Xposed Switched

Genre: Arcade

Players: 1

.

Review:

(Note: This game is included in Arcade Fusion Bundle, along with The Crystals of Atlantis.)

Xposed Switched, released in 2023 on Nintendo Switch, is the third game in the Xposed series, a franchise of Arcade-style games designed to be a spiritual successor to the Xonix franchise, which was itself a series that started with a game designed to be a clear imitation of the game Qix. For those who haven’t played any of those games, the gameplay here revolves around using a cursor (spaceship, whatever) to draw lines across a game board looking to fill in completed spaces while evading enemies, with the goal of covering most of the game board with your completed shapes.

The presentation here is mostly pretty good, with neon-style 80s-inspired 2D visuals backed by an energetic techno-style synthesized soundtrack that works well for the game. The game also has the shapes you make in each level revealing an image in the background, which is a great idea, but these images seem like a really odd mix of all sorts of various topic matter, making me wonder if this art was just pulled from some sort of public domain collection and just slotted into rough categories. It’s not bad, but it feels out of place.

At the very least, the gameplay here is thankfully quite good. While most Qix clones seem to just stick with the basics, Xposed Switched actually has a lot of ideas for unique enemy types and environmental hazards, and creates unique levels through its arrangement of these obstacles. One level may have you dodging lasers while a central automated turret throws bombs at you, while another level may have you trying to navigate around slowing fields while heat-seeking missiles target you. This variety and creativity really makes this one of the better games of this type.

Unfortunately, Xposed Switched is kept from being a truly great entry in this genre due to its often-frustrating controls, which can feel imprecise and sloppy. There were multiple times where I died due to this game deciding that I had pressed the direction to steer my cursor into the path I’d already drawn out, resulting in a Tron Bikes-style death. Other times, trying to turn one direction would result in turning another, throwing me in the path of danger. I definitely feel like this game would be much improved by tightening its controls and ensuring that the cursor only moved where the player clearly deliberately directs it.

Still, despite this glaring flaw, Xposed Switched is a really fun Arcade-style game that is a great choice for those who are looking for something in the same vein as games like Qix. While this game has a lot of rough edges, the good amount of variety present here makes up for a lot of those issues.

tl;dr – Xposed Switched is an Arcade-style game in the same style as Qix, with players using a cursor to draw lines across a board to fill in completed spaces while evading enemies. There are some issues with inconsistent presentation and some control issues, but this game’s wonderful variety helps to make this a really enjