Juicy Beast Games's debut effort on Wii U started out on the right foot with a hilarious trailer featuring the game's star – a goat – wondering just what in Arceus's name he's doing here. The trailer does show a little bit of the gameplay, enough to have me intrigued enough to give the game a look, and it looks like it'll be a regular in my multiplayer rotation going forward.

The game has three primary modes: Classic, Bomb and Target Challenge. Both Classic and Bomb are 2-4 player local multiplayer modes – there's no online play - in which you control one of four coloured totems (red, yellow, blue, green) in a single screen. A goat is on a pedestal in the centre of the area, and your job is to get the goat and hold onto it to score up to a point maximum or take out your opponent with an explosion. You take possession of the goat by using an infinite dash and a double jump to slam into your opponent(s), and once you have the goat you can use a shield with the dash button to prevent the goat from being stolen. The Target Challenge mode is a 1-2 player mode that lets you get used to the controls before jumping into the main events. There are eight different temples (maps), though three of them need to be unlocked, and you can also unlock cameos from other indie game characters to serve as the “goat.” Generally, the unlockables come quickly so the games stays fresh longer than the premise would make it seem.

Graphically, the game looks fine. The totems have simple, basic designs but do have nice bits of expression in the results tally and are clear enough in the battles proper to tell who’s who. The sound doesn't intrude but doesn't really stand out either. The game controls well, although the use of X as a primary button (dash) takes a little bit of adjustment. Some of the unlock requirements are a little unclear unless you do some digging: the last temple unlocks when you hit ten score milestones in Target Challenge, but the challenge text calls it “Training Mode”. This did cause a little confusion initially for me and as a result, that stage was the last to unlock.

If you've got access to a group of friends who are down for some weird concepts and Capra-based shenanigans, Toto Temple Deluxe should definitely be on your radar. There's something just plain fun about hurtling yourself into a goat from three-quarters of a screen away in order to sneak out a one-point win. It's ludicrous, but it works, and I hope Juicy Beast has more of these concepts because I'm down for whatever they've got.