Revenge of the Savage Planet review: This sci-fi game is co-op comedy gold

Jump forward to 2025. Google Stadia is no more. Typhoon Studios is no more. But somehow, against all the odds, the development team has managed to bring out a properly impressive sequel to Journey to the Savage Planet.

Having founded a new company called Racoon Logic, and got back the IP rights to their fledgling Savage Planet series, the gang are back at it. Enter a new challenger, Revenge of the Savage Planet.

The original game tasked players with exploring a brightly-coloured, goo-covered, weird-creature-infested planet. As you explored, you’d gradually earn better upgrades to your gear, allowing you to access new areas of the planet in the classic 'Metroidvania' fashion.

Journey to the Savage Planet was a compelling game, with its engaging gameplay loop bolstered by its beautiful visual design, a catchy soundtrack, and an overabundance of comedy gold baked into every nook and cranny of the game.

Everything from the creature design, to your spaceship’s talking computer, to a series of live-action commercials, was overly stuffed with gags. And the hit rate of said gags was pretty high.

All of that charm added up a really memorable debut game from this team, and we’re very pleased to report that Revenge of the Savage Planet has taken all of that charm and multiplied it across a bigger and better sequel.

This new game brings a new perspective, too, and we mean that literally! While Journey was a first-person experience, Revenge swaps to third-person, allowing for more physical humour and a lot of eye-catching costumes (I spent most of the game dressed as a racoon).

Another major change is that Revenge supports couch co-op, and we’d really recommend playing the game this way if you can.

You and your multiplayer partner can both run around and do whatever you want, which can lead to a lot of fun and some abject chaos (at one point, I had to rush to try and help my wife in a boss battle — I’d gone off in a totally different direction, hunting for collectibles, when she’d accidentally triggered a fight with a giant sand worm).

It’s also worth noting that Revenge is much larger in scale than Journey. Whereas that game trapped you on one planet, this new one will literally shoot you in a canon between four different worlds.

You might find an upgrade on one planet that will really help you on a totally different world, essentially stretching that satisfying Metroidvania loop across a galaxy of possibilities.

There’s so much to discover, and a lot of laughs to be had along the way. Co-op games can often be frustrating, with the likes of Overcooked and Split Fiction often remembered for the arguments they inspire among bickering players.

Here, instead of snapping at each other, you’re sharing in the joys of discovery, play and silly humour. You're more likely to laugh with/at one another than anything else.

The game isn’t quite perfect, but there’s charm to be found in its foibles. When a game is geared around comedy (and boy, this game is geared around comedy), it’s easy to laugh if your character and/or the menus start to glitch out (which can happen here), or if little details don’t work out the way you’d want.

For example, you both have to be on the same planet at any given moment. If you die and don’t get revived in time, you’ll often be sent to respawn at your home base on a totally different planet.

Once you get used to this, you can have fun with it, and even use it to your advantage, working your awkwardly-timed death into your travel plans. You’ll always have things to do on the first planet, so really, the death-teleport is doing you a favour… from a certain, silly, warped logic point of view.

Another thing that’s tricky, when you have four planets and two players and so much going on at any given point, is to deliver the story in a satisfying way. This isn’t really Revenge’s strong suit, but as long as you understand the basics of what’s going on, you’ll have a great time as you explore, upgrade and follow your nose around these lovingly designed planets.

Revenge is a dish best served cold. And if this game is its developer's act of revenge, presumably aimed at Google for closing its original company, we’d say it's been served in a very cool way indeed. If you love sci-fi, if you love exploration, if you love having a laugh while you play with a partner, give it a go. You can thank us later.

Revenge of the Savage Planet launches 8th May for PC, PS5, PS4 and Xbox Series X/S.

You can order your copy now. We reviewed on PS5.

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