Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

Ex-Mutants delivers a classic hack-and-slash experience, placing you in the battered boots of humanity’s last hope. Armed with a trusty battle axe, you’ll hack through hordes of mutant adversaries as you traverse eleven distinct levels of Sluggtown’s irradiated wasteland. Each stage introduces new enemy types, environmental hazards, and occasional platforming segments, ensuring that the action never feels stale. The combat emphasizes timing and positioning—swinging too recklessly can leave you open to counterattacks, while overly cautious play may cause you to get swarmed.

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Beyond mere button-mashing, the game tasks you with rescuing your five fellow non-mutant comrades, each trapped in mutant-infested strongholds. Freeing them not only advances the narrative but also grants you access to their unique abilities—ranging from ranged attacks to temporary defensive buffs. These rescued allies can accompany you in later stages, creating dynamic duo combinations that breathe fresh life into the core gameplay loop.

Scattered throughout the levels are six genetically pure samples, critical to humanity’s rebirth. Finding these hidden items encourages exploration, as you’ll need to backtrack and scour secret rooms or solve simple environmental puzzles. The sense of discovery is rewarding: uncovering a sample often comes with a stash of health pickups or weapon upgrades, balancing the game’s moderate difficulty curve.

Graphics

Visually, Ex-Mutants embraces a gritty, run-down aesthetic that perfectly captures the aftermath of nuclear devastation. The color palette leans heavily on muted browns, sickly greens, and fiery oranges, evoking the scorched earth of a war-ravaged world. Backgrounds feature crumbling buildings, scorched vehicles, and pools of toxic sludge, making each level feel appropriately hazardous.

The character sprites are impressively detailed for a game of its era. Lord Sluggo’s grotesque form towers over your hero, with animated ooze dripping from his mutated limbs. Your axe-wielding avatar moves fluidly, with satisfying attack animations and responsive jump arcs. While the frame rate occasionally dips during high enemy counts, the overall performance remains stable, ensuring you’re rarely removed from the intense combat.

Special effects—such as blood splatters, explosion flashes, and glowing genetic samples—add an extra layer of visual flair. Though modest by today’s standards, these effects were ambitious at the time of release and still hold up well for retro gaming enthusiasts. The HUD is clean and unobtrusive, displaying health bars, axe durability, and collected samples without cluttering the screen.

Story

The narrative premise of Ex-Mutants revolves around a dark future where a nuclear holocaust has turned most of Earth’s population into grotesque mutants. Lord Sluggo, the mad tyrant of Sluggtown, rules with an iron fist, seeking to eradicate non-mutants and thwart any hope of human revival. As one of the few survivors possessing intact DNA, you bear the monumental responsibility of gathering six pure genetic samples to seed a new generation.

The story unfolds through brief cutscenes and in-game dialogue, offering enough context to keep you invested without bogging down the action. Each rescued comrade adds a piece to the overarching plot, revealing backstory elements that deepen your understanding of Sluggo’s tyranny and the sacrifices made by your allies. While the narrative isn’t a cinematic epic, it effectively drove arcade and console audiences of its time to push forward to the next level.

Boss encounters, especially the climactic battle against Lord Sluggo, serve as narrative high points. Sluggo isn’t just a palette-swapped enemy; he frequently shifts forms, each requiring a different strategy to defeat. These encounters reinforce the stakes—failure means not only game over, but the extinction of the last pure human lineage.

Overall Experience

Ex-Mutants strikes a satisfying balance between action and exploration, making it a compelling choice for fans of retro beat-’em-ups and platformers. Its eleven-level structure offers a solid playtime—typically five to seven hours on a first playthrough, with additional challenge for completionists seeking every sample and hidden area. The pace rarely stalls: as soon as you rescue one comrade or secure a genetic sample, you’re propelled onward by the promise of new abilities and tougher foes.

While some modern players may find the difficulty spikes frustrating—particularly in boss battles—there’s a genuine sense of achievement in mastering each level’s quirks. The ability to switch between rescued allies adds replay value, as you can revisit earlier stages using new skills to unearth secrets you previously missed. This mechanic encourages multiple playthroughs and rewards careful exploration.

In sum, Ex-Mutants offers a gritty, atmospheric romp through a post-apocalyptic world teeming with mutant monstrosities. Its blend of tight combat, exploration-driven item hunts, and memorable boss fights make it a standout title for retro gaming aficionados. If you appreciate old-school challenge, evocative pixel art, and a story of human resilience against all odds, Ex-Mutants is well worth your time.

Retro Replay Score

6.6/10