Review: Epic Dumpster Bear (Wii U)

Not Dumpster Material

We take a look at the very unique game Epic Dumpster Bear, a 2D indie platformer available on the Wii U eShop, starring an epic biped bear in a revenge story against deforesting corporations.

I’ve played video games all my life, so when a video game’s presentation takes me by surprise, it immediately grabs my interest, Epic Dumpster Bear is an eShop release for the Wii U that, unless you have a crystal ball, won’t see coming.

Presentation

Let’s get to the elephant in the room, the presentation: this game is wacky and strange, but, in a good way, as someone who likes indie games, I must say it’s noice to see a 2D platformer that isn’t 8 bit for once; don’t get me wrong, I like them, it’s just that there’s too many of them nowadays, and it gets boring, but Epic Dumpster Bear is definitely not boring.

Story

In Epic Dumpster Bear, you play as a Bear who is angry that his home forest has been destroyed by a large corporation, and is forced to eat out of dumpsters, so he embarks on a journey to bring justice to the forest and to be able to eat something not out of a dumpster.

We won’t spoil anything from the story, but let’s say that it only gets stranger, but the originality and wackiness are appreciated.

Gameplay

The gameplay is surprisingly fluid and precise, and I mean surprising only by the fact that you play as a bear who runs around in two feet, spastically, through these strange environments. And in terms of level design, there’s also some great variety, especially when going forward through this game’s worlds.

Speaking of advancing through the levels, this game gets really hard, I died more than a few times in the harder levels in the game, but rarely did I feel the game was being cheap, save a few instances when it took the camera a second to follow me to where I was, and ended up getting killed or falling a pit because I couldn’t see what was ahead of me.

Outside these few instances, It felt like I could’ve reacted to what was ahead of me, and when I tried again I knew exactly what I did wrong. The fact that there’s no limit to the lives in the game, you’ll always respawn on the latest checkpoint you reached, so trying again won’t be a long process.

Features

It terms of features, this game is very well packed with extra features for a 10 dollar eShop game. You can play with a Pro Controller or the Wii U Gamepad, it does support Off TV Play, and there’s actually a few levels made with the Gamepad’s touch screen in mind, you press different colors to move different platforms; it’s a nice change of pace, and brings variety to the level design.

Not only that, but it also supports Miiverse, and it has different stickers that you can collect and post on the social network, you get many of these during your regular playthrough of the game, so it’s easy to start your collection from the get go.

As a little bonus, each time you enter a level you'll find yourself with some interesting facts about bears, like what to do if you see one in the forest, to not leave food around in a camp,  some behaviors and habits, and their scientific name.

Conclusion

Overall, I feel that Epic Dumpster Bear is a great indie platformer for the Wii U, especially with its great controls, unique presentation, and vast features. This game is more of an Epic Bear, rather than a Dumpster experience. So if you’re on the fence because the presentation looks unpolished or too strange to you, don’t let that take from you a great experience.


Review copy of the game provided by Log Games.