Switch N' Shoot (Switch - PS4 - XBOX One - XBOX Series X)

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Sturmvogel Prime
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Switch N' Shoot (Switch - PS4 - XBOX One - XBOX Series X)

Post by Sturmvogel Prime »

Back to shmup reviewing after being out for a while playing Ginga Force, Darius Cozmic Collection Console, Habroxia, Arcade Game Series Pac-Man and Star Wars Squadrons EA, looks like its time to review another XBOX One shmup. This time is Switch N' Shoot, originally released on the Nintendo Switch but it was also released on the PlayStation 4, XBOX One, and will be released on the upcoming Series X/Series S.

After looking a gameplay video on the 'Tube, the first message to my mind was "You'll throw your time and money to the water", but it is my duty to review these games so you don't have the disgrace of pick them up, and boy, there's a lot of villiany hidden in this game that YouTube videos doesn't show.



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Another bad shmup that lurks on the online stores.

The first thing you'll notice is that the game doesn't play like any other retro or present day shmup. You know, the basic "ship movement is on the stick/D-Pad and the button is for fire" that we're used on every game we've played. In Switch N' Shoot, the game designers took the "One Button" concept very literal since everything, even your movement is done with the same button. Push the button and you'll both fire and move to the right, push again to fire and move to the left. ¿Who came up with that, an alcoholic farmer with delirium tremens and his friends the paraplegic donkey, the drug addict rooster and the epileptic duck? 'cos that type of control is [EXPLETIVE] up and I mean it 'cos all the buttons, the D-Pad, Bumpers and Triggers are the same thing. Having a 1 button shmup is OK when the retro-shmup idea is executed correctly, but when you remove the natural instinct of moving with a directional pad or analog stick and turn everything upside down, you've compromised the playability of the game, making an unplayable nightmare where things are totally out of control resulting in 100%, 666 in 1 chances of getting killed in your gaming sessions.

In one mistake that NOBODY should EVER repeat, the game disables the pause function, you can only catch a breath once your ship is destroyed.

Once you've get sort-of-used to the idiotic control scheme this game has, we can finally talk about it. According to its advertising blurb, its a "One Byte" shooter where the objective is to rack up the highest score possible, the basic premise of retro shooters like Galaga and Space Invaders. For a basic shooter, you have the option of getting Power Up items to upgrade the ship's power levels.

LEVEL 1: Thick bullet
LEVEL 2: Fireball
LEVEL 3: 2 Way Shot
LEVEL 4: 3 Way Spread Shot.
LEVEL 5: Thin full frontal "murder beam" laser fire.

Getting the Power Up coins in this game is basically a TOP PRIORITY for two reasons: First, you're REQUIRED to fill the power bar and get one more Power Up Coin to activate the Hyperdrive and move to the next Sector (Stage). The Second is the worst 'cos if you miss one, your firepower will weaken. ¿What kind of sense makes that?, I can perfectly understand the concept of Power Down if you die, but just because I've missed the Power Up item?, Does the game want me to almost crash my ship and die just for pick the damn thing? Trust me, there will be the frustrating instane where you will be overpowered and outnumbered by the enemies in Sector 5 since sometimes, the Power Up Coin will drop in the opposite location of your ship and you'll inevitably be powered down, and to make things much worse, your power level will be resetted on the next stage, making you prone to the outnumbering and overpowered issues that I've mentioned before.



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One mistake and your "Way to Die" will be the 916th: HYPER-DIE-MENSION KABOOM-IA.

To make things worse, once you've get the 5th Power Up, the game will trigger "Fire Walls" on the sides so you can't screw up too much if you miss a Coin, 'cos if you miss one, it will increase the thickness of the flames once you've reach level 5 again, reducing your free space, so there's no room for error in this phase of the game.



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Nobody said it would be easy.

Once you've reached Sector 4 you'll be on a boss fight: The objective is to poke its eyes so the Incubator drops a Power Up Coin. Rather than the traditional "Shoot until it is destroyed", the objective is to make it drop Power Up Coins until you can activate the Hyperdrive, and yes, the Level 5 fire wall is still present in the boss fight, which only makes things more frustrating.
Talking about frustration, you only have one life to reach all the way to Sector 7, although you can get a Shield by picking a blue coin, it doesn't help too much just like in Super Hydorah and AlienCruise 'cos it goes down with one hit. To end with the gameplay analysis, this game is another addition to the ever-growing list of Gamerscore Milkers that I've been criticizing about, of the 16 achievements you've might be able to reach 12 of them, since Sector 6 is a difficult mess and with the broken controls of this game, is literally impossible. If you can unlock the 7th Heaven achievement, I applaud you, but honestly, you'll be better off ignoring that one. Also, this game seems to have the same "glitched achievement" problem as Defenders of Ekron where an achievement won't unlock despite getting the requirements. In Switch N' Shoot's case, its the achievements "Xenocide" (Kill 10,000 aliens), "Power Shower" (Acquire 1,000 power ups) and "Ultrahyperdrive" (Hyperdrive 250 times), I've got a total of 40,547 kills, 2,371 power ups, and 251 hyperdrives, and they won't unlock, making me think they're glitched.

