goblinAmerica Arrives: A Fever Dream of Presidential History

If you have ever wondered what a Tribes: Ascend-style movement shooter would look like if it were built from the viscera of kaiju and a feverish misunderstanding of American history, your answer has arrived. goblinAmerica launched into early access on PC today, and it is every bit as rancid and strange as the trailers suggested.

The game tasks you with playing as a goblin reincarnation of every U.S. President from Washington onward. The narrative framing is provided by a haunted gasmask full of puke—complete with a Tudor ruff and a prehensile headsock—which guides you through each President’s “worst moments.” These aren’t historical reenactments in any traditional sense; they are surreal, violent interpretations of presidential trivia transformed into a celestial holy war.

Gunning Down History

The tutorial level sets the tone immediately. You start by jumping out of a prolapsing Venus flytrap before being tasked with gunning down a massive, beige, rubbery cherry tree. It is a grotesque reference to the George Washington folk story, but rather than a simple act of honesty, the tree is a pulsating abomination with tacky, dumbbell-like fruit sewn into its skin. It is a bizarre, unsettling, and strangely erotic encounter that makes it clear you aren't playing a standard shooter.

The later Abe Lincoln level is equally unhinged. You begin by avoiding an assassination attempt by John Wilkes Booth, who spends most of the encounter complaining that you won't stop moving long enough for him to land a shot. From there, you take Abraham Goblincoln on a tour through streets where the architecture looks like it was carved from snakeskin and cars are molded from pancake batter.

Movement and Mayhem

Underneath the layers of bizarre imagery, goblinAmerica functions as a movement shooter. While the current demo doesn't fully capture the high-speed, stratospheric action promised in the early access trailer, the core mechanics are present: rocket-jumping, kneeslides, and environmental secrets that require agility to uncover. You’ll be navigating arenas littered with the golden corpses of your own previous clones while shooting pugnacious gobbos wearing traffic cones on their heads.

The game sits in a space occupied by titles like Cruelty Squad or Sluggish Morss: Pattern Circus. It leans heavily into a "brainrotten" aesthetic, occasionally feeling like a collection of grotesques just for the sake of being shocking. However, for those interested in seeing just how far this rancid presidential rolecall can go, the demo is available on Steam right now.