Turbo Shot

Genre: 2-Stick Shooter

Players: 1-12 Competitive (Online)

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Review:

WARNING: THIS GAME HEAVILY PUSHES MICROTRANSACTIONS AND LOOTBOXES

Turbo Shot is a free-to-play 2-Stick Shooter released on mobile devices in 2021 and ported to PC and Nintendo Switch in 2021. In the campaign mode, this game has a throwaway story about an evil doctor capturing cute aliens for some mysterious plot that only a group of plucky teenagers can stop. Meanwhile, the multiplayer is a free-for all that has players scrambling to collect gems, enter a central chamber, and hold it for ten seconds to become the winner of the match.

The presentation in Turbo shot is good but nothing special. The game uses colorful, slightly-cartoony 3D visuals for its characters and simple-looking stages, with energetic but forgettable music. Everything looks very polished, but nothing here is really pushing the Nintendo Switch. This makes it a bit more disappointing that the game suffered from some nasty framerate drops when the gunfire gets really intense, although occasions of this are relatively rare.

Mechanically, Turbo Shot is a solid but simple entry in the genre. Aside from the usual 2-stick aiming mechanics, players can only reload and make use of a context-sensitive “use” button. The depth here mostly comes from the game’s upgrade system – throughout each level of the campaign’s linear levels, as well as distributed around the multiplayer map, are upgrade stations that offer players their choice of three random upgrades, with those upgrades ranging from increased power and added clip size to improved health, better run speed, and even new weapons (once you unlock them). What’s more, most of these upgrades are cumulative in nature, meaning that if you want to focus on health and shields, selecting that upgrade again will improve your prior upgrade. As such, players will find themselves creating different “builds” for their character in each level of the campaign, and in each online match.

The campaign itself does offer a few twists and turns along the way, with some unique abilities enabled by those friendly aliens you need to save, as well as minor puzzles to solve to progress. It’s nothing special, but it keeps things from getting too repetitive. However, the real focus here is on the game’s multiplayer.

Unfortunately as of this writing the game has only one multiplayer map and one game mode (the aforementioned free-for-all mode), as well as a few single-player special event modes. Having said that, the game makes it clear that there are game modes being planned right now, and honestly I found myself having a lot of fun in the game’s sole multiplayer mode… once I got past the chaotic nature of the gameplay and learned the trick to playing well (at which point I started winning most of my matches). What’s more, there’s no way to play with friends – you’ll only ever be matched up with random opponents. However, being able to slowly build up your character to become a force to be reckoned with so you can hold down the central chamber is a lot of fun.

However, here’s where I need to mention the microtransactions, and it’s ugly. Multiple currencies, lootboxes, forced waiting unless you pay, a season pass, pay-to-win gameplay-improving upgrades that can be purchased faster using microtransactions, filling lobbies with bots and then not showing player names so you think you’re playing against other humans… even requiring microtransactions for single-player campaign levels! And I will take this as another opportunity to point to this game’s cutesy, cartoony presentation that will undoubtedly entice younger players into this pay-to-win system, making this particularly disgusting.

Even beyond the monetization, the current lack of game modes, and the lack of the ability to play with friends, there is one other issue I need to bring up here. While most of my game matches went smoothly, I definitely found my way into some horribly laggy matches here and there. I also found my way into matches that had already started, and given how absolutely vital it is in this game to be active every single second, this is a major oversight.

Also, I mentioned bots before, and I should note that it’s easy to tell bots are being used because they have predictable and often dumb patterns of behavior that can be easily exploited. They hesitate to act when just at the edge of your firing range, sometimes just letting you kill them. When caught in a gunfight and low in health, they’ll walk a short distance away and just stand in place, allowing you to move closer and take them out. They don’t like walking over bridges covering gaps, meaning there are some areas they just won’t go at all. There’s one spot where they will occasionally freeze in place looking forlornly across one of these gaps. It’s outright bizarre how predictably dumb these things are sometimes.

Yet despite this game’s many, many, many flaws… I still couldn’t help but get hooked on it. There’s something about the gameplay of running around collecting bonuses as fast as you can to overpower your enemies that’s just a lot of fun, despite how many ways this game is outright broken.

Suffice it to say, I have some very mixed feelings about Turbo Shot. I had a lot of fun in its multiplayer mode, which keeps pulling me back… but I also recognize how limited this game’s options are, how manipulative the game is, and how extremely sleazy the microtransactions are. It’s still an enjoyable game at its core, but these issues really do make it hard to play this game without getting a bad taste in your mouth.

tl;dr – Turbo Shot is a free-to-play 2-Stick Shooter with a semi-randomized upgrade system and a bright, cartoony presentation. The core gameplay here is pretty fun, especially the enjoyable online deathmatch mode. But this game is severely lacking in options, and has some absolutely nasty monetization, including pay-to-win mechanics. There’s still a lot to like about this game, but it definitely feels like the gameplay was compromised severely for the sake of the microtransactions.

Grade: B-

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2022 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Best New Free-To-Play Game, Most Efficient Use of File Storage Space (397MB), Worst Microtransactions

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