capture the flag type of game. You travel through various other arcade games, each with their own hazards From giant pool balls to angry kung-fu masters, everything wants to kill you. This is made even more chaotic when more players are added.

There is a variety of weapons for you to defend yourself with, such as a laser gun, a rapid fire gun, or even a shotgun to keep things fresh. They can really change the tide of the battle, making it not a predictable or easy game by any means.

If you want a challenging, fun, unique, and one of a kind game, give Heavy Burger a try.

So... what I thought this was,

A run of the mill directional shooter arena type game. What I actually got...

Something to really annoy my friends when they come over. Frantic Tag Team Shooter where the winner is determined in a rather fun Tug O War setup over multiple themed arenas.

Get the bag of money, knock out the other team while you make your escape to your goal. Each Arena has a little gimmick to add to the chaos to spice things up. (Though some gimmicks are more annoying than others ... lookin at you Heavy Barrel).

The game still feels a little... bare but it's worth a go around and I would love to see this expanded especially since Data East is known for many great and...notorious IPs over time... Including but not limited to the mortal kombat clone Tattoo Assassins.

Overall, check it out - also there are some classic game unlocks but really it's not like you're going to buy this game soley for that when they've already been ripped a million times anyways.

Imagine a mix of the best 80's arcade machines where the basic scheme relates to BurgerTime and SmashTV mixed with classical local coach multiplayer. This what to expect in Heavy Burger. Bot support.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRrBnurAIno

Really great 2-4 player party game. It's like Smash TV + Nidhogg. Get it for cheap and play it with your buds.

very cool nidhogg like game