Reviews
Review Information
Game Reviewed Adventures of SWITCH, by Tech Wing
Review Author RandomClam
Created Mar 2 2017, 6:03 AM

General Commentary and Game Overview
Adventures of Switch is a small platforming based fangame that puts you in control of a Switch, as in one that Mario typically jumps on to cause things to happen. Not the Nintendo Switch.

In this universe, Switches receive their "!" when they come of age. The Switch you control is on its way to the Switch Palace to obtain their "!". The Switches are at war with the "?" blocks, and thus you must avoid them. The switches are also at odds with wild Mario universe items such as Fire Flowers, which presumably attack everything on sight.

The game itself has interesting gameplay mechanics, but is extremely short overall. Also, as ridiculous as the story is, you don't get much of it as a result.
 
Pros + Story is wacky and interesting
+ Unique gameplay
+ Several different enemy types
 
Cons - Uninteresting visually and musically
- Game is very short (less than ten minutes on a good run)
 
Impressions
Gameplay
7 / 10
 As a switch, your game mechanics are pretty interesting.

Your health is fueled by coins, which is game pretty generously gives you. How much health you have is represented visually on your Switch character. If you are pressed all the way in, you're dead.

You ground pound enemies to kill them (jumping on them is ineffective). Your ground pound is also tied to your health, as one ground pound equals one unit of health. Enemies will give you one coin when they are defeated, but if you use more than one pound to try to defeat the enemy, then your health was wasted. You best tactic then is to avoid everything, which works reasonably well.

The fact that you need health to ground pound, and you need to ground pound to defeat enemies and clear away blocks is a pretty unique idea. Although it's never too stressful as the game is quite generous with coins and you can avoid most enemies.

There are several different types of enemies which makes the game more interesting. Some fire projectiles while others try to attack you from the sky. The main antagonists, the ? Block gang, are invincible and must be avoided.

The main problem I have overall is that the game is so short. There's clearly a story here and it's pretty wacky, but the only cutscenes are at the beginning and end of the game. There are three actual areas in the game where platforming takes place, and once you figure out enemy patterns you can get through the short areas in around ten minutes. The ending cutscene then pulls the "To Be Continued" card.

Therefore although the core gameplay is interesting, there really needed to be more game time to take advantage of it.
 
Graphics
5 / 10
 Graphically the game looks similar to the SNES Mario All Stars, although not necessarily using all of those graphics. This makes the game not very different from other fangames on this site. In addition, the levels themselves have lots of empty space, with lots of tiles repeated and only one background layer. This makes the game very dull to look at.
 
Sound
5 / 10
 The music is your typical MIDI fare; not very memorable. Although the music doesn't seem to be from any Mario games so that's a plus. The sounds effects are standard mario sounds that's you would associate with switches, blocks, etc.
 
Replay
3 / 10
 As stated, the game can be completed in a few minutes. There seem to be secret areas where you are rewarded with coins. However, after restoring your health completely coins are only good for increasing your score count. Unless you wish to look around the limited areas more there's not much here for you.
 
Final Words
5 / 10
 The game is interesting mechanically and the story has potential, but there needed to be more "game" to take advantage of it.
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