Smash 'N Grab Steam Demo Review
Verdict: Play
A heist beat-em-up time trial that rewards route mastery. Find your controller first.
Smash 'N Grab is a heist beat em up where you play as a robot and raccoon duo, tethered together, pulling off a robbery against the clock. One level. No respawns in hardcore. Just you, the route, and a leaderboard waiting to see what you've got.
Smash 'N Grab is a heist beat-em-up time trial built around mastering a single level. Every run is about shaving seconds, finding faster paths, and deciding what to smash and what to skip. The fun holds up, but grab a controller before you download.
Pros
- Satisfying speedrun loop
- Fun robot and raccoon duo mechanics
- Hardcore one-life mode adds tension
- Strong aesthetic that holds up in play
Cons
- Controller only, no keyboard and mouse support
- Single repeating level
Core Mechanic
You and your raccoon partner are connected by a rope, which matters more than it sounds. You move through a fixed level smashing guards, grabbing jewels, and destroying things that add seconds back to the clock.
The layout never changes. Once you know where the guards are and what is worth smashing for time, the question becomes how clean you can make it. Thirty minutes in, the writer was still finding slightly faster paths through the same rooms.
Throwing the raccoon at a guard to grab them is the standout move. Absurd on paper. Works every time.
Time Trial and Leaderboard
Every run is a time trial. The game grades you at the end and puts your time on a leaderboard. The reviewer's best run came in at 67 seconds, good enough for 11th place, rated Criminal. The person at the top of the board was doing it in under 33 seconds.
Most deaths are fair. The ones that are not are usually on you for not paying attention or not reacting in time. The game does not do anything cheap.
Normal Mode vs Hardcore
There are two modes. Normal lets you die and respawn, but the clock keeps running. Hardcore gives you one life.
The counterintuitive thing is that hardcore actually makes speedrunner attempts cleaner. In normal mode a death kills your time whether you restart or push through, so you end up manually resetting anyway. Hardcore formalises that and removes the temptation to limp to the finish.
Things Worth Knowing
The game is controller only. There is no keyboard and mouse support. Worth knowing before you commit to the download.
The heist aesthetic holds up in play, not just in the trailer. The art style stays consistent and high quality throughout, which does a lot for immersion in a game this short. It feels like a finished thing. No Steam reviews at launch and no full release date yet, so where the full game goes from here is still an open question.
Developer: SLAP-BANG! Digital
View on Steam
Watch the video review: YouTube
Tags: Action, Indie, Fighting, Roguelike
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