Destrobots

Genre: 2-Stick Shooter

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local) / 2-4 Competitive (Local)

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Review:

Destrobots is a 2-Sick Shooter released on Nintendo Switch in 2020. This game has players taking the role of robots fighting other robots in enclosed single-screen arenas.

Considering the simplicity of the gameplay, the 3D graphics here are very good, with a decent resolution and framerate, and a lot of detail in the environments. Much of this is completely unnecessary detail, I would add, as much of this detail is just created for a flyby of the area that plays out as an introduction, with the actual gameplay taking place in a very small part of what is shown. In any case, the game visually looks good (albeit nothing impressive) and is backed by a decent but repetitive soundtrack.

As for the gameplay itself, this is extremely simple and straightforward, as 2-Stick Shooters go. Move with the left stick, aim with the right, and the L and R buttons allow players to use a spin move that acts as a combination block and melee attack. Toss in a few very temporary power-ups, and that’s all there is to this game.

Speaking of simple, players only get a few different game modes. For one player or two-player co-op, there’s a “horde” mode that just spawns waves of single-task robots that need to be defeated without dying. For two to four players, there’s deathmatch and last man standing modes… and that’s it. Also, I should note that when I say “two to four players” – the game does not allow you to play the deathmatch with bots, so this mode is unplayable without other players sitting next to you.

There are more frustrations here. Players can only aim in eight directions, a gameplay decision that seems to have been done for the sake of keeping things fair for players using a single Joy-Con, but if you’re using a pair of Joy-Cons or a Pro controller this just feels limiting. Also, the rate of fire for weapons is agonizingly slow. And of course I can’t let it slide that this game has no online options whatsoever.

The sad thing is, with some tweaks to the gameplay and more options, Destrobots could have been a great multiplayer 2-Stick Shooter, but the stiff gameplay and lack of features make it hard to recommend this game over countless other entries in the genre on Nintendo Switch.

tl;dr – Destrobots is a 2-Stick Shooter that has you playing as robots fighting other robots. The presentation here is good and the core gameplay is mostly solid, but the controls are intentionally stiff, and the game is sorely lacking options. It’s not a terrible game, but there are far too many great 2-Stick Shooters on Nintendo Switch to waste time with this one.

Grade: C-

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