There’s not much longer to wait before Boomerang Fu lets you slice up your friends in hectic, hilarious local multiplayer battles, and you’ll be able to do so on Switch, too. Today, developer Cranky Watermelon announced an August 13 release date, as well as a Switch version in addition to the previously-confirmed PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC releases.
Boomerang Fu is a bright, cheerful-looking game in which each player picks an anthropomorphic piece of food, gets dropped into an obstacle-filled arena, and then tries to… slice each other up with a boomerang. A single hit is all it takes to get chopped up, leading to some wonderfully chaotic situations as everyone tries to use the layout of the chosen arena and the boomerang physics to try and one-up each other.
I played a preview build a couple of years ago, and even back then, it was honestly one of the most delightful party games I’ve played. There’s just the right balance of ease of learning and strategic depth, with the core design of the game lending itself naturally to comical situations. Ridiculous power-ups bring another layer into the mix, with the likes of exploding boomerangs and the ability to dash through walls giving players new ways to get up to creative mischief.
Boomerang Fu will feature over 30 arenas, each with their own quirks and hazards. As well as the core competitive mode, there’ll be a co-op mode that pits a group of players against AI foes, and an alternative mode that sees players “squabble over the precious Golden Boomerang”. Players will also be able to customise the rules for each gaming, enabling or disabling individual power-ups and features like friendly fire.
Up to six people can play at once, provided you have enough controllers. There won’t be any online multiplayer—it’s a game that’s really designed with that same-room party environment in mind, where you can trash talk your friends—but the Steam version will support Steam Remote Play Together.
For anyone who likes party games (and probably even those who don’t), Boomerang Fu is one to keep an eye on.