The storyline featured in Funk of Titans follows Perseus, son of Zeus, that is tasked by the powerful Greek god to keep Funk music as the best in the world. Perseus will battle with other mythological foes that fall in the music genres of Pop, Rap and Rock to keep the Funk alive. The narrative makes little sense throughout the entire length of the brief campaign, and the developer's attempts at humor in the game are painful to watch unfold.
The endless runner gameplay of Funk of Titans is simple and slow. Players only need to use an attack button and jump button to progress through the levels of the game. Unlike a title such as the Bit.Trip Runner series, the main character in Funk of Titans moves slowly and has few obstacles to avoid during the early levels of the game. Funk of Titans manages to have controls that work fine most of the time, but the game does become a bit difficult in certain levels due to poor level design that makes players want to jump too soon or jump in the wrong direction.
There are three different worlds included in Funk of Titans. The Pop, Rap and Rock worlds offer many similar environments, enemies and items throughout their levels. Fire and spike traps are common across most levels, and ancient Greek enemies seem to repeat throughout the majority of levels in each world as well. Swinging switches and grippable walls are also used in many levels. Despite having parts and pieces that repeat throughout the game, Funk of Titans is unique to the runner genre for having several levels that focus heavily on traveling vertically as well as horizontally, though it's far from enough to redeem the game.
Each of Funk of Titans' worlds ends with a boss battle with a music warrior from each of the three genres of music. Strangely, this is the only time when music from the genre is heard through the entire world for a couple of the worlds. The boss battles play out in quick time events that are entirely too simple. Players will watch the boss dance around and play music and then be forced to hit a series of about a dozen face buttons on the Xbox One controller to win three consecutive rounds. The battles offer an abrupt change from the runner gameplay, and they are boring to boot.
Funk of Titans has a poor presentation that starts with the game's graphics. Character models in the game are inconsistent. The main character looks fine with an absurdly large upper body and chicken legs that look great while dancing to some funky beats; however, minor characters seem to be overlooked and not nearly as detailed and have much rougher animations. Despite having a narrative focused on music, Funk of Titans has a bland soundtrack that won't inspire gamers to get up and dance along to the beat. The game's controls are mostly responsive, but they are wasted on a runner game that is slow, overly simplistic and broken.
It should not be hard to develop a solid runner game, but Funk of Titans manages to combine poor level design, a painful storyline and boring gameplay to create a game that wouldn't really be worth playing if the game was available for free. Since the game costs $12.49 on the Xbox Games Store, it's hard to recommend the game to anyone that isn't completely desperate to play a new runner game. There is simply nothing to like about the game, and the title fails at nearly every level of game design. Stay the funk away from Funk of Titans on Xbox One.
Funk of Titans is now available exclusively for Xbox One and can be purchased for $12.49. Funk of Titans is rated T by the ESRB for Fantasy Violence & Mild Blood. For more information on the game, check out the official Funk of Titans website.
Game Features:
- Single Player
- Three Unique Worlds
- Collectible Weapons and Hats
- Online Leaderboards
- Achievement Support
Game Information:
Developer & Publisher: A Crowd of Monsters
Available exclusively for Xbox One (reviewed)
Release Date: January 9, 2015