Destropolis review for Nintendo Switch

Platform: Nintendo Switch
Also on: PC
Publisher: No Gravity Games
Developer: Igrek Games
Medium: Digital
Players: 1-3
Online: Leaderboards
ESRB: E10+

Destropolis isn?t what you?d call complicated. You play as a little square, shooting at lots of other little (and, gradually, bigger) squares, bouncing around a city that?s basically just white blocks for you to destroy. And there?s only one game mode.

In this case, though, being more complicated would only ruin things. Destropolis is tonnes of fun precisely because it never tries to get in its own way by making things more complex than they need to be. Sure, you unlock more guns and more perks every couple of seconds, but they never change the basic thrust of the game. You?re always rushing around, avoiding all those enemies that get more and more numerous the further in you get, and it doesn?t matter all that much whether you?ve got a shotgun or a laser or a bazooka. What?s more, even if some of the perks may be more fun than others (I?ll take turrets and air strokes over a forcefield or rebuilding the city every time), they still don?t change the calculus all that much. It?s always run, run, run, and shoot, shoot, shoot.

The downside of this, of course, is that the game doesn?t have a whole lot of depth. I mean, I?m sure that some of the people at the top of the leaderboards have some strategy that helped them get there which I just completely overlooked, but really, Destropolis is very much a ?what you see is what you get? kind of game.

But when things start getting really explosive — which is to say, almost immediately — what you see is a game that?s a whole lot of fun. Destropolis may only do one thing, but it does that one thing very, very well.

No Gravity Games provided us with a Destropolis Switch code for review purposes.

Grade: B+