The latest game released by Square Enix, Foamstars is a colorful party shooter exclusive to PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4. It is included as a monthly free game for PlayStation Plus membership from launch date until March 5, 2024. If you are a current PS Plus subscriber and have literally nothing else to play, it may be worth downloading for some interesting multiplayer mechanics.

However, it is simply impossible to recommend Foamstars in other circumstances, as there is very little to spend more than an hour on it at most. The lack of modes and maps makes the PvP matches disappointing, while the relentlessly boring single player missions are honestly a pain. The PvE mode is slightly better, with some unique power-ups to discover, but ultimately it is still too repetitive to maintain interest.

To make matters worse, the game is loaded with monetization, including a battle pass and surprisingly expensive costume packs. While this would be much more tolerable in a free-to-play title, it’s hard to imagine a future where Foamstars’ bubbles don’t pop once it’s fully converted into a paid product. Set in the neon-lit city of Bath Vegas,

Foamstars is at its best when taking part in fast-paced PvP matches. Foamsmash participants are armed with surfboards and bubble-powered guns that spit colorful bubbles all over the screen. These bubbles damage and bubble opponents until they reach a vulnerable “bubbly” state. Opponents can be “cooled off” (meaning elimination in the game’s rather condescending lingo) with a quick swipe of the surfboard.

Streams cover themselves with a bouncy layer of team-colored foam, providing some cover, a bit of elevation, and, more importantly, allowing you to glide around on your surfboard at significantly higher speeds. Meanwhile, the other team’s bubbles impede your movement and slow you to a crawl. Given the mechanical similarities, comparisons between Foamstars’ foams and Splatoon’s ink seem almost inevitable. But

Foamstars also contains a few other unique ideas that set it apart. For starters, Foamstars features compelling hero characters with their own weapons and abilities. There’s a solid amount of variety in the current roster of eight heroes, from the dual-wielding melee speedster Soa to the bubble-spewing Rave Breaker. They all have very distinctive and eye-catching designs, and getting to know their unique quirks is surprisingly exciting.

My personal favorite was Mel T, the adorable dessert-themed contestant with a powerful homing rocket launcher. It was a fun change to attack enemies from a safe distance as a bystander. There’s a nice rhythm to bubble up enemies before attacking them on the board, but the bright colors and fast movements can make the action hard to follow, especially during hectic moments.

This is a shame, as Foamstars matches use a very condensed 4v4 format, which in theory should make things easier to understand. There are currently three PvP modes available: Smash the Stars, Happy Bus Survival, and Rubber Duck Party. Rubber Duck Party is a simple objective-based mode where teams compete for control of a rubber duck race, with the winning team being able to get their ducks across the finish line the fastest. Meanwhile,

Smash the Stars is a weird version of team deathmatch where the best performing player is named the star player. The first team to lose their star player is defeated, and defending your own star player makes for a very exciting team-based challenge. Happy Bath Survival changes things completely by placing two players from each team outside the arena and supporting their teammates with a rain of colored bubbles. The game lasts for up to three rounds, with the team that wins the most rounds being declared the winner.

Happy Bath Survival is arguably the most exciting game, but unfortunately games in all three modes feel very short, often lasting only a few minutes. This means that it never seems boring, but it quickly becomes annoying to be sent back to a small hub area to wait for a new game.

It also fronts some of the most brazen attempts at monetization, with one of the few hub activities being a look into various costume packs, some of which come with an almost ridiculously high price tag of $44.99 / £36.99, and are sold in the in-game store.

It’s also a shame that there are only three PvP modes in total. With only a handful of very simple maps to master, the replay value of each mode quickly diminishes. With the exception of a refreshingly unique casino-esque map with a giant spinning roulette wheel, the many simple arenas quickly blur into one.

Aside from PvP, there are also 18 single-player Foamstar missions to complete. While each of them focuses on a different character, they all follow the same ridiculously simple format, with continuous waves of boring enemies slowly heading towards an unstable reactor in a literal straight line in a boring, boxy environment.

While all this is happening, we hear frustratingly and awkwardly written dialogue almost the entire time, aside from the odd appearance of the adorable illustrations and one extremely unsettling moment that suggests the bubbles in the game are actually bodily fluids secreted by one of the characters, making the whole thing feel like pointless filler.

There are also incremental upgrades that can be purchased with currency earned after each successful mission, but the benefits are so small that you can safely ignore the entire system. The online PvE mode thankfully fare better, as it adds three more players to the game and introduces a more exciting upgrade system where more substantial buffs are given between waves. These range from small stat improvements to extra projectiles and even turrets. They’re nothing particularly special, but thankfully reduce the sense of monotony to a more bearable level.

Overall, the PvP component has a lot to offer, but we can only hope that upcoming seasonal content updates will bring the rest of the package up to date. As it stands, Foamstars is a huge disappointment and really squanders its multiplayer potential.