Review cover Mr. Shifty (Nintendo Switch)
Official GBAtemp Review

Product Information:

  • Release Date (NA): April 13, 2017
  • Release Date (EU): April 13, 2017
  • Publisher: tinyBuild
  • Developer: Team Shifty
  • Genres: Action
  • Also For: Computer

Game Features:

Single player
Local Multiplayer
Online Multiplayer
Co-operative
A few ex-Fruit Ninja devs are now Team Shifty and are here with Mr. Shifty - dubbed as 'Hotline Miami meets Nightcrawler'.

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Shifting Focus

Mr. Shifty is a top-down action game very similar to 2012's Hotline Miami, at least aesthetically. Created by a team of ex Fruit Ninja developers from Halfbrick Studios, this is Team Shifty's debut title.

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Mount Olympus

Playing as the famous master thief Mr. Shifty, we are tasked with the mission of breaking into the world's most secure facility, the foreboding Olympus Tower. The building is operated by the very colourful Chairman Stone, the game's antagonist who rules the thug-filled tower with an iron-fist. As far as story goes, that is about as much as you get, and in reality, it's all you need, as Mr. Shifty is a fast action paced game, focusing more on spectacle than narrative.

Initially, the silent hero Mr. Shifty has to steal some Mega Plutonium from the Chairman, and is given various vague instructions from agent Nyx as he progresses up the tower, clearing out each floor of thugs and henchmen as he goes.

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Warp

Unlike in Hotline Miami, Mr. Shifty doesn't have a huge arsenal of firearms to blast through his foes, and instead focuses on quick combo brawling combined with the game's main mechanic; teleportation. Just like Nightcrawler from X-Men, Mr. Shifty can phase-jump about 6 feet in any direction, through walls, doors and even incoming bullets. 6 feet may not sound like much, but you can chain the teleport up to 5 times in a row, allowing you to cover great distances quickly. It feels cool to enter a room full of Stone's gun wielding goons, and then phasing a couple of times to appear behind the thugs, ready to knock them out with just a few swift punches. If you attack enough guys in quick succession, it will build up the Slo-Mo meter, which when activated will slow down time to a crawl, matrix-stylee, should you be unfortunate enough to catch a stray bullet. It's basically a get out of jail card you can quickly use to kill a few enemies when things start getting a bit too heated.

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Levels are littered with destructible environments, almost everything is fair game for a bashing, whether it be a wall, door or table - Mr Shifty can destroy stuff by punching or teleporting through it, sometimes creating a melee weapon to use afterwards in the process. Sticks and brooms can be handled like staffs and will one-shot any enemy, even multiple foes if they are bunched together when you make the swing.

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Teleporting is also used to get through the tower's security systems. Like everything else in the game, laser traps can one-shot Mr. Shifty, and a lot of rooms within the tower have puzzle-like qualities to them, where quick thinking is required to not suffer an insta-death.

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Mr. Shifty feels great and fits well on the Nintendo Switch. It's a slick, bright original title that is both fun and easy to play. I wanted more after the credits rolled and have since gone back to the stage select to perfect a few more of the levels.

Mr. Shifty Launch Trailer

 

 

Verdict

What We Liked ...
  • Teleporting around is awesome
What We Didn't Like ...
  • Once you beat it there isn't much to do except perfect every stage
9
Gameplay
Teleporting around feels great and basically carries the entire game.
8
Presentation
Mr. Shifty looks slick and stylish with its cel-shaded art style. It plays well, both docked and in handheld mode, however it does drop frames quite a bit on some of the later levels, mainly due to the sheer number of enemies and objects on screen.
7
Lasting Appeal
With 18 stages consisting of 140 levels, Mr Shifty sounds like a fairly large game, however some levels last merely seconds, so it doesn't take long to get through them all. My completion time was 4 hours 43 minutes, but I only got a perfect (0 deaths) on just one of the 18 stages.
8
out of 10

Overall

Mr. Shifty is a fantastic debut title from Team Shifty and a perfect fit for the Nintendo Switch. I look forward to seeing what the developers come up with next.
Picking this up shortly. Kinda wish there was more brutality here as walking through the carnage I left through hotline Miami was satisfying, but this isn't that type of game. But hey, teleporting more than makes up for it.
 
K
Nice, I wasn't sure when this one was coming. Hotline Miami with super powers on Switch? Instabuy.
You might wanna watch some youtube videos first, the Switch version seems to have massive framedrops during action (some people saying its unplayable but they're probs overreacting). Rumour is they're gonna be making a patch soon to make it run slightly better at a silky 30 FPS. People should have listened to me when I said the Switch has shit specs for a 2017 console.
It runs fine for me on Steam though :P

 
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Reactions: Subtle Demise
You might wanna watch some youtube videos first, the Switch version seems to have massive framedrops during action (some people saying its unplayable but they're probs overreacting). Rumour is they're gonna be making a patch soon to make it run slightly better at a silky 30 FPS. People should have listened to me when I said the Switch has shit specs for a 2017 console.
It runs fine for me on Steam though :P


Ouch. Surprised this wasn't mentioned in the review. Oh well, by the time I have the money to purchase it, the issues should be patched. No reason a game like this would/should have high hardware requirements.
 
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Reactions: king_leo
Ouch. Surprised this wasn't mentioned in the review. Oh well, by the time I have the money to purchase it, the issues should be patched. No reason a game like this would/should have high hardware requirements.
I did mention it, under Presentation. It's annoying but only happens a handful of times and doesn't stop you from progressing.
 
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Review cover
Product Information:
  • Release Date (NA): April 13, 2017
  • Release Date (EU): April 13, 2017
  • Publisher: tinyBuild
  • Developer: Team Shifty
  • Genres: Action
  • Also For: Computer
Game Features:
Single player
Local Multiplayer
Online Multiplayer
Co-operative

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  • Sicklyboy @ Sicklyboy:
    maaaaan that's so awesome but I also don't want to fork over a hundo for it
  • Veho @ Veho:
    The fuuuuu---
  • Veho @ Veho:
    I thought it was an actual xBox at that price.
  • Sicklyboy @ Sicklyboy:
    I wanna grab a 360 Slim and a 360 E one of these days. Missed the boat of getting them at their lowest though, once they were discontinued. Could've got them for cheap back when I was a broke 20 something working at Target, but then again, I was a broke 20 something working at Target
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    Being broke is no fun.
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    @Sicklyboy, $150 isn't that bad for a jtag slim on ebay
  • Veho @ Veho:
    I only wish it was actually playable.
  • Veho @ Veho:
    There's a guy on the Tube of You that makes playable mechanical arcade games out of Lego. This could work on the same principle.
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    Just a couple of guys taking their manatee out for some fresh air, why you have to molest them?
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    Stupid Chinese shop switched their shipping company and this one is slooooooow.
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    STOP BUYING CHINESE CRAP THEN
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    SUPPORT LOCAL PRODUCTS, MAKE REVOLUTION
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    THEY KEEP REMOVING LOCAL SHIt AND REPLACING WItH INFERIOR CHINESE CRAP
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    THATS WHY MY PARTNER CANT GET A GOOTWEAR HIS SIZE ANYMORE
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    HE HAS BIG FOOT AND BIG DUCK
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    d*ck i mean*
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    lol
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    Mkay.
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    I just ordered another package from China just to spite you.
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    Its OUR products to begin with lol.
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