Verlet Swing Review
Title: Verlet Swing
Developer: Flamebait Games
Publisher: Stage Clear Studios
Website: https://flamebait.itch.io/verletswing
Genre: Action / Simulation
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Age Rating: PEGI 7
Release Date: 14/06/2019
Price: £13.49 – Rapid Reviews UK was very kindly provided with a review code for this title.
There have been plenty of really crazy, outlandish games out there and I’ve certainly played a few of them. But none of them quite reach the same level of weird as what’s on offer in Verlet Swing. Developed by Flamebait Games, Verlet Swing is an action game where the aim of the game is simple: reach the sphere at the end of each level by swinging from numerous objects.
It sounds so simple, so what makes Verlet Swing so bizarre? It’s the design. This is not the sort of game where you are swinging from trees or lampposts. Instead, you are swinging from objects such as floating pizzas, toilets, hotdogs and more. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg! Visually, the game has a little bit of a 90’s graphics vibe which adds to the feel that this is a retro title. It’s not an amazing looking game but I think that’s part of the appeal of Verlet Swing – it would look weird to have you grappling with super realistic floating pizza slices, right?
There are 100 levels for you to play your way through in Verlet Swing, with the difficulty ramping up as you progress. New elements and obstacles are introduced in later levels such as exploding objects if you get too close. Knowing that a game’s difficulty increases as you progress is a good thing but it would really help if the game wasn’t frustratingly difficult from the get go.
From starting the game, you’re thrown into the gameplay right away and kind of left to figure it out for yourself. You start the game by pressing ZR to activate your swing and it’s here that you quickly learn that Verlet Swing is an incredibly frustrating game. You need to use the left analogue stick to try and control your momentum in your swings, the right analogue stick to move the camera so you can work out where is best to grapple onto and then use ZR again to latch onto the nearest object.
It feels weirdly difficult, made worse by the fact that the controls are so sensitive, the slightest misjudgement and it’s game over. You also cannot make contact with any objects in Verlet Swing, which makes the whole idea of managing your momentum, direction of swing and grappling all the more difficult.
For me, Verlet Swing feels like a game that someone has made as a project for University. The crazy visuals are not to my taste but I can appreciate what the developers were trying to go for. Ultimately though, it comes down to the gameplay, which I just found annoyingly difficult from the first level.
Games should provide a challenge but not to the point where I was ready to throw my Switch out the window. There’s just not the ability for you to get the precision right in your swings and without that, the game lost any sort of fun for me. With these issues and priced at £13.49 on the eShop, gamers may feel a bit hard done by.
Rapid Reviews Rating
You can purchase Verlet Swing from the Nintendo eShop on the following link, https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Verlet-Swing-1579411.html
