I have been slowly working through my 2017 games list, I only had two PC titles left; Mr. Shifty & Deadbolt ( the same studio that gave us Risk of Rain). I was reminded of it recently as I saw a trailer advertising it coming out on Nintendo Switch. Mr. Shifty has been heavily compared to Hotline Miami, there are similarities but they are both I feel vastly different games. I felt like spending some money the other evening so I purchased it on Steam.
Any fans of duck in the house? I love duck, my favorite way to have it is with pancakes, cucumber, spring onions & hoisin sauce. It works well as a snack or a main course (that is if you order at least half a duck), you have tasty meat, a little salad & sweet hoisin sauce which compliments it all perfectly, all wrapped in a tiny pancake. I have been unlucky on occasion & had a poor quality one where the meat is too fatty, the sauce is way too sweet & salad is almost dead. Playing Mr. Shifty I found myself asking was I enjoying a succulent tasty snack or a cheap imitation?
The story for the game is cheesy but fun, you play as Mr. Shifty, can you guess what his power is? He can shift from one area to another, fast! Think of Marvel's Nightcrawler & they are pretty much the same, except he doesn't have a tail. The voice in your ear is Nyx, she is usually telling you how screwed you are or...wait no it's usually just that along with the occasional wisecrack.
Mr. Shifty's mission is to find a stolen plutonium core located in the most secure building in the world, Olympus Tower. The villain in our story is Chairman Stone, a one-eyed madman who is also a billionaire (which are the worst kind of madman). The story is a little James Bond & a little cliche but it works well.
I love the visuals in the game, they are that comic book cell shading art style which works really well. I feel by doing this developer helped the game appeal to all ages, unlike Hotline Miami that has a much darker look more adult theme (just so you know I really liked that game, both of them). While the layout of the early levels look very similar this changes quickly forcing you to adapt to new more powerful enemies & some challenging traps (frickin' laser beams). The later levels in the game reminded me of the final level in Streets of Rage, long corridors & having to face off against every enemy you had taken on up to this point. While you never see Mr. Shifty's face I really liked his vibrant outfit & the attention to detail with his jacket that actually moves rather than just being stuck to him.
The music has a nice rock sound that works so well with the gameplay. The composer for the music is Ack Kinmonth who is from Australia & mostly know for his work on films & TV series, his works include; Tender, Limbo, Texas Rising: The Lost Soldier, Sesame Street: The Farm Animals Song & he also did the music for the mobile game Land Sliders.
The score is the shortest I have ever heard in game at just over fifteen minutes, but when it sounds this good it doesn't matter. The music is at the core of the game & I feel it would have turned out be a vastly different had they chosen a different musical direction. I loved all the tracks & even downloaded the soundtrack from Steam.
Onto the tender succulent meat that is the gameplay. In short it is fast, high octane, adrenaline fueled fun (no I am not talking about the Fast & The Furious films). The game has you playing from a top-down view which for this style of game works really well.
The combat can be challenging & shifting at the wrong time or using your ability too many times in quick succession can leave you riddled with bullets (of course in this game you only need one to kill you). If you kill enough people you can charge your adrenaline gauge which gives you a few moments of slow-mo which is useful if you are close to catching a bullet, as all know slow-mo is never not a good thing.
Your two main weapons in the game are your shifting ability, which you can use to get bad guys to kill each other by timing things right & your powerful fists. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to punch someone through a window out of a high rise building? Well I am no longer curious, it was all I expected to be & more. There are items in the game you can pick, for example tridents which can be used to pin enemies to the wall. My favorite item has to be the mine, arm it by getting close to it, pick it up, shift to an enemy stick it on them & shift again, I had so much fun making people explode it should almost be illegal.
While the game can be challenging I never found it to be unreasonable, the game allows use to get used to the basics & then ramps it up from there. In terms of replay value I feel it is not only a great game to blow off steam but the speed run challenge certainly gives me a reason to try it again. Overall great gameplay with no issues.
After just over 5 hours, how did I feel? Joy, that may sound sarcastic so try to imagine Stimpy from Ren & Stimpy saying it. I really loved the game & could not flaw it, I really enjoyed every part of it. If Team Shifty made a sequel I would be really happy even if it was pretty much more of the same. While I have played many great games this year, big budget & low budget, big worlds & small ones it is the first game this year I am giving the score of 5 out of 5
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