Welcome to our CHEATfactor Game Review of Kill the Plumber. We review the game and then factor in how the available cheats affect the overall game experience. For better or worse, our reviews will help you decide whether or not to use cheats when playing the game.

There are at least two sides to every story and the biggest story in gaming history is no exception. Kill the Plumber from developer Tekitown takes Nintendo's famed mascot and tells the story from the perspective of the bad guys and it's an interesting romp. It'll no doubt appeal to longtime fans of the Mario franchise more but it's also a franchise that's so familiar that anyone can enjoy the simple mechanics and for $5 on Steam, it's worth the risk.

In this version of The not Mushroom Kingdom, Not Mario isn't the hero you remember him as. No, here he's a raging maniac with a not so healthy affinity for not Princess Peach. Your righteous Not-Koopa King dispatches his army to deal with the crazed plumber and your job is simply as the title suggests to kill the plumber. The mechanics are simple as the game was originally created as a mobile app and more often than not you'll simply be moving left and right. Early on in the game most levels find you just trying to run into not Mario and cause him to die but new mechanics are introduced pretty frequently, keeping things fresh for the entire experience.

I've always loved stories like this, stories where we see an unexpected side of a well-known tale and what's more well-known in this day and age than gaming's biggest face? The developers have done a great job at taking some of the franchises' biggest conventions and mechanics and reversing them to make them feel completely new and the fact that they've done this with so few button controls is even more amazing. Everything from Thwomps to piranha plants and everything in between is here and Not Mario also his his usual array of tricks to try to get past you. If you've played a number of the Mario titles in the past and are familiar with the source material you're going to enjoy this game a lot more than someone who somehow isn't (please note, if you're reading this and you're not at least familiar with Mario, take a step back, go play those and come back to me).

You'll begin each level of Kill the Plumber with three Stars and they'll deplete as you spend more time in a level. You obviously want to do whatever you can to finish with the higher score and while I did try, I never felt like I needed to go back and play levels again for a higher score. This is mainly because most of the levels are carbon copies of each other with slight changes thrown in. Catch the plumber as he jumps between blocks, as he swims, you're controlling two characters instead of one etc. There are other mechanics thrown in, like having to outlast a timer countdown and not letting the plumber get to the super item but I still found them to be a bit too repetitive for my tastes.

Levels in Kill the Plumber are fast and the action happens very quickly. It's one of those games that before you know it, you'll be twenty levels in and you'll barely notice. It's fun on any platform but this is the type of game that I want to play on a bus or a plane, something that passes the time. I just didn't get that same feeling with the PC version of the game. It's the simple mechanics that allow me to play it casually, but focusing on it seemed to make me notice the game's issues like a horribly unsteady frame rate. Given the choice between the two I'm going to pick the mobile version of the game and that's not something I'd usually say.

Kill the Plumber is a fun and inconsequential action game that's better on mobile than it can ever be on PC but that doesn't mean you shouldn't check it out on either platform. It's an interesting experience that tells an interesting and untold side of one of the industry's biggest names. I enjoyed my time with Kill the Plumber but I'll likely be playing it on my way to places and not in my own home.