roundin’ up hooligans in mighty switch force!

i usually try to play series in order, but i got suckered into downloading mighty switch force! thanks to a promotion that nintendo ran for a few weeks last july. i’d heard a lot of good things about developer wayforward, and although i’ve dipped into some of their games i hadn’t actually sat down and finished any of them. i decided to finish this one since i knew it was a relatively short game, which some may see as a minus, but for me these days is more of a plus, given my limited time for gaming.

the game’s central mechanic is using a button to switch blocks from the foreground to the background, and vice versa. at its most basic this translates into having to press two buttons to jump (jump + switch platform into foreground) instead of one, but the developers have done a pretty good job of expanding the core concept to a game’s worth of worthwhile elements. the game was fairly short at 16 levels but since its initial 3DS release has been expanded to 21, and in its wii u incarnation it’s been expanded even further. the 5 bonus levels don’t really add much new in terms of gameplay, but i was surprised at how much i enjoyed continuing after the initial ending at level 16. part of what makes the game so enjoyable is its huge amount of polish (in everything from character design to artwork to music) that in the end offsets the amount of somewhat cheap try-and-die situations that are purposely put near the ends of levels. from a developer perspective this pacing helps emphasize the speed trial aspect of the game since it forces you to play through almost the entire level several times to get through the last little bit and in doing so helps get you closer to the “par” time, but not being a fan of time trials the try-and-die gameplay didn’t feel wholly justified. still, despite these minor drawbacks i ended up quite liking the game, enough so that i probably will try to beat some time trial speeds and even spring for the wii u version whenever i get around to it. before that, though, i’ll be checking out the other entries in their well-received mighty series.

round up these mighty switch force! links:
– official site
– review at nintendolife.com
– entry at howlongtobeat.com
– entry at wikipedia