Mighty Switch Force! Collection Review

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Game Details

Title: Mighty Switch Force! Collection
Developer: Wayforward
Publisher: Wayfordward
Website: https://wayforward.com/games/mighty-switch-force-hd/
Genre: Adventure, Action, Platformer, Puzzle
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Age Rating: PEGI 7
Release Date: 25/07/2019
Price: £15.99 – Rapid Reviews UK was very kindly provided with a review code for this title

The team at Wayforward have been responsible for some of my favourite Indie games over the last few years – all of the games in the Shantae series, A Boy & His Blob and Contra 4. How I’ve never heard of the Mighty Switch Force! series is something that will continue to baffle me for a long time as this sort of game is right up my street.

Debuting in 2011, the Mighty Switch Force! games offer super fun puzzle-platforming, and now we have all four titles in one fantastic package on the Nintendo Switch. The four titles included are the original ‘Mighty Switch Force!’, ‘Mighty Switch Force! 2’, ‘Mighty Switch Force! HyperDrive Edition’ and ‘Mighty Switch Force! Academy’.

The first game in the series is a great starting point for people like me who have never played any of these games before as it gives you a great foundation on how the gameplay works which will be invaluable in the more advanced gameplay mechanics in the follow-up titles.

In the first title, the core gameplay is pretty simple – find five criminals hiding around each level and then head for the exit. Sounds simple enough but the gameplay is devilishly tricky. By clicking on the A button, you can ‘switch’ (get it?) background blocks so that they move into the foreground and you can jump on them and reach new areas. A lot of the challenges in the first title involves you constantly switching these blocks to reach hard to reach areas, but this requires pretty precise timing.

Switch too early, and you fall to your death, switch too late, and you can accidentally get smashed up against the screen and die. Don’t worry, though, you have a few lives and can regain lives lost throughout each level. Because each level is relatively short, even if you do end up with a game over, it’s not a big deal. That’s the great thing about Mighty Switch Force!, it’s challenging, but it’s fun, and the short levels mean that it’s great to play in short bursts.

In Mighty Switch Force! 2, you play as the same character, ‘Officer Patricia’ but rather than being a cop, this time you are a firefighter. And it’s your job to save civilians from a fiery death. There was a noticeable difficulty spike in this title, but nothing that prevents the game from being not enjoyable. It’s still a lot of fun. In ‘Mighty Switch Force! Hyper Edition’, it’s a souped version of the original game but with a ‘Hyper Mode’. It’s basically just harder versions of the original game so if you’re looking for a challenge straight out of the gate, start with this one.

The final game is ‘Mighty Switch Force! Academy’ and is quite different from the other three titles. Rather than just being a new take on the puzzle-platforming of the other three games, this title adds in co-op gameplay across levels which are so zoomed out, it’s almost impossible to play in handheld mode. Mighty Switch Force! is best played on Switch in handheld mode (isn’t every game) so this title doesn’t quite have the same polish as other three games in the collection.

Visually, Mighty Switch Force! Collection looks stunning. It reminds me a lot of the most recent Mega Man games. Colours are crisp, backgrounds are detailed, and the whole thing is just so pretty. The soundtrack is pretty good too, harking back to the good old days of 90’s retro gaming.