Mr. Shifty

Mr. Shifty's shifting is one of the most satisfying and enjoyable combat mechanics ever conceived. Teleporting through offices, smashing furniture and enemies in a flurry of kicks and punches is a wonderful visual spectacle, as well as an adrenaline-fuelled treat. Allowing the story to take a back seat so the action leads the way certainly feels like the best move in this case, but there's certainly some room for a more thought-out and quirky narrative. Meanwhile, some frustrating checkpoints can make the more frustrating fights that bit more annoying.

Clocking in at around five hours, Mr. Shifty struck a good balance for me between wanting more versus wearing out its welcome. I enjoyed my time with it despite some of the later levels being slightly frustrating and the finale being a little anti-climatic, but overall, this is a solid addition to the Switch’s growing library.

Although Mr. Shifty is clearly inspired by Hotline Miami, it sets itself apart with the speed of the gameplay and the focus on quick reflex action. The Nintendo Switch version has some bugs as at launch, and the game can be beaten in just a few hours, but the fun and addictive experience makes this a worthy addition to your Switch library.

Mr. Shifty isn't a huge game in terms of length, but the three- to four-hour campaign is ample. It's like a shot of adrenalin, offering an exciting, intense experience, and it's easy to forgive the game's performance flaws when it so consistently makes you feel like a badass.

It's not as long or hard as Hotline Miami, but it manages to grab you until you finish it. Hooray for a well-balanced difficulty.

Mr. Shifty could have been a new classic. As it stands, it's a fun little action game with plenty of sequel potential. [Issue #28 – July/August 2017, p. 21]

Despite the framerate issues, Mr. Shifty is a good time and well worth the price of admission. One of the better games on the Nintendo Switch. Maybe a patch can rectify my main concern with the game.

A solid riff on Hotline Miami, but with its own, fun spin.

Mr. Shifty is a straightforward, focused caper with little fluff that will last you a few hours as you climb through 18 stages. What it lacks in length its makes up for with a dynamite gameplay hook. Teleporting is incredibly neat and opens up a lot of daring and rewarding circumstances where you can mow down foes. As long as you can overlook the handful of moments where the combat isn’t the focus, Mr. Shifty is a great addition to the young Switch eShop.

Addictive like old school arcades, its simple but fun gameplay will keep players retrying every time they die until they complete each mission. Graphics and music do their job and the result is an overall recommendable title without ambitions.

Mr. Shifty is a fun, twitchy action game that fails to capitalise on what was so good about its primary influence.

Mr. Shifty had a really unique spin on the Hotline Miami formula, and I really enjoyed playing through the game at first. It’s unfortunate that simple design decisions and technical problems prevented the title from reaching its full potential, and ultimately Mr. Shifty amounts to an okay Switch indie title. However, that’s not necessarily terrible. There aren’t a whole lot of games right now on the Switch, and $15 isn’t that much to ask for an indie game nowadays. If you’re hankering for a unique action game on Nintendo’s new platform, Mr. Shifty might be just the game to quench your craving.

Mr Shifty makes an incredibly strong first impression with its unique teleporting twist on top-down brawling action. But it’s a game that overstays its welcome, with a dry well of ideas that struggle to evolve past their basic premise.

Mr. Shifty is an okay brawler that uses a stylish warping ability as a cool way to get the drop on unsuspecting foes. While it’s fun to smack down security goons with quick melee skills, the horrible framerate of the final act will test your patience. If you do endure and manage to drop the final boss, Mr. Shifty doesn’t present enough reasons to replay it.

Mr. Shifty is an overall fun game with a satisfying gameplay but it's also affected by several bugs and glitches that can make its experience frustrating.

Mr. Shifty has a promising gimmick but the fact that you can easily exploit it makes it far too easy and tedious. Hopefully the developers retool this and work on a sequel because they definitely have a winning formula here; it's just not well executed.

We want it to be clear that the version we played for this review was the full Switch eShop release. We've been told that the game runs much smoother on PC in the launch period, so you might want to make that your platform of choice if you want to check this one out – and honestly, you should. There's nothing groundbreaking to be found here, but it's a decent game with interesting ideas that unfortunately aren't fully fleshed out. We just can't fully recommend the Switch version in its initial form, and it's disappointing that this one falls under the category of games released in a sub-par state that leave owners hoping that promised updates will save the day.

Mr. Shifty could’ve have worked perfectly as a spiritual sequel to Hotline Miami; especially given how poorly served it was by its own sequel. But while Mr. Shifty is serviceable and occasionally enjoyable, it’s hard to recommend even at is fairly modest asking price. But while it will be quickly forgotten, it has reminded us just how good the original Hotline Miami was… and how much we’d like a proper sequel.

I was finished with Mr. Shifty long before the credits rolled. It didn’t make me feel like a skilled thief or a rad, teleporting vigilante. It just made me tired and disappointed to see such a neat premise amount to nothing more than a chore.