This glass crack effect looks so real in 3D...
If you know anything at all about WayForward, you know that they’re a small company that mixes classic sensibilities with innovative ideas. While most popular for their Shantae games, they’ve had success with the DSiWare series commonly referred to as Mighty. The newest entry, Mighty Switch Force!, is available for 3DS and continues in the vein of innovation that it’s predecessors are lauded for. Does Mighty Switch Force! measure up to those that came before it?
The gameplay premise of MSF! (I like this acronym!) is simple. Your awesome female cop is chasing after awesome female thieves, and in order to catch them, she needs her trusty gun and the power to alternate or “switch” blocks. Each stage is a platforming puzzle where you must switch blocks around to continue forward, avoid obstacles, move objects, even fight enemies. Some blocks are in the background and some in the foreground, ones in the foreground are solid, while the background ones can be passed through. But be warned, if you’re standing where a block is and switch it into the foreground, you’ll lose a heart! You have three hearts before you die and have to restart the levels. The 3D aspects of the game, while not necessary for completion, add a layer of depth that makes the switching a little easier to see and, I believe, improves timing slightly.
Visually, this is a well made game. The character animations are smooth and really stand out amongst the futuristic scenery, something very important in this game. Fans of the Metroid series will notice little shout outs, such as the fact that the heroine dies just like Samus, with her body floating in the air while her suit explodes off her, revealing some mildly sexy sportswear! It just adds to that classic sensibility and charm that WayForward puts into their games. Everything is highly detailed and the 3D depth is used very effectively. For example, whenever you or an enemy are squished by a block, they smack up against the very front of the 3D and make a glass cracking imprint which you could SWEAR was on the screen itself. The designers clearly understood the way we perceive stereoscopic 3D and made sure to leave that foreground 3D level free for this effect. It makes every single death from block squishing that more unexpected when you think for a second it might pop OUT of the screen. One of the things I’ve noticed after playing MSF! for long periods of time is that my eyes begin to see an optical illusion 3D effect on everyday things like websites or…this blog (the text looks like it’s coming off the page to me right now). Complementing this visual design is the music which, while not the greatest music in the history of gaming, certainly does a great job adding to the quirky, fun nature of the game. It’s clear that the music designer (look Jake Kaufman up, he’s EXTREMELY talented) had a feel for the direction of the game, creating some catchy tunes which get under your skin just as much as the gameplay itself does.
Hey look, I segued into gameplay! This is the real beauty of this game; WayForward has managed to take a really simple concept that you’d perhaps see in a classic Mega Man game (remember those AWFUL blocks that alternated, and you had to time the jumps across?) and made it fun and complex. At first it seems simple, just switch the blocks until you get the result you want. The first few levels seem easy, as you quickly get the hang of the switching mechanic. However, it isn’t long before MSF! starts throwing challenges at you. The puzzles get more complex, and as you’d expect, the mechanic evolves. The game introduces rocket blocks which propel you through the air in a certain direction when switched onto where you’re standing. Then there’s the still confusing red and blue off/on blocks which will stay in place when you switch if you’re standing on them. What first seemed like an easy concept gets really tough, and by the last 5 levels, you’ll be dying a lot more than you’d expect out of a game like this.
There are a few minor complaints, the biggest (and only one I can remember) being that there are only 16 stages in the whole game. While this seems really short, and it is, many of these stages take a lot longer than you’d expect to beat them. On top of that, every stage is timed, and there’s a set par for each one that you can attempt to beat. In another shout out to Metroid, the image of the heroine at the end of the credits *seems* to be different based on how often you managed to beat the par time. The only other complaint I had is that the 3DS’ size makes switching and jumping at the same time a little tough on the hands after a while, as everything is kind of cramped. A, L, and R can be used to switch, but unfortunately, none of those are very easy to get to without straining just slightly. This, however, is a limitation of the system and not the fault of WayForward by any means. It’s likely that there’s nothing they could have done to avoid it…it could also be that I played it for several hours.
In closing, MSF! is a game everyone with a 3DS should own! I’m not just hyping this one, it’s really fun, engaging, and worth the $5.99. Its fast pace and unique gameplay makes this easily the best 3DS Downloads game in the eShop right now.
ateliermichi 