Fling to the Finish Review: Multiplayer Mayhem at its Finest

Grab a buddy and get ready for some seriously silly shenanigans in Fling to the Finish, a wacky new co-op party game that’s sure to get your crew cackling. The premise is delightfully simple: you and a partner each control adorable little characters connected by a stretchy elastic band. By flinging each other around and bouncing over obstacles, you’ve gotta race through vibrant levels strewn with stuff like explosives, loop-de-loops, and pinball bumpers.

It’s a blast stringing together crazy flings to soar over gaps or using your stretchy tether for a clutch save when your buddy’s about to bite it. The levels squeeze every last drop of chaotic fun from the mechanics as you’re tasked with stuff like herding ducks or racing alien saucers. Sure, controlling the two connected characters can get chaotic, especially when you’re wrestling over a shared controller. But that’s all part of the charm of this raucous romp!

While it’s easy to learn, Fling to the Finish takes teamwork, quick thinking, and serious flinging skills to excel. If you’re seeking some rowdy co-op hijinks to get your crew cracking up, this one’s got you covered! Just be ready for sidesplitting moments as you catapult each other into crates at mach speed.

Zany Physics and Teamwork Take Center Stage

The fling mechanic is the heart of the action here. You and your partner each control cutesy little characters, then take turns stretching your elastic tether and flinging each other through the level. Timing these flings just right to clear gaps, bounce over hazards, and reach speed boosts takes practice. But pulling off a perfectly synced move with your bud to thread through grinding gears or ping-pong off bumpers feels so satisfying.

The levels keep you on your toes with stuff like rickety minecart tracks suspended over lava, deep pits ready to swallow botched flings, or winding slopes you’ve gotta carefully traverse. Whimsical objectives like duck herding or outrunning cartoon UFOs add variety too. Some later levels get seriously challenging, requiring pixel-perfect flings and teamwork.

While you can play solo controlling both characters, Fling to the Finish is way more fun cooperatively. The shared control scheme ratchets up the chaos, with each player controlling one side of the gamepad and having to coordinate every move. It can feel clunky at first, but leads to lots of hilarious fumbling.

A decent selection of extra modes provides some replayability once you’ve conquered the story, like racing rival teams or hunting for hidden collectibles. But after a while, the core fling-and-bounce gameplay can start to feel repetitive. More diverse objectives and hazards in future updates could help keep the flinging fresh.

Overall though, the charming physics-based flinging makes for delightfully chaotic co-op shenanigans. This one’s all about embracing the pandemonium with friends to create moments of sidesplitting hilarity. Just be ready for some frustrating yet funny failed flings along the way!

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Vibrant Visuals and Tunes to Match the Zany Action

One look at Fling to the Finish’s rounded cartoony characters and brightly colored landscapes lets you know this game doesn’t take itself too seriously. The visuals burst with a fun, youthful energy fitting of a rambunctious party title. Levels like old west towns, jungle ruins, and candy factories are splashed with every color of the rainbow. It’s varied backdrops keep the scenery fresh and give each area its own quirky personality.

The characters themselves are brimming with charm too, from the adorable worm sporting a tiny mining hat to the decidedly un-aerodynamic sheep flailing their limbs mid-fling. Their expressive animations milk extra laughs out of every botched bounce or pratfall.

Backing up the cheery visuals is a soundtrack chock full of catchy tunes. Bouncy melodies, goofy vocals, and seaside shanties give levels an upbeat, almost wacky vibe. The audio actively leans into the game’s silly personality rather than fade into the background.

It all adds up to a smooth, polished presentation that complements Fling to the Finish’s zany style of play. When a game is this focused on delivering sheer fun with friends, it’s great to see the graphics and audio enhancing the experience rather than getting in the way. This isn’t a technical showpiece, just a burst of color and sound specifically crafted to highlight the chaos.

Local Co-op is a Riot, But Online Needs Work

There’s no doubt about it – to really experience the manic magic of Fling to the Finish, you need to play with friends in the same room. Whether it’s good-natured trash talk or uncontrollable laughter at every failed fling, local co-op is an absolute riot. The shared control scheme only amplifies the hilarity as you wrestle over the controller and fumble your way to the goal. Sure, solo play is enjoyable thanks to the wacky physics, but playing together on a couch unlocks the game’s full potential for fun.

Online does allow up to 8 players to team up, but some technical issues hamper the experience right now. Matchmaking can be unreliable, leaving you queued indefinitely. And once you do connect with friends, desync problems and intermittent disconnects can cut the chaos short. The developers are clearly aware of these problems though, and are actively working to expand online options while smoothing out connectivity.

If the devs can improve stability and introduce modes like custom matches or level creation down the line, online play will become a more viable way to fling when you can’t fling in-person. Even just adding a server browser could help form an active community that sets up their own sessions. But for now, technical limitations make online play feel like more trouble than it’s worth compared to the seamless fun of local co-op.

So while Fling to the Finish absolutely shines when played together in the living room, online needs more work before it can truly recapture that social magic. But the strong foundation is there – with ongoing updates, it can get to the point where playing together online is almost as fun as side-by-side on the couch. Just maybe keep a spare controller on hand for when your WiFi drops out.

Co-op Chaos That Hits the Mark

At its core, Fling to the Finish sets out to provide riotous couch co-op hijinks for gamers seeking social fun. And it absolutely sticks the landing when it comes to delivering over-the-top hilarity with friends in the same room. The charming characters, simple yet engaging fling mechanics, and diverse obstacle-strewn levels combine into a recipe for delightful chaos.

While solo play is enjoyable thanks to the endearing physics, this one truly shines when you’ve got a crew laughing and yelling on the same couch. The shared control mode enhances the madness even further, resulting in fumbling that’s as frustrating as it is funny. Online play shows promise once connectivity and stability improve, but make no mistake – this is a party game meant for in-person shenanigans.

A bit more variety in level goals could help keep the flinging fresh after extended sessions. And some extra polish on single player and netcode would be welcome. But at the end of the day, Fling to the Finish wholly succeeds at bringing friends and family together for some seriously silly, unpredictable fun. Couch co-op this smooth and personality-filled is rare these days, so gather your crew and get ready for outrageous multiplayer mayhem!

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