The shoot 'em up genre is alive and well, with a mix of retro remasters / re-releases, long overdue sequels and Indie efforts continuing to grace the Switch eShop. Another on the way soon is Risk System, developed by Newt Industries and ported / published for Switch by Hidden Trap, which lands on 15th July priced at $9.99/£8,99/€9.99.
It's been out on platforms like PC and Xbox previously, and it's a title with a decent amount of lore to delve into – advanced technologies, energy parasites, a quest to avoid apocalypse. Of course, if you like, you can just shoot everything.
The design twist in this one, and the source of the name, is that when you go close to enemies and their fire you absorb energy and boost your power. As you can see in the trailer above (and the game blurb below) this sets up frantic and challenging gameplay.
- Increase your B-Meter and firepower by flying as close to enemy fire as possible and absorbing their energy. The more times you do it, the easier it will be to destroy the parasites.
- Perform special Risk Shots to attack and turn the energy into power for your shield. Sometimes, the best defense is a risky offense!
- Use barrel rolls to quickly cover vertical space and modify your attack.
- Unleash the Barrier Breaker once the B-Meter is full to inflict huge damage on everything in sight!
- Set your destiny according to your mission performance and the results you get. Remember that everybody counts on you to save thousands of lives.
- Focus on the final goal or play hard to get the higher score in each level. Use Risk Shots to destroy multiple enemies at once, string combos and increase your score multiplier.
- Delight yourself with the gorgeous, pixelated art style of the game, which tributes to some famous side-scrolling shoot-’em-up games from the 80s and 90s.
We think this looks rather decent; are you tempted to pick this up on Switch next week?