Whether it’s books, movies or video games, few forms of media are exempt from the power of sequels. If you like something, why wouldn’t you like more of it, especially if it’s improved and expanded upon… except for the curse that seems to ruin the second title in many series. I played Oh…Sir!! The Insult Simulator and then heard about the sequel – Oh…Sir! The Hollywood Roast – shortly after. After playing the original I wanted nothing more than to try it out. Sadly back then it wasn’t on any consoles that I owned, but after getting my Switch I was hyped to check it out.
If you’ve played the original, you can pretty much just stop reading now – there are a few solid improvements (jump down to the paragraph that begins with “The improvements” in bold) but mostly it’s the same experience. If you’re new to the Oh…Sir series, buckle up!
Oh…Sir! The Hollywood Roast is a game that pits you against an opponent, either AI or real. You won’t be battling with weapons though, you’ll be battling with your words! Can you crush your enemy’s spirits before they crush yours? Sure, you’ll live either way, and you’re not trying to save the world or anything, but who doesn’t love playing as an amalgamation of Deadpool and the Avengers, hurling crazy insults at a character named Dirty Potter who’s part Dirty Harry and part Harry Potter?
Regardless of what mode you play you’ll pick a character and then face off against another. Battles consist of a list of words and phrases that both you and your enemy draw from. You’ll take turns going through the words, and once you’ve both formed your insults you do damage to each other based on how insulting the phrases were. You also have words of your own to work with, and there’s a fair amount of risk involved with making an insult too long – if you can’t finish a sentence and there’s no elipsis (…) to grab then you’ll do no damage at all while your enemy is free to verbally pummel you.
There’s a fair bit more depth to it than that – using the same noun (mom, dad, etc.) in back-to-back insults does extra damage, and so do insults that your foe is sensitive to. Insults that don’t really make sense do far less damage, and you’ll learn to love the word “and”. Beyond that, there really isn’t a lot of depth to the game, and things quickly become repetitive. This is especially true in the campaign mode (referred to as “career”) – it’s great for practice, and each character only takes about an hour to complete, but with 10 characters to choose from that’s a good 10 hours of running through a very similar campaign. You also won’t unlock all of the characters on your first attempt, meaning you’ll be replaying lots of individual battles to get them. I’ve played a great deal of the game and even after beating the campaign on all the characters I don’t have 2 of the characters unlocked (including my favorite, an Arnold Schwarzenegger clone named Groan.
The improvements are great touches, though. According to Vile Monarch (the developers) there’s more than double the vocabulary in this game! You’ll also get specific feedback on what parts of your insult do how much damage, meaning you’ll be able to learn what works and what doesn’t much easier. I also loved that the campaign mode felt shorter but is more tense thanks to the new “Golden Parrots” you’re awarded in each battle for completing different challenges. Like the original the AI is rather dreadful, so once you get the basics down you’ll easily win 90-100% of your games, but at least trying to build up a word that does 35 damage or winning in only 8 turns adds some sort of excitement! I also really enjoyed the characters here – they’re all based on stereotypes or an amalgamation of things (like the aforementioned Dirty Harry + Harry Potter = Dirty Potter). Finally, a new insult-ending mechanic was added – the comeback mechanic. Each time you’re insulted, it fills up based on how much damage you took. There are three levels of comeback, and the further this fills up, the more damage the comeback will do. Each comeback is specific to the character using them and new comebacks are a big part of the rewards earned as you play through each character’s campaign. They really aren’t necessary in the campaign, and in fact I often forgot to even use them, but they’re a fun touch for playing against other people.
Like the original, this game really derives its fun from playing against other people, and even that fun doesn’t last long. However, for less than $5 on Switch (where I played), Steam (Windows and Mac) and iOS it’s definitely worth getting to play with friends. This is especially true on the Switch – a portable system that essentially has multiplayer built right into it. This makes it easy to find a friend, family member, coworker or mortal enemy to play against!
Finally, while the game does have online multiplayer, it’s rather difficult to find matches. I tried at several different times and had no luck whatsoever. The most recent time I even let it sit attempting to matchmake for a full 20 minutes just to see what would happen! You can (attempt, at least) to play against random online people or you can play against a specific friend online, so if you have friends elsewhere in the world you’ll always have someone to verbally battle anyway.
Note: I received a review copy on the Nintendo Switch in exchange for my honest opinion of this game