Extreme Exorcism is the game where every move you make will come back to haunt you, literally! This 2D action platformer from Golden Ruby Games can get quite chaotic at times, especially when there are 8 or 9 versions of you running around trying to kill…well you!
Extreme Exorcism takes place in a haunted mansion, and starts round 1 by dropping you into a level with 3 lives and one enemy. Easy? Well this is where the twist comes. Once you kill that enemy you will be dropped into the level again for round 2, only this time with a ghost of yourself from the previous round. The ghost will copy exactly what you did from the previous round, jumping, shooting or whatever you got up to. As you progress through each round, you will have to fight off every ghost version off yourself from the rounds before! So for example, by round 9, there are 8 versions of yourself to kill!
Each level has weapons scattered about which spawn randomly, to help you fight off these ghostly versions of yourself. These range from swords and baseball bats, to machine guns and rockets launchers! As you progress through the game, more weapons unlock. But remember, if you jump around firing rockets everywhere, the next round your ghost will do the exact same thing. This really leads to some tactical ways of thinking, and found myself a lot of the time planning my moves and attacks for the rounds ahead.
Even though killing every ghost wins you the round, there is also a ghost bearing a crown. Killing this ghost automatically wins you the round, saving you trying to navigate through all your gunfire from the rounds before. Also, this being Extreme Exorcism, there is of course a power called ‘Exorcism’. Like weapons this can randomly spawn, and creates a sphere around you making you invincible and killing every ghost it touches. But if you manage to kill the ghost bearing the crown, this resets the ghost count as if you were back on round 1! This extremely useful when surrounded by 12 ghost versions of yourself, wielding swords and shooting guns all over the place!
You can also have up to 3 friends join you in local co-op, so you don’t have to face these ghosts alone. There is also a death match mode which can also be played in local co-op. Even though you have to praise Golden Ruby games for adding local co-op, it would of been nice to have the option of online co-op as well.
The only other criticism I can give is the difficulty of this game when it gets hectic, as it only takes one hit for you to die. This could put some players off, but with a bit of practice this could be overcome. Maybe adding a practice mode would be helpful.
Extreme Exorcism is a thoroughly enjoyable game. With its retro visuals and unique gameplay, it has the capability of getting you hooked for some time! Buy this one for sure. If you’re a fan of games like Rogue Legacy and Volgarr the Viking you’ll love this title.
Simon contributed 16 articles to ICXM in 2015, covering game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news with a focus on hands-on impressions and verified-source reporting. Their bylines on the site span the Xbox One’s first full year of post-launch coverage, including the early days of Backwards Compatibility and Windows 10 gaming.