Epic Dumpster Bear 1.5 DX: Dumpster Fire Rebirth mini-review

While it might look un-bear-able, this isn’t a complete dumpster fire. 

As the title suggests, Epic Dumpster Bear 1.5 DX: Dumpster Fire Rebirth is crappy looking and campy. By conventional standards, the game seems like it was cobbled together using royalty-free Unity assets. Players seize control of a brown bear who is brought to life with a modest number of animation frames.

The game’s environments are relentlessly utilitarian, with lots of drab stonework, stacks of shipping containers, and huge hornets that look like they belong in another game. Most players will probably look at Epic Dumpster Bear and assume it’s nothing more than shitty shovelware. And given the lack of curation for the Nintendo eShop, you really couldn’t blame them.

Who Pulled This Script from the Disney Dumpster?

But if you’re ever grown exhausted by Hollywood’s incessant fondness for brain-dead blockbusters, Dumpster Fire Rebirth might provide a few laughs. Protagonist bear Edmonton faced a hero’s downfall in Epic Dumpster Bear 2. But in true Marvel Cinematic Universe manner, death is no match against the need for additional revenue. As such, Edmonton time-travels through the Dumpsterverse as the game delivers deliberately ham-fisted storytelling that’s reminiscent of the latest Disney dud.

Lines like “he found many beasts and reconciled with his father” satirize the melodramatic exposition that dominates the multiplexes these days. Usually, the text is accompanied by intentionally simplistic animations, ensuring that Epic Dumpster Bear isn’t to be taken literally. But occasionally, the team at Log Games offers a jab at late capitalism or our lack of environmental concern, which helps to keep the game from being completely inconsequential.

Double Jumping, Wall Vaulting, and Other Basics

But with games, even biting parody means little without some basic playability. Here, Dumpster Fire Rebirth delivers more than you might expect. This revision (after finishing the game you unlock the original control method) provides Edmonton with a double jump and blue aura attack that’s adept at taking out a mad cow or murder hornet. But the revision isn’t without its flaws. Occasionally, I’d launch myself right through a wall while scouring a stage for collectables, requiring a level reset.

Save for the odd fling following a wall leap, the controls are surprisingly responsive. But it’s Dumpster Bear’s stage design that’s the real winner. Echoing the ingenuity of Donkey Kong Country and Sonic the Hedgehog’s sense of speed, most stages are largely enjoyable, although some can run a bit long.

Built to accommodate speed runs, there’s a sense of flow as you leap from spring pads, ride moving platforms, and evade hazards like flame throwers and cannons. Smartly, Log Games makes almost every stage distinctive, adding power-ups for Edmonton that allow him to bomb destructible blocks or launch curling stones at enemies. There are even red translucent orbs that function just like Donkey Kong Country’s Barrel Cannons. The obligatory boss battles bring a bit more wackiness to an already absurd game. The one misstep is the 2.5D stages that recall Sonic the Hedgehog 2’s bonus stages. They’re not quite as responsive as the rest of the game.

One Person’s Trash is Another’s Treasure

If you can look past the basic visuals, Epic Dumpster Bear 1.5 DX is surprisingly fun. There are some mobile game-style incentives to replay levels, challenging you to seek three hard-to-reach red coins, earn stamps, or earn some salmon. And it’s hard not to be charmed by the bear facts that are shown during the brief level loads. I expected to loathe Epic Dumpster Bear, but easily mined five dollars worth of enjoyment from the platforming and the parody.

Epic Dumpster Bear 1.5 DX: Dumpster Fire Rebirth was
played on Switch with review code provided by the publisher.