This will be a fairly short review with a couple images sprinkled in. The reason being it follows suit in the length of the game itself. In that it takes about 40 minutes or so to blitz through the four chapters available to you.
I wouldn’t take this as a direct indictment to it;s existence or that this makes it inherently bad from the get go. This is a faithful adaptation of the original arcade shooter which in turn isn’t long by design. Each chapter is broken up into shoot your way through some canon fodder enemies then a boss at the end. The only real difference is the difficulty spike on the end boss which kinda comes out of nowhere.
There is a few options available to increase your own personal level of fun and making the games length lasted by doing multiple runs. You have your standard difficulty switchers as well the horde mode option. This is exactly the same but every enemy encounter is doubled. This is my preferred way of playing the game.
Now I opted for the Nintendo Switch version, I also incorrectly read the option I purchased because like proof reading I chose not to read initially properly either. I am truly my own worst enemy. So I got a download code box which lacked a cartridge. So I now just have an empty box, the fuck I want that for?
Anyways I chose the Switch version so I can play the game more like it was intended to play. Whipping off the joycons and pointing them at the screen and shooting the ever loving shit out of everything in my way. Watching the blood spray gratuitously as everything is reduced to carrion mulch and chunks. Which is a satisfying way to pass the time. You also get the touchscreen option if you choose to play it handheld, which is the easiest way to cheese bosses critical hit points as you just target the area and spam the screen.
Now in terms of graphical fidelity it’s not the best, it’s laggy and there is noticeable frame rate stutters and the game makes the enemies fully disappear before they’ve hit the floor, which takes away from the annihilation somewhat.
There are a few weapon variations to unlock in mission and permanently as well as a cabinet of achievements that come from in game actions. This again aids in replaying the game, there’s star tracking as well as a bestiary of sorts. It’s not a game completely devoid of content there just isn’t much too it. It could’ve easily added a speedrun option, mini objectives a few more unlockable weapons and even stat built characters. This all exemplifies what the game is about as well so takes nothing away from the original arcade shooter.
Overall I rate this game a Tasty 6/10.
I think if you need something that is completely designed to just be a gun ‘n’ run to kill about an hour or even a cool 15 minutes. This game is it. It does what it needs to, doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel and honestly it’s decent fun. For me there just isn’t enough to it. I do run back to it semi regularly though so it’s doing its job properly. For a cheap you can’t go wrong here, just don’t expect anything to amazing.
Released April 7th 2022 on Nintendo Switch.
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