Posted in: Games, Video Games | Tagged: game review, Mr. Shifty, tinyBuild

Mr. Shifty Is Absolutely Hotline Miami Meets Nightcrawler – A Review

Published Sun, 30 Apr 2017 20:45:19 -0500

tinyBuild's Mr. Shifty bills itself as being similar to Hotline Miami and it very much is. Several others have called it "Hotline Miami meets X-Men" and that is also accurate. Because you have the ability to punch through doors, walls, and glass as well as teleport around, like a really buff Nightcrawler.

Just like in Hotline Miami, getting shot once will in fact kill you. So instead you use your teleportation skills to dodge and get your enemies to kill one another. And then take out those remaining by punching them a few times. Possibly through walls. You get where I'm going with that right? Your teleportation is pretty simple and only works on short distance, rather than something more complicated like Portal.

The graphics are tight, but simple. And the game is fairly rewarding despite being an essentially endless round of mowing down enemies in droves. The story seems to be pretty bare bones, with you infiltrating what looks like a very swanky hotel or office building that's equipped with an absurd number of cookie-cutter security guards.

The game is fun to play through, but in the end, you start wondering about the actual politics of the world that you're in. Or maybe that was just me. Here you are, the only man of color in a building full of white security guards who seem to be up to nefarious purposes, and your only offensive skill is punching. Sure, the logo makes you racially ambiguous and gives you a pair of gloves, but the actual gameplay makes it pretty obvious that you aren't wearing gloves. So it all does start to make you wonder about the decision to release this game in April of 2017. Kind of weird right?

Overall, I'm just going to say that I agree pretty solidly with Gavin Sheehan's coverage of the game's beta. This is a fun game you'll play as a way to kill some time or have a laugh. The game is still bugless but of similar difficulty. In fact, I'm not sure why tinyBuild didn't just release the game back in January when they first put out the beta. The only change is the inclusion of more levels for you to punch your way through. The game is designed to make you feel like a badass, and it definitely delivers on that promise.

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