New Mobile Game Troll Face Criticized for Unoriginal Meme-Based Design

What do you get when you combine inventory management, weapon crafting, and a tired internet fad? Well, you get today’s subject, Backpack Attack: Troll Face. A new mix of strategy and tower defense where the objective is to sort the weapons you need to fight off hordes of enemies into the limited space of your backpack while upgrading to keep the battle going.

Now, some of you may recognize the underlying gameplay of Backpack Attack as being inspired quite heavily by former Twitch darling Backpack Battles. Obviously, copycats are nothing new on mobile, and it’d be a bit mean-spirited to come down so hard on what’s coming from a small studio (or whatever AppVillage is). But at the same time, I’d feel guilty not to at least comment on the obvious, well, issue.

The Aesthetic Conundrum

That’s the overwhelming presence of some tired-looking troll faces and rage faces clustered around the player character and enemies. Gameplay aside, Backpack Attack: Troll Face has one of the biggest issues with clones. While I feel you can take gameplay elements and make them your own, attaching them to a rather underwhelming aesthetic that revolves around a long-dead internet meme (and not just one of them at that) seems a little ill-thought-out, to say the least.

Comparing Clones

Compare this to the glut of survivors-style clones. While you can take issue with them so heavily emulating Poncle’s surprise hit, many of these bullet heaven games at least did something interesting or innovative with them aesthetically, and added their own spin on it. Backpack Attack, meanwhile, seems like something that’s emerged from the nadir of the app store; without anything really new to offer.

But in any case, if you’re looking for some great games that really did catch our eye, why not check out our list of the best mobile games of 2024 (so far) to find out what we reckon is worth a play?

Update: 03 Sep 2024