Firegirl: Hack ‘n Splash Rescue DX

Developed by Dejima, Firegirl: Hack ‘n Splash Rescue DX follows the story of Firegirl, the daughter of a legendary Firefighter who, in a heroic effort, died in a devastating fire a decade ago. Rumours of a flaming, ghostly apparition known as the ‘Old Man of Fire’ ran rampant afterwards, but all mention of this was hushed until now. With sightings being reported by civilians, and a worrisome encounter with this FireLord yourself - evidently they have returned to wreak havoc, but for what reason?

Fire Tome collectibles - thirteen in total - need to be found in order to stop the FireLord, with the situation being monitored closely by the FBI. More of the story - and mystery - will be uncovered as you progress, with the perpetrator being guilty of more than just being an ars(on)ehole.

There are a variety of fire-themed enemies that you’ll encounter, and you’ll need to deal with these in order to work your way through each location and rescue the civilians and pets within. You can bash through rubble and debris in order to find pick ups and locate people and animals that need rescued, and you’ll need to monitor your water usage, as using too much will reduce the pressure of your hose, meaning you’ll need to be far more in harm’s way in order to deal with the hazards.

You can refill at various water sources, as well as pick up water refills along the way, though the water never fully runs out. You have limited amount of health, but can purchase upgrades from the FireHouse, as well as find First Aid kits within the levels. Strangely, we thought we were encountering an error with the First Aid kits, as these could be found around the levels right from the start, but activating them didn’t seem to work - however Allan then unlocked the character Kareem, who allows for a free first upgrade to these First Aid kits, taking the number of hearts restored with each from 0 to 1. This seemed to be a slightly odd choice to have them even be available within the levels prior to this character being unlocked, as until that point it felt like the game was being unfair with the non-working first aid.

The visual style is interesting, with semi-realistic environments and pixelated characters and enemies - with the ‘fire monsters’ having varied designs ranging from little flames to bats, dripping flames that shoot at you from the ceiling, and huge whales that spray fireballs at you from a distance. You’ll progress through different locations, beginning in a large apartment block style building, with later levels taking place in a runaway train, a burning forest, and a hotel, each with randomly designed layouts - though these can become quite samey after a while, since level layouts are simply just rearranged. These are well designed, and have a bunch of little references hidden throughout, such as strips of carpet from The Shining’s Overlook Hotel. The soundtrack is fantastic and everything feels very arcade-like, from the voiceover when finding pickups to the growing intensity of the tracks as the timer counts down.

We did run into the odd issue along the way, with debris frequently blocking the fire hose from spraying and it feeling all too easy to lose momentum when using your hose to propel yourself up - though this may be as a result of slightly more realistic physics than we’d hoped haha - and whilst it did cause a higher-than-average number of deaths, leading the gameplay to feel a tad repetitive at times, it didn’t detract from our enjoyment too much.

Overall, Firegirl: Hack ‘n Splash Rescue DX is an entertaining game, and one that is deeply filled with unlockable upgrades for the FireHouse, giving you plenty of reason to keep going back for more in order to get new equipment and increase your health and your hose-power. If Firegirl sounds like a game that you’ve got a burning desire to play, then you can pick it up on the Xbox Store for £14.99.

In the end, we decided to give Firegirl: Hack ‘n Splash Rescue DX the Collecting Asylum rating of 8/10.

Are you interested in Firegirl? What do you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!

- V x

Thank you to Plan of Attack for the Firegirl: Hack ‘n Splash Rescue DX review code!