Mr Shifty - Nintendo Switch Review (Patreon)

This game hits the ground running. One of the first things you see is a fun fake-out gag in which a group of armed guards surround a door; their laser sights trained on it as they prepare to breach the room ahead.  Chapter 1's title fills the screen: "Breach". Text dialogue from a female character called Nyx declares a countdown "3... 2... 1...". It's at this moment that the room is lit up by planted explosives, killing the guards instantly. "Move in!" she says, prompting our protagonist to emerge from the shadows, teleporting himself into the room of dead bodies. This all happened within the space of 10 seconds or so, but Mr Shifty had already put a smile on my face.

Mr Shifty puts you in control of its titular hero - a nimble superhero who possesses short range teleportation abilities. He can zip about rooms, very much like Nightcrawler from the X-Men movies, taking down enemies with a few quick punches. He can also weaponise miscellaneous objects like brooms and keyboards found in his environment for a bit of extra attack power.

Little time is wasted in introducing the core mechanics, which remain largely the same throughout the entire experience. The game instead mixes things up by regularly introducing different enemies and environmental hazards. I was surprised by how much mileage the developers got out of a lot of the same assets. Laser traps, mines, and generators that disrupt your abilities are often remixed in new and fun ways.  From what I could tell, none of the layouts were ever repeated.

The combat, despite its intentionally simple design, managed to hold my attention throughout the story. Misleading enemies by appearing in front of them for a split second before vanishing never gets old. The guards are intentionally a bit dim, so you can quite easily trick them into accidentally shooting one of their allies or better yet, a nearby explosive barrel. Turning the tables by using their increasingly powerful weapons against them can be very satisfying. 

You are led through the experience by a fairly simple story to hunt down the chairman of an evil organisation. You tear through his lair - a massive tower facility - to find him. It's not the most elaborate set-up, but the dialogue manages to be consistently amusing. Its strong sense of humour elevates an otherwise forgettable plot.

In some of the later areas, there was some noticeable slowdown present as the complexity of the levels ramped up. Thankfully, the controls were responsive enough for me to soldier through it. My experience wasn't marred all that much by the frame rate, but your mileage may vary. I did also notice some minor graphical glitches, such as character models clipping the environment and inexplicably flopping about. It's clear that on a technical level at least, there is room for improvement.

Although I did enjoy Mr Shifty a lot, there was an inescapable feeling that there was something missing. It's a simplistic experience - sometimes to a fault. The game lacks any real encouragement to replay its levels, which I would have happily done if it had a ranking system or some other such incentive.

These slight drawbacks notwithstanding, I got a kick out of it and its unique realisation of a comic book power fantasy. It lives and dies by its intentionally simple core gameplay, and that will no doubt prove divisive among players. Try it. You may be surprised.