Smelter

Smelter joins elements of action platformers and real time strategy games in an effort that produces a marvelous tribute to the 16-bit era. With a fun and captivating exploration and great combat mechanics, Smelter has all the ingredients to stand out in the Nintendo Switch catalogue and make a name for itself for all the good reasons.

I’m walking away from my time with Smelter really fondly. It’s a wonderful, charming and inventive title that makes for a hell of a debut. Smelter won’t cross many people’s radar but it’s a game I’ll be beating my drum for this year, begging as many people as possible to play it. Smelter is charming. It’s tough-as-nails. At times it’s even hilarious. Most of all, Smelter is just itself – a badass and unapologetic indie guaranteed to give you a good time.

While there are some moments that frustrate or drag a little during its runtime, Smelter is quite impressive on the whole. It’s not difficult to spot its inspirations, but it does its own thing well enough that it avoids the pitfall of feeling like a lesser copy. Fans of 16-bit action games will definitely want to give it a look.

One of those rare titles that takes inspiration from the classics but manages to forge its own identity, Smelter is a breath of fresh air that uses its influences very wisely, assisted to excellence by generally pretty terrific level design with only a handful of lesser segments bringing things down just a tad. The proceedings feel confident, original and polished, with gorgeous graphics and an outstanding soundtrack that calls to mind the likes of Mega Man X4 for its action stages and evokes Yuzo Koshiro's majestic ActRaiser score for its side-scrolling levels.

With its eye-catching pixel art style and strong visual and tonal identity, Smelter really could have been the complete package. Unfortunately, uneven gameplay, a strange choice in upgrade paths and difficulty spikes that only led to frustration as opposed to the joy of a challenge left a sour taste in my mouth. Fans of the genre should still find a lot to love in this title, so long as it’s approached with a heavy dose of patience.

Smelter is a clever mashup of genres with a cute style and fun action. The jolt between action and strategy sections can take some getting used to, but it’s worth sticking with until you get the hang of the rhythm.

With enjoyable sim gameplay, an engaging element combat system, and excellent boss fights, Smelter is a game with a lot of good pieces across 12-15 hours of play. Unfortunately, it never becomes more than the whole of its parts. The platforming level design feels a bit unremarkable, and the myriad challenge levels placed intrusively within the main levels ruin the pacing. Still, if you love ActRaiser or Mega Man X, there’s enough to make Smelter worth recommending.