Foamstars Reviews
Foamstars is a colourful, unique, and entertaining shooter. The modes and characters on offer at launch are fun twists on genre staples, and the central foam mechanic is a playful addition with some potential for strategy. It's lighthearted, fast-paced fun with plenty of style. While the steep microtransactions and the so-so co-op missions keep it from being squeaky clean, there's a lot to like about this bubbly multiplayer title.
FOAMSTARS from Square Enix is an interesting competitive game that borrows its surface-level gameplay concept from Splatoon while offering deeper and more intriguing gameplay underneath led by solid upgrade and buff systems. Unfortunately, the lack of meaningful solo missions does hurt the game, as it feels like half a game made it to launch.
There is so much good to say about Foamstars, with its quirky characters and cheerfully energizing feel. While at launch the matches do not feel entirely balanced, that will even out with time, yet the microtransactions look as though they could only get worse. Currently, Foamstars is free on PS Plus for anyone to try it out, but after March 5th anyone who does not already have the game downloaded will have to purchase it for $29.99. That price, combined with the costs of Premium Seasonal Passes and in-game store purchases can quickly add up and is overwhelming. Cosmetic items don't have to be purchased, of course, but to be faced with that many instances of trying to get players to spend money simply feels much dirtier than a soap-filled game ever should.
Foamstars is fun, but the bland aesthetics and aggressive monetization are huge turn-offs that prevent this from fully reaching its potential.
Foamstars is a unique and fun shooter that has some really cool ideas, but it’ll need to see regular content updates if it hopes to survive in the busy world of multiplayer shooters. Having it release on PlayStation Plus Essential instantly gives it a pretty strong player base, but whether or not it’ll sustain that will come down to how often we see new game modes, characters, and arenas. And sure, what’s on offer can be a ton of fun (especially when playing with a good team), but it needs a more extensive offering of content if the game hopes to stick around for the long-term.
Foamstars can be a blast under the right conditions. It's colorful, fast, fluid, and has a great party atmosphere. It's also disgustingly over monetized, has terrible voice acting, and a boring single player mode. When you're in a match with players of a similar skill level playing as your main, it's a ton of fun. But with only three main modes the fun can run out fairly quickly. Who knows how long Foamstars will last, but even with the negatives it's still worth giving it a shot.
Foamstars has a few distinctive elements on its side and also knows how to provide a few hours of fun.
Review in Italian | Read full review
FOAMSTARS is a game of two extremes where not all the foam and style in the world can hide the lack of substance. It shows signs of variety and depth, but it sins by being shallow. Its short matches entertain but don't hold you in the long run and the repetitiveness in its PvE mode tires before the player sees the best it has to offer.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
It is possible to have fun with Foamstars, but you need to be lucky enough to meet other players and ignore some problems. They include a poor campaign, poorly thought out menus and excessive content monetization. The qualities are there, such as good gameplay, interesting online game modes and a diversity of characters. If it survives this shaky launch and brings competent updates, it is still possible to turn the tables; otherwise, it will be like a beautiful soap bubble, which is beautiful when it appears, but quickly disappears because it cannot sustain itself.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Foamstars is a serviceable paintballer in the vein of Splatoon, lathered with some wild lore and underwhelming hero shooter elements.
Foamstars' combat mechanics are unexpectedly engaging, but confounding time-gated modes and aggressive monetization make them harder to enjoy.
Foamstars has its moments, but the frantic gameplay, annoying dialogue, and microtransactions do little to keep you playing for long.
Foamstars' core gameplay offers plenty of strategic fun, but you'll have to grit your teeth through some of its worst instincts to enjoy them.
If you have PlayStation Plus and want to try it out, there is the option to add it to the library, and I think it would be a good idea to purchase it now. But in case you reach the time when they will sell it for $30 USD, the truth is I would not recommend making the purchase, it is better to save the money for a product that does provide value for money.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Foamstars isn’t terrible, but its uninspired gameplay, deficit of content, and obscene monetization make it a forgettable experience.
Foamstars definitely has some charm to it, but the general lack of polish in the gameplay department and shoddy single player can bring the experience from initially impressive to ultimately underwhelming.
FOAMSTARS has some fun elements and offers some frenetic, chaotic and exciting matches, but it also lacks creativity, identity and shame with one of the most abusive microtransactions we've seen.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Foamstars is a fun party shooter with chill vibes and vibrant expression that just needs a few additions to be truly great. The foundation is there, Square Enix just needs to tweak the formula a bit before it is worth recommending without hesitation.
But with things as they are now, there are a few too many issues that come to the fore once you try to settle in for a longer player session. Visual clutter causes unnecessary confusion, movement feels unrefined, playing it in longer sessions borders on monotony, and its monetization leaves much to be desired. And despite it all, I’d like to see Foamstars succeed. There are good bones here, and ones that could easily lead to a strong title were they to get beefed up over the course of balancing and patching the game. With things as they are, however, Foamstars just doesn’t make as large of a splash as it needs to.
FOAMSTARS knows what it's doing following the Splatoon blueprint, but it's an easy pop that values its in-game economy more than fostering a community during the teething period of its release. I worry for the future of this one in the live service vacuum. While there are aspects that feel fun, this game still needs to prove itself in the market which is no easy feat. Locally, this is a tall ask but with server numbers untenable it really may be the writing on the bathroom wall for such a new multiplayer game – bubbles not included.