Automaton Lung

Genre: Third-Person Shooter / Misc.

Players: 1

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Review:

Automaton Lung, released on Nintendo 3DS in 2022 (yes, after the announcement of the Nintendo 3DS eShop closing) is one of the final games to release on the Nintendo 3DS platform. This game is a Third-Person Shooter, though this seems like a somewhat minor element in the game’s large, mostly empty world.

Automaton Lung’s presentation features 3D visuals that suffer from pop-in, clipping, and aren’t that impressive to begin with save for their scale, as this game’s environments are quite large. The player character themselves is blocky-looking, and enemies are often little more than 3D geometric shapes, with all of these visuals backed by a relaxed, new age-y sorta’ soundtrack. It’s absolutely not impressive, but it does at least succeed in being somewhat surreal.

Unfortunately, the gameplay gives the impression that this is a game that was perhaps pushed out unfinished, perhaps after news of the 3DS eShop’s closure. There’s no apparent goal structure save for seeking out old-fashioned computer disks strewn throughout the world. That world is, as I noted, largely empty, and players are given very little direction where to go, making for long stretches where you’re not sure what to do or if you’re even going in the right direction.

When you do find a bit of action, this game’s controls are serviceable, but not great, and awkward – you move using the circle pad, can re-center the camera and lock on by holding L, jump with B, fire with A, press Y for a dash and X to start riding on a hoverboard of sorts. However, jumps barely get you an inch off the ground unless you combine them with a dash at the right time, and not only do enemies seem like something of an after-thought here, but their AI is abysmally slow.

While I can make many criticisms of Automaton Lung, it certainly isn’t a lazy game. You can tell this game’s creator had some ambitious ideas in mind when making it. But unfortunately this doesn’t seem to be a finished game. Some basic elements don’t seem to work properly or have been left out entirely, and while this game certainly conveys a unique and surreal mood, as a game it’s tedious, frustrating and awkward. You’re probably best skipping this one.

tl;dr – Automaton Lung is a Third-Person Shooter with a surreal futuristic atmosphere, but it feels incomplete, with awkward controls, brainless enemy AI, empty environments, and a lack of any indication where you should go or what you should do. Skip this one.

Grade: D

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