While the movement and pace of Mr Shifty never feels bad, the game does rely on a few annoying tropes-for instance, temporarily removing your cool ability as an added mid-game twist. One cool encounter forced me to blink to a door guarded by enemies, quickly open it to allow a deadly turret to obliterate them, before blinking out of the way just in time. Meanwhile, you’re able to use environmental hazards to kill enemies, and while you can never pick up their weapons you’re able to-for example-catch a grenade and throw it back at its source. Aside from shifting, the only other special power here is a meter which, when filled after enough attacks, automatically slows down time if a bullet draws too close. ![]() Mr Shifty doesn’t have a gun, but he can pick up some neat perishable melee weapons throughout the levels, ranging from wooden planks to a golden trident which, when thrown precisely, can nail a whole line of enemies against a wall. There are no collectibles, there are no new powers to unlock: it’s just you, the agile Mr Shifty, and the relatively breezy problems he must overcome. It’s very rare that something arrives so stripped of all the moreish qualities games are expected to have in this age. These minions range from bumbling oafs who punch you, through to snipers, dual-pistol wielders, lasers (of course), and other enemies with flamethrowers, grenade launchers, and machine guns.Īnd that’s pretty much the sum total of what you need to know about Mr Shifty. Along the way you’ll lay waste to thousands of hapless minions, and engage in some very light puzzling. It’s a nice effect that bails you out of starting over and gives you another neat way to pummel bad guys.The story is negligible: a corporate villain called Chairman Stone has some deadly plutonium, and you have to infiltrate his skyscraper to retrieve it. But you can avoid death once in awhile: by chaining together enough beatdowns you can build up a special meter that will automatically initiate a slow-motion sequence to let you save yourself from an enemy’s bullet. Death tosses you back to the start of a level, which isn’t a huge inconvenience, but some of the tough late-game levels of the 18-stage campaign will leave you wishing for a checkpoint or two. Shifty’s power is balanced out by the fact that a single mistake at any moment can still get you killed, just like in its clear inspiration, Hotline Miami. ![]() Outside of occasionally wonky collision detection, like the time I saw a shield disappear through a wall, Shifty’s melee combat is savagely violent and fun to execute, but cartoony enough to get by.Īll of Mr. It was easily one of my favorite sequences one turned me into a nearly unstoppable hybrid of the X-Men’s Nightcrawler and Captain America. I have to admit there’s a level of satisfaction that comes from using a broom to smack down a whole group of enemies in one swing, but it doesn’t come close to the invincible feeling I got when I tossed an indestructible shield and watched it bounce off of a row of oncoming enemies. ![]() “And like a comic action hero, Shifty won’t touch the guns dropped by his prey, but he will pick a handful of melee weapons to beat his foes.
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