WRITHE

Within its limited scope — its very, very, very limited scope — Writhe does alright for itself. There’s clearly something here to build on, and even if that doesn’t mean you should pick this game up now (wait for a very deep discount from its current $10 price), it does mean that eventually it might turn into something worthwhile.

If you’re looking for a retro-style FPS that will kick you in the teeth, Writhe certainly fits the bill. It’s just unfortunate that it doesn’t offer much else apart from its considerable challenge. With only a small smattering of stages to choose from and enemy types to exterminate, it’s tough to recommend adding Writhe to your Switch library, even at its budget-friendly price.

Writhe is a challenging survival FPS. Games are fast enough that it is great to play on breaks from work.

Underneath the extreme simplicity of WRITHE's "shoot worms until dead" concept, lies a very good, and surprisingly addicting horde/survival/endurance-centric FPS that has a neat retro vibe, and which can make you want to play it again and again, just to improve your time by a second or two, and reach a higher place on the leaderboards. There's no denying that it could be infinitely better with a couple of additional mechanics or modes, but it would be a shame to miss out on this tiny, yet still very shiny gem from Mission Ctrl Studios.

WRITHE is a tiny little budget blaster that nails its old-school aesthetic, is refreshingly straightforward in what it attempts to achieve and has a genuinely fun sci-fi setup. However, scrappy enemy AI that feels badly judged and, more often than not, just straight-up unfair holds the whole thing back, resulting in a shooter that lacks balance and never manages to find itself in the addictive groove it needs to in order to encourage players to stick with its fiendishly difficult combat.