Switch or die trying Review – A Challenging New Gameplay Mechanic

<p>First things first&colon; <i>Switch or die trying<&sol;i> is adorable&period; From the appearance of the wobbly-headed protagonist hopping across the screen&comma; to the wildly excited &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Excellence&excl;” sound clip played when I met all objectives for a level&comma; I started the game smiling&period; But don’t let the cuteness fool you &&num;8211&semi; this game is tough&comma; and I died a lot&period; I died hundreds of times while the tiniest voice provided the cutest sound effects for all of those grisly deaths&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><i>Switch or die trying<&sol;i> is the newest release from the development studio&comma; Threye Interactive&period; Following their success as a mobile game developer for the Indian Air Force&comma; Threye wanted to push themselves to create a game that would develop an emotional connection with its players&period; <i>Switch or die trying<&sol;i> is an attempt to create that bond&period; It’s a challenging&comma; 2D puzzle platformer that offers a simple yet interesting new mechanic to the platformer genre&colon; the switch&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>You start the game as a lowercase letter &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;i” who has lost touch with his alphabet friends&period; Level-by-level he seeks to earn back their trust&period; In order to complete the levels&comma; you will use familiar platformer commands such as jump and shoot&period; However&comma; the uniqueness of <i>Switch or die trying <&sol;i>comes in the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;switch” command itself&period; By pressing &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;B” on the gamepad&comma; you can switch from a lowercase i to a capital I&comma; and doing so allows for a double jump&period; The switch command may also change objects within the level itself&period; Very often you may find yourself midair&comma; needing an additional jump action&comma; but the act of switching may remove a platform from your reach or it may engage a floor of spikes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;121519" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-121519" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignnone"><img class&equals;"wp-image-121519" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;03&sol;18170609&sol;20170318153634&lowbar;1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Switch or die trying&comma; Threye" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-121519" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Switch or die trying&comma; Threye<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Many PC game players prefer to use keyboard commands&comma; so it’s important to note that a gamepad is highly recommended for playing <i>Switch or die trying<&sol;i>&period; It’s not impossible to play without one&comma; but even navigating the main menu by keyboard can be tricky&period; In many levels&comma; you are required to jump&comma; shoot&comma; change directions&comma; and then switch with split second timing&comma; and doing so on the keyboard would be next to impossible&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The little i protagonist jumps and switches his way through a series of five books&comma; or worlds&comma; each containing 15 levels&period; Every book has a different theme&colon; Beginning&comma; Adventure&comma; History&comma; Science&comma; and War&period; The gameplay difficulty ramps up dramatically within the Beginning book&comma; which makes the pacing of <i>Switch or die trying<&sol;i> seem inconsistent&period; For example&comma; a speed trial level halfway through the first book is more difficult than most of the levels in the third book&period; However&comma; this seems to be balanced by the opportunity to skip between levels within each book&comma; as needed&period; In order to unlock the next book&comma; you only need to pass 10 of the 15 levels in the previous one&period; If you get stuck or haven’t quite mastered the technique needed to pass a level&comma; you may skip ahead and come back later&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There is definitely heavy graphical influence from <em>Super Meat Boy<&sol;em>&comma; and one of the menus shows our <i>Switch <&sol;i>protagonist playing a game of <em>Super Meat Boy<&sol;em> himself&period; Even though the graphics may not be groundbreaking in design&comma; they provide a clean&comma; soothing&comma; and visually pleasing aesthetic&period; At each new book&comma; I found myself pausing to admire my new surroundings&period; Each book of levels has its own unique color scheme&comma; and the platforms within each level may be made of glass&comma; sand&comma; metal&comma; or even a moon&comma; depending on the environment&period; The music is wonderful and fitting for every environment&period; Fans may download the soundtrack from Steam for free&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;121520" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-121520" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-121520" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;03&sol;18170913&sol;20170318153738&lowbar;1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Switch or die trying&comma; Threye" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-121520" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Switch or die trying&comma; Threye<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The alphabet theme threads throughout the game&comma; from collecting ink drops to hopping through a library game menu&comma; but the story feels a little flat&period; If Threye’s intention was to create an emotional game for its players&comma; as they have stated in the game marketing&comma; then they may have missed the mark&period; The emotion only seems apparent in the cuteness of the protagonist and sound effects&period; I think there’s room for them to improve upon the delivery of the story&comma; if an emotional response is so desired&period; Instead of having the protagonist explore History or Science books&comma; they may have had anger&comma; loneliness&comma; or friendship themes&comma; with appropriate obstacles for each environment&period; Without this&comma; the story of our protagonist trying to reconnect with his friends feels like an afterthought to pull the game together and give it meaning&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The enjoyment of playing <i>Switch or die trying<&sol;i> comes from the challenges the game presents&comma; and Threye’s new switch mechanic will keep a platformer fan busy for hours&period; Players will enjoy the tough levels&comma; attractive graphics&comma; and adorable sound effects&period; If you are up for the challenge of mastering new platforming puzzles&comma; I recommend picking up this title&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>A PC review copy of <em>Switch or die trying<&sol;em> was provided by Threye for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;