This is Niche Spotlight. In this column, we regularly introduce new games to our fans, so please leave feedback and let us know if there’s a game you want us to cover!
Today’s Spotlight is Dead End Job, a colorful top-down twin-stick shooter by Ant Workshop and Headup Games.
You play as Hector Plasm, an overworked and underpaid exterminator for the supernatural pest control company Ghoul-B-Gone. Use an arsenal of high-tech ghostbusting gear to send spooky specters to the afterlife. Earn some extra cash by rescuing terrified citizens trapped in a wide range of procedurally generated haunted locations. You can find the launch trailer above.
Dead End Job also supports couch co-op, and has Twitch and Mixer integration. This allows a streamer’s audience to interact with them in-game by helping out or hindering their progress.
Dead End Job is available on Windows PC, Linux (both via the Humble Store, and Steam), Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One for $16.99. It’s also available on the Apple Arcade subscription service.
Here’s a rundown of the game from the Steam page:
Dead End Job sends you into a madcap, Ren & Stimpy-esque world to bust up ghosts. It’s a procedurally generated, couch co-op, twin-stick shooter that straps a vacuum pack to your back, and puts a plasma blaster in your hand. For you, it’s just another day in the office.
- Exorcise restaurants, offices and other buildings.
- Use a plasma blaster, your trusty vacuum pack and a whole range of supernatural items.
- Save your mentor’s soul or she’ll spend eternity as a spook (voted “Least Preferred Fate” in Ghost Hunter Monthly).
- So many ghosts.
- A madcap story written by IGF nominee Xalavier Nelson Jr
- Drop in/drop out couch co-op, as your mentor appears to lend a hand!
- Stunning cartoon-quality artwork inspired by 90’s favourites like Ren & Stimpy.
- Actually, maybe too many ghosts?
- Featuring original music by the award-winning Will Morton (Grand Theft Auto series).
- Twitch and Mixer integration allows viewers to help or hinder the streamer.
- Seriously, can someone please get rid of all of these ghosts?
Familiar Haunts
You take on the role of Hector Plasm, a worker at Ghoul-B-Gone – ‘the Number One experts in paranormal pest control’ – as you’re tasked with heading to haunted offices, restaurants, and other everyday buildings before freeing them of unwanted guests. One minute you’re sucking up specters, the next you’re sucking up to your bosses, chasing that promotion. Have you got what it takes to be the best at putting pests to rest?
Don’t Suck… Well, Actually Do
Exercise that fighting spirit, since every specter you snag and every resident you rescue is added to your client’s bill at the end of the job. Haunted by the ghost of your mentor, quite literally, you must learn the ropes and to save her soul before she’s forced to spend eternity as a spook (voted “Least Preferred Fate” in Ghost Hunter Monthly).
Kindred Spirits
Play alone or bust ghosts with a buddy in drop in / drop out co-op that works seamlessly within the main adventure. Plus you can play to an audience with Twitch and Mixer interactivity that allows viewers to help or hinder your assault on the afterlife.
Ghost Writer
Do you love 90’s cartoons? Yeah, so do we, and we grew up on their stretchy squishy gross-out laughs. Our love for them spills over into the game like so much ectoplasm. See every nose hair in wacky, vibrant art that brings everyday items to life as screwball spooks to suck up. To top it off, the entire adventure is backed by music from the award-winning Will Morton (Grand Theft Auto series).
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