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.[1] 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 more red than his own. Satan jealously demands that his army of moles entice Anton to him so he may steal the latter's color, and they subsequently break into Anton's apartment to steal his prized collection of spirits: prompting a furious Anton and his co-worker Annie to seek out those responsible, with Anton proclaiming his desire to "find out who did this, and blast them into teeny tiny little pieces!". The pair are supported in their quest by casino owner Brulo, who promises to revoke Anton's lifetime 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 Anton's colour via a drinking straw, becoming immensely powerful and red. The spirits rejuvenate and transform Anton and Annie into demons, enabling them to defeat Satan and return them both to normal. 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.
During the game's credits sequence, it is revealed that Satan has not been heard from since his defeat, though it is immediately clarified that this is likely because nobody has been searching for him, but as the old saying goes, "The devil's in the details".
Gameplay
Dynamite 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. There is also secret rooms around the casino with one room referencing The Angry Video Game Nerd.
Anton'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.[2] Pressing the button just before striking an enemy or obstacle sends Anton into a high-speed "Clutch Spin", 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 Anton to bounce off the floor to greater heights. Anton can also roll and slide along the ground, or perform the "Antomic Bomb" to plummet through the air and enter dumpsters.[3]
Dynamite 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.[4]
Each level is divided into two layers. Anton can move between layers by jumping on special springs, and use color-coded detonators to remove blocks with a corresponding color and transform the opposite layer.[5] 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", 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.[6] Several levels instead pit the player against a boss; either one of Satan's "Bossbuster" moles, or a larger-scale boss with multiple phases.[4][7]
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 as Summit), mainly by its founder, Tony Grayson, who worked as co-coder, main-designer and sole composer for Antonblast and its predecessor.[8]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.[8][9][10] 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 Super 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.[11][12]
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, inspiring the destructive platforming aspect of the game.[12]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 didn't 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".[12] 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!"[12]
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.[11][12] 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 wouldn’t need a publisher.[11][9] 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.[3][11] 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 $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."[11] 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.[9] The graphics are pixel art created from hand-drawn animations, scaled down before being implemented into the game.[13] According to studio head Tony 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.[14]Antonblast was featured at the Guerrilla Collective Showcase 2023, where a new public demo was announced featuring updated mechanics and an additional level, Cinnamon Springs.[15][16]
In Nintendo's Indie World Showcase on April 17, 2024, a new trailer for Antonblast was showcased, announcing that a new demo was releasing on Nintendo Switch the same day featuring a brand new title screen, updated graphics, an updated moveset and the announcement of a release date: November 12, 2024, with an update to the previous Antonblast demo on PC containing the same contents as the Switch port demo.[17] 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.[18] However, in the same announcement, they revealed the release date for a final demo for Antonblast 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.[18] On November 12, 2024, Summitsphere announced they were teaming up with Fangamer to release Antonblast physically on Nintendo Switch sometime in 2025.[19] On November 21, 2024, the final trailer for Antonblast premiered at The MIX Fall Showcase 2024.[20][21]
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. [1][22] 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 of Antonblast 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.[23][24][25] Less than a month and a day apart, Antonblast fully recouped its costs in development and marketing, turning a profit for Summitsphere.[26]
Antonblast has received "universal acclaim" from critics. It has been praised for its detailed Game Boy Advance-inspired visuals and animations, addictive, replayable gameplay, and soundtrack.
Demos
Time Extension writer Jack Yarwood praised the demo, appreciating Antonblast for "fill[ing] the gap" left by the lack of new Wario Land video games.[30]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".[15]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.[31]
^ ab"ANTONBLAST reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved January 2, 2025. Cite error: The named reference "OC" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
