Given that drawing attention to new titles on the eShop can be a challenge, especially when they’re trying to do something like make a splash in an area that’s already feeling overcrowded, developers need to make use of any angles they can. One approach I’ve come to appreciate I’ll just call “When in doubt, weird them out”, but then again I’m partial to games that are a bit more unorthodox since they can make me laugh. If you’re a fan of the Vampire Survivors format, even if you’re feeling a little worn out by so many takes on it, I’d say that the mutated antics of Ground Zero Hero are at least worth a look.

Playing in a variety of irradiated locales, your job will be to take out as many of the often bizarre enemies that will come after you as you can, absorb their nuclear-powered essences, and then continue to upgrade yourself with a pretty wide variety of mutations to help with your survivability. These range from the practical like shooting fireballs or eye beams to the downright silly like laying explosive eggs, but the great thing is that as you unlock all of the other abilities available you can get some really nasty builds going if you can manage to survive long enough. Weirdly though, it won’t just be your health you need to keep an eye on, as you apparently have a wicked sweet tooth that demands you keep your candy gauge separately topped up, which adds a little extra oddity and tension to the proceedings.

Moreso than most, this does end up feeling like a game where you’re somewhat at the mercy of the RNG gods. The massive spaces you’ll be wandering around in feel like they practically continue on forever, and since there’s no map you’ll need to have a relative sense of where you’ve been. Treading back over spots you’ve already cleared will tend to power you up, grabbing what you missed, but failing to keep finding the pinatas that will fuel your candy habit can catch up to you if you aren’t careful. Critical things like health, bombs, and magnets to attract everything you’ve left on the ground do sometimes show up, but compared to most of the competition they tend to do so rarely, upping the difficulty as you’ll often simply need to go long stretches dodging, weaving, and using anything you can in the environment to help keep your enemies at bay. While it lacks the depth and layers of strategy Vampire Survivors is known for, it does manage to be engagingly silly, and should keep you occupied for at least a handful of hours as you work through all of its challenges.