Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

Take Your Best Shot offers three mini-games—crude interpretations of Breakout, Pong, and a baseball batting challenge—all wrapped in Bill Plympton’s mischievous animation style. At its core, the trio of arcade classics plays much like you remember, but with a distinctly cartoonish twist. Each mode is simple to pick up: move your paddle, line up your shot, and watch the puck, ball, or animated head fly. However, the physics feel somewhat off-kilter, reflecting the game’s intentionally unpolished design rather than precision gameplay.

(HEY YOU!! We hope you enjoy! We try not to run ads. So basically, this is a very expensive hobby running this site. Please consider joining us for updates, forums, and more. Network w/ us to make some cash or friends while retro gaming, and you can win some free retro games for posting. Okay, carry on 👍)

The true centerpiece is the “Joe vs. Boss” interactive showdown, where players select outrageous weapons to humiliate one another. Here, timing and button-mashing determine whether Joe fires a cannon at his superior or ends up on the wrong end of a lawnmower blade. While the premise is delightfully bizarre, the combat mechanics boil down to clicking through attack animations, offering more novelty than sustained challenge.

Between these modes, there’s some variety but little depth. Breakout’s levels lack escalating difficulty, Pong feels sluggish, and baseball batting is more random than skill-based. These titles serve more as short diversions than full-fledged games, making Take Your Best Shot a quirky amuse-bouche for fans of Plympton’s dark humor, rather than a long-term arcade staple.

Graphics

Visually, Take Your Best Shot leans heavily on existing material from Plympton’s 1991 short film Push Comes To Shove. The animations are as delightfully twisted and grotesque as the original, showcasing the filmmaker’s signature line work, surreal character designs, and fluid motion. However, the inclusion of only preexisting art means there’s no fresh content—everything feels eerily familiar if you’ve seen the cartoon.

The in-game resolution and color palette are bright and bold, lending each pixel a hand-drawn charm. Yet the crude user interface and static backgrounds in the mini-games sometimes clash with the dynamic character animations, creating a jarring visual experience. Screensavers featuring floating heads look nice on paper but loop too quickly to serve as relaxing desktop enhancements.

Additional desktop wallpapers and icon sets included on the CD are attractive and maintain Plympton’s aesthetic, but their limited number and simplistic design mean they’re unlikely to replace your current wallpaper rotation. If you’re a die-hard fan of Plympton’s art, these extras are a fun nod, but for most users they’ll be more of a curiosity than a daily fixture.

Story

Story is minimal by design, focusing on the ongoing feud between hapless Joe and his tyrannical Boss. There’s no overarching narrative beyond the cycle of humiliation and revenge—they insult one another in witty text bubbles, then unleash cartoon violence in a quick-fire duel. This premise beautifully captures Plympton’s dark humor, turning slapstick brutality into an interactive spectacle.

Each encounter unfolds in bite-sized vignettes rather than a traditional plot structure. You’re not progressing through chapters or unlocking characters; instead, you’re sampling different ways to make Joe or his superior look absurd. The lack of character development might frustrate gamers seeking emotional engagement, but it’s entirely fitting for a title billed as “Twisted Arcade Games for Twisted Minds.”

While the animations derive from a single film, the game’s writing injects fresh quips and insults, giving these characters life beyond the short. It’s more about the experience of watching violence morph into dark comedy than following a coherent storyline. If you value narrative depth, take note: this title is strictly on-the-nose, cartoon carnage with a side of snark.

Overall Experience

As a novelty package, Take Your Best Shot stands out for its audacious sense of humor and Plympton’s distinctive art. The three arcade mini-games act as simple vehicles for the main attraction—the Joe vs. Boss extravaganza—and while they’re serviceable, they’re not what will keep you coming back. Instead, it’s the bizarre weaponry, snappy insults, and grotesque animations that define the package.

The extra content—flying-head screensavers, wallpapers, icons, and sound clips—provides a modest bonus for fans, but it’s easy to exhaust these extras in a single afternoon. With no new art or levels to unlock, replay value is limited to the novelty of watching the same short film frames spring to life in slightly different ways.

In the end, Take Your Best Shot is best suited for animation enthusiasts, die-hard Plympton fans, or anyone looking for a quick, humor-laced diversion on Windows. Its rough edges and minimal gameplay depth make it an acquired taste, but for twisted minds craving offbeat cartoon violence, it delivers a memorable if fleeting thrill.

Retro Replay Score

null/10