The past few weeks I’ve moved back to
Australia and whenever I take a flight I love to have my Nintendo Switch on
hand to take up some of the time. Flying from the UK to Australia is not
something that’s going to go by quickly unless you can sleep for a long
time. Unfortunately I really cannot sleep on flights so I thought I’d spend
some time playing a bunch of Switch games I’d had sitting on the console for a while.
One of these games and arguably the one I
put the most time into on the flight was Switch ‘N’ Shoot, an arcade
style Shoot Em' Up in which you press only one button to control your spacecraft
with the aim of getting the highest score possible. The game was made solely by
Indie Developer Matt Glanville and is also available on Steam, and for Android
devices. I really enjoyed my time with the game and wished to briefly touch
upon why that was.
As soon as you boot the game up you are
welcomed by some gorgeous border art by Paul Duffield (who interestingly currently
works out of my home county of Northamptonshire, UK) that would not be out of
place on something like a classic Space Invaders arcade cabinet. This artwork
is in place for the entirety of the game and really helps sell the feeling that
you’re about to play something inspired by the classics.
The game itself is very simplistic as you
would expect with a game where you only really need to press a single button
but this is something that allows the title to stand out and really helps with
the addictive nature of the gameplay. I found myself absolutely terrible at the
game at first because every time you shoot you also move left or right with
each subsequent shot but over time I improved!
Your enemies remain the same so you don’t
have to worry about how to deal with new enemy attack patterns and interestingly you don’t even
have to worry about shooting every single enemy. However what I like about this
game is if you do happen to miss an enemy they will stay almost level with your
spaceship for a few seconds and then explode, meaning you have less space to manoeuvre
and therefore have to press your single button a lot quicker.
This really ramps up the stakes and keeps
you on your toes. Another great feature is that you can upgrade your craft if
you collect enough pickups along the way. However should you miss any then your
weapons will revert back to their previous level. I really enjoyed this as I
really had to think did I want better weapons but risk hitting an enemy along
the way? Or did I want to try playing it safe with a more basic weapon but not
gain points as quickly and potentially be overrun with enemies?
It’s great that although you can upgrade
yourself you never feel too overpowered compared to the enemies and the game
will actually introduce a new challenge if you get the highest possible
upgrade. That added challenge comes in the form of two beams that stop you
being able to scroll out of one side of the screen and appear on the opposite
side. On the one hand you’re insanely powerful but on the other you’ve got a
much smaller window to move in.
Usually I find myself losing shortly after
I obtain this upgrade because I’m just not quick enough to move back and forth
before hitting those beams. Yet this game is just so addictive that I jump
right back in for another 10 minutes or so. I think it’s a real challenge to
make a game that’s not frustrating in that kind of situation so I applaud Matt
for this.
A feature I found quite funny even after
every time I died was that your pilot would have a unique name every single
time. I’ve played countless times now and have never had the same name twice.
You even get a nice message every time you die from your commander; I loved
this little attention to detail and hope to see more of this sort of thing in
other games in the future.
As an aside Switch ‘n’ Shoot actually
reminded me of the game Downwell which I reviewed a few years ago. This was not
only due to its pixilated style or the ability to unlock new palettes as you
progress, it was the addictive nature of the game. In my ignorance I actually believed
this was developed by the same person as Downwell and I do wonder if there was
any inspiration on the developers part.
I really do not have anything bad to say
about this game because there is not much to it and what it does have it does
well. I generally struggle to find a fault with the game but would perhaps like
to see different ship designs and enemy designs as further unlocks along the
way and perhaps even different borders as the art is just so nice it would be
lovely to see what else Paul Duffield could come up with.
All in all I think Switch ‘n’ Shoot Is a
fantastic affordable and short title that is absolutely perfect for those on
the go or those who want a brief but addicting game to pass a short amount of
time. Do I think I will keep coming back to this game for years to come? No.
However for now it’s a nice little way for me to eat up time on a lunch break
or on the Train home from work.
This game would not be out of place in an actual
Arcade and I really like that aspect of it, in fact while researching the game
and the developer I found that Switch ‘n’ Shoot does have an arcade cabinet available
for purchase thanks to the guys at DSM Arcade. Now do I love the game enough to
buy one? No. But If I saw one in the wild I’d definitely have a few rounds.
I think Matt Glanville has made something
special here and would love to see what else he comes up with in time.
