From the neon glow of Brainium crystals to the squelch of rogue grey matter underfoot, Chip ‘n Clawz vs. The Brainioids launches players into a comic-book cosmos where strategy meets slapstick. This in-depth dive into Julian Gollop’s latest creation fuses base-building brilliance with third-person action, letting you command armies while squishing alien brains with your robo-cat’s paws. Whether you’re leading the charge solo or tag-teaming with a mate in couch co-op, every Grav Sphere reclaimed feels like a punchline delivered with a plasma cannon. It’s chaotic, colourful, and completely unafraid to be weird in the best way possible.

Chip ‘n Clawz vs. The Brainioids Review Pros

• Awesome comic-style graphics. 
• 4.49GB download size. 
• Platinum trophy. 
• Interface settings – language, enable one-press skippable cutscenes, text scale (small/normal/large/huge), display control hints, display building info panel, and display health numbers. 
• Network options – cross-play, and hide game code in online lobby. 
• Controller settings – Invert axis and sensitivity sliders for both player 1 and player 2.
• Mute button to turn off all sounds. 
• Four game modes – campaign, versus, practice range, and join game with code. 
• The campaign can be set to online or offline. 
• 3 save slots. 
• Cutscenes are a mix of FMV, in-game and character portrait interactions. 
• Has a Saturday morning TV show presentation and fell to it all. 
• Excellent voice work. 
• Solar system level select, where you can replay and rewatch previous levels and cutscenes. 
• Fast loading times. 
• Action RTS gameplay. 
• Tutorial pop-ups as you play. 
• Each level will have a primary objective and a couple of optional objectives, along with your best rank shown and a description of the task ahead. 
• Two game difficulties – normal and hard, and you can pick each time you select a level. 
• A full 3D game world, and you have 360-degree camera control, and your character is in the third-person view. 
• Brainium is the resource that powers nearly everything in the world. You can farm it from deposits and find small chunks around the world. 
• Build miner depots that churn out little miner workers who will then automatically go and farm Brainium deposits for you. 
• Find hidden collectable info cards with each level, and the pause screen shows how many you have and how many there are. You keep them after you finish the level. 
• Enemies can and will attack your workers and structures. 
• Your character can fight enemies and has a sword and other abilities at other times, and the combat is very hack and slash, complete with a combo counter. There is also a handy auto lock on that helps. 
• Your main hub building in each level is where you respawn if you die, but you can unlock new respawn point choices in the world. 
• The game runs really well, the camera movement is smooth and fast, and combat is responsive. 
• Play how you want and build how and what you want. 
• Comic book style pop-ups as you fight like wham or blast, or other such things. 
• You can demolish buildings for a small scrap return. 
• When placing structures, it’s really quick from the radial dial to outline the building plans project with green for OK to red, to indicate you cannot place that here. 
• Clear and clean, easy to read HUD. 
• You can pause the single-player game. 
• The music is surprisingly upbeat and bass-heavy; I like it. 
• Very much a main character with a helpful sidekick against aliens vibe. 
• Capture enemy and neutral structures by using your Brainium. 
• Use Brainium in the world to interact with things to change the world, like statues that can open places or drop bridges. 
• You can and will create bots to help you fight, and many other things. 
• The command screen turns the level into a blueprint-style loadout, and you can set waypoints and commands for your workers, etc. 
• Your main character is very chatty, with a lot of one-liners and quips as he fights. 
• Objectives show at all times on the screen and tick as you complete them. 
• I found the game surprisingly easy to get into and get the flow going. 
• Commanding troops, and that isn’t just on that screen, oh no, you can just use shoulder buttons and the cursor to quickly and easily set a beacon for them to follow. 
• When you start getting different troop types, you can then use the d-pad and command button to easily and quickly command a single set of troops or just have them all at once. 
• Follows the logic of certain troops and enemies are stronger and weaker against certain types, so shooting troops can take out melee quicker, but you can take out shooters quicker. 
• On the map will be the main story missions, but also optional challenge levels you can take on. 
• Earn stars and nanobitz based on your level completion performance and spend them on upgrades and new abilities, and structures. 
• I am very impressed by how they’ve managed to not only advance the genre but also make what is usually a technical heavyweight in Knowledge into a lightweight, accessible RTS experience. 
• Exploring the world is just as much fun as building. 
• When mashing the attack button, you do special attacks every few attacks that make for some great moments. 
• Other collectables to find include comics and blueprints. 
• Find secret areas and islands within the level you are in. 
• Luckily, most of your troops will do things automatically, like mining or going after a particular structure. You can, as I said, command them, but it’s nice to be able to just build and forget sometimes. 
• So many cool troops to build and command, it’s cool the way you have to open up the plans for them in a level, at a little pod thing that shows a projection of that troop. 
• It lets me, no hang it, actually encourages me to play like I used to play Command and Conquer. I can hang back and just build a huge army and then storm the base in well well-fought swoop, love it. 
• Having bright colours, dopamine-fuelled pop-ups and rewards make it a fantastic experience. 
• I like replaying levels and trying new strategies out. 
• You can change the loadout of your team with new buffs and abilities before you take on a level or challenge. 
• One huge bonus is you can build what you want where you want; it doesn’t have to be tied to another structure or so close to a base, it takes out all the little management things and streamlines it. 
• Even in single player, you do get to play each character, no real difference really, but we all like change. 
• Spend Brainium on structures and troops to Overdrive them so they perform better. 

Chip ‘n Clawz vs. The Brainioids Review Cons

• The controls look like they can be remapped, as they have a reset to default option, but I couldn’t get them to work, so no way to remap the controls. 
• Respawning having a timer, and how easy it is to die, does suck some fun out of it. 
• The opening levels are very stop-start as they drip-feed in the story and the controls. 
• Your character is chatty, that’s not always a good thing; repetitive lines and constant chatting do grate, and you get no control over the frequency. 
• The camera can go a bit all over the place in small, tight spaces. 
• Water being auto death is a real pain. 
• Level design overall is solid, but there are so many ledges and lips that you can clearly reach, but the game says no. 
• The comics and cards are disappointing as they are just cool pictures with a box of text. I was hoping it was a proper comic, and the cards would have the writing on the back of the cards that you could read. 
• No Colourblind support or dyslexic font, etc. 
• I did find that after long sessions, I didn’t go back to the game for a long while. 
• It’s a game that can still be quite repetitive once you have unlocked the tools and abilities. 

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Chip ‘n Clawz vs. The Brainioids

Official Website: 

Developer: Snapshot Games Inc.

Publisher: Arc Games

Store Link:

PlayStation