The premise of the game centre's around a fiesty cyborg police officer humourously named Patricia Wagon (play on party wagon) who is tasked with capturing numerous escaped inmates who are scattered across the city. Each level of the game contains 5 escaped inmates and Patricia must jump, shoot and switch up the world in order to capture them all.
The first thing that popped into my head when starting up Mighty Switch Force and taking my first in game steps is that the game seems to take a lot of inspiration from the Megaman series. Patricia carries around a pretty simple pellet shooter blaster pistol used to defeat he various robot/animal like creatures that acts as her main means of attack unlike other platformers where jumping on enemies dispatches them. The level design is built around her use of a projectile to activate certain puzzles and get rid of enemies in a challenging way. It's simple combat doesn't really become anything too complex, however that isn't really the main aspect to the game.
What makes this game unique (and gives it it's title) is the use of several 3D platforms on the 2D levels that can be switched in and out of the background at will by the player using the 3DS shoulder buttons.This mechanic can be used throughout the game to allow Patricia to create new platforms for her to land on, push existing ones into the background for her to fall through or use them to make enemies she can't reach fall or be crushed by them. If an enemy is standing infront of one of the background platforms and Patricia switches them into the foreground it will actually destroy the enemy by crushing them against the screen and making it crack, literally breaking the 4th wall. Even funnier is that if the player has Patricia standing infront of the platform when switching she will end up crushing herself against the screen also and lose a life. I always find it a nice little humourous aspect to a game when the developers go to the effort to show that the player messed up.
The overall level design doesn't follow a traditional linear platformer design where the player must reach one side of the level to a goal at the end. Instead the levels are laid out so that the player can explore within a large squared off area of level of varrying heights in order to recapture all the escaped convicts aiming to do so within as quick a time possible. The player is free to capture the criminals in any order they please allowing for them to choose whatever path in the level they choose in order to traverse the platforms and find all the criminals. It gives a sense of freedom for the player to choose their own way around at tbeir own pace, figuring out which route works for them and then attempting to beat their own record in the future.
The games overall anime inspired artstyle and adrenaline pumping music serve to give the game a certain light hearted cutesy charm. This gives some very clear visuals that help make enemies and the switchable environment pop out easily to see even with the 3D settings on the 3DS switched off. Unfortunately for as well designed as the actual levels are, there isn't much of it. The game in total only fratures 16 levels and that is...more or less it. There isn't much else to do in the game once you complete the initial levels aside from try to complete the levels again but in a quicker time. It's a shame when a games big complaint is wanting more of it. The levels that are included are all very well made and enjoyable, but everything is just too short. You could very easily complete all of the main levels within about 2 hours if you are taking your time to explore them.
Overall this is a very well designed and enjoyable experience that is a blast to play through on a handheld console to pass a few minutes. The game may be short but for the rather cheap price and high quality of the game it may be a worthwhile investment for some if they want something unique and fun to add to their portable console collection. The game is digital download only so you can keep it as a smaller extta title on your 3DS in addition to your main cartridge based games. Might be worth checking out for fans of portable platform games.
Show Konversi KodeHide Konversi Kode Show EmoticonHide Emoticon