UPDATE (Nov. 05th, 2020): Got an answer from Matt's Indie Games. The achievement issue is indeed a glitch.
Matt's Indie Games wrote:Yes, this is a bug. There is a patch currently going through certification with Microsoft (and Sony) which will fix this. Apologies for the inconvenience!

When you play the patched version, upon hitting Game Over the achievements should update. They'll use the numbers from your Stats too, so you shouldn't lose any progress.


UPDATE II (Dec. 13th, 2020): The game's update patch has been released, fixing the broken achievements as the developer said.


The graphics, if we can call them like that, there's no too much to say, as (to begin with) we have 1/3 of the screen, giving you very few room for movement. All the time you'll be in space due to the simplicity of the game's 1-byte graphics. The game gives you not just unlockable preset palettes, but also the option of change the colors of every aspect of the game. If you want some Virtual Boy nauseam of red and black, go ahead, "Mr. I need some eye-torture".

It is worth of making a comment about the panel art on the sides of the screen 'cos the retro style feels like the cabinet artwork of the old Atari and Bally-Midway arcade games of the 80s such as Asteroids, Defender, Robotron and Missile Command, so it's a right-on in the nostalgia factor, which is the only good thing of this game.



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Since Nul sounds like "Nur" that means we can crack a Sisters Royale joke?

The game for some reason, decided that instead of using your XBOX/Switch username it will use a random array of names: Aiwa, Bolbog, Utz, Oon, Meers, Nul, Cro, Gro, Noo, Ama, Zloch, etc. that rather than calling a pilot from Earth, they're calling them from other sides of the galaxy. Also, with a broken game like this, you might need some motivation to keep you playing. To keep playing this, you might need a girl wearing a bikini (real or anime will do the job). This game doesn't give you that, instead, the character that pops-in being pseudo-motivational looks more like the deformed drug addict cousin of "La Pava", one of the "Faces of Belmez".



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Nintendo is not gonna be happy with this.

Just like Overdriven Reloaded rips off Samus with their character Terri, Switch N' Shoot also rips off Metroid with the enemy creatures which look like the bootleg cousins of the eponymous Metroids. Hope Nintendo doesn't end up suing Matt Glanville 'cos we all knowing how litigious (more like how much of a "Copyright Inquisitor") "The Big N" is with fan games. ¿Remember Pokemon Uranium, No Mario's Sky, AM2R and the removal of Zapdos in Xeno Fighters EX?.


The music of this game feels like a mix between Megaman and Ninja Gaiden as it utilizes the frenetic fast paced rhythm of Tecmo's platformer with the "instruments" of Capcom's blue bomber games, but at a few minutes it will feel repetitive and boring. Fortunately the game gives you the option of turning if off (with "Belmez Face" whining about you don't like his jams), so you can play Metallica on the MP3 player.


SWITCH N' FUN-FACTS
- Splodey Vaders is mentioned in the game as one of the unlockable preset pallettes.
- The XBOX One port features and exclusive pallette called "XBOX" which changes the game into a monochrome green and black.
- The palette name Condor-64 is a reference to the Commodore 64.

NAME COINCIDENCES
- Utz coincides with the American brand of snacks of the same name.
- Aiwa is the name of a Japanese electronics company.
- Cro is the name of the main protagonist from the 1993 cartoon of the same name.
- Oon is the name of a character from the 1985 cartoon Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors.
- Meers could be or not a reference to Meer Campbell, the Lacus Clyne impostor from Gundam Seed Destiny.



Looks like I've found the first Gamerscore Milker for the upcoming Series X. While the game features some nice artwork and good music, the gameplay is not just another "1000 Gamerscore points for your couple of bucks", its a screwed up shmup with UNORTHODOX controls. I'd rather play a Tiger Electronics game than this. I mean, not even 1000 donkeys with 1000 crayons, 1000 computers and pressed by 1000 days could bring anything as cretinous than Switch N' Shoot. Looks like Aircraft Evolution has been dethroned on the "Worst Shmup of 2020" category.
The only way to recommend it is if you're REALLY desperate to rack up your Gamerscore fast, but if you ask me, just stay away from this game and stick with the good shmups you have in your console, Triggerheart Exelica and Ikaruga really help when you're desperate for good shooters.

Even if I have it on my PS4, I still utter the same thing: ¿Where's Ginga Force?, the XBOX One needs it already.



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Lea hates broken games and Gamerscore Milkers.
Now get the [EXPLETIVE] out.


TO MATT GLANVILLE: Dude, you've really need to go back and add D-Pad/Analog Stick control to this game, 'cos being a "Single Button" game, having control of your ship is essential for a fully playable game.
TO MICROSOFT AND NINTENDO: Don't be "The New LJN" publishing mediocre, broken games such as this one. What happened to the "Seal of Quality"?
Fan of Transformers, Shmups and Anime-styled Girls. You're teamed up with the right pilot!
Bringing you shmup and video game reviews with humorous criticism.

STG Wikias: Thunder Force Wiki - Wikiheart Exelica - Ginga Force Wiki
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