A beta of backyard FPS Neighbors: Suburban Warfare is out now, and the balance discussion is hysterical: nerf trash can lids and children

Neighbors: Suburban Warfare was revealed this week during the Future Games Show Spring Showcase, and it’s a wacky combo of character shooter and, I don’t know, Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare. There’s a lot going on, with lots of neat mechanics built around the tropes of everyday suburban community dwellers.

There’s currently a beta on for it if you’re interested—you can hop over to Steam and sign up for that and try it out. That’s what brings me to this article, because the premise combined with player combat is absolutely hysterical.

This is a game where, to be clear, your team of four suburban people fortifies their house and plants their defensive garden and places traps in order to hold off the enemy force. It later attacks the neighboring team’s house in order to do stuff like, you know, steal their lawn gnome. Your characters are bratty kids and old ladies who used to be boxers and a mechanic and a retired stuntman.

“Nerf kevin,” reads a feedback thread on Steam, referring to the horrorshow that is the snot-nosed kid capable of absolutely terrorizing a match with slingshot bullets. “Pls nerf kevin.”

“Trash can lids are not funny,” reads another thread about the readily-available implement that can be used as a shield against nearly anything, even seagull-launched poop bombing runs. “I will die without being able to do anything. I want it to be nerfed.”

The sheer goofiness of feedback on games like these ensure that I will, at least, be paying attention even if I am not playing. Thank you to developer Invisible Walls for providing me this new chapter in one of my most delightful hobbies.

You can find Neighbors: Suburban Warfare on Steam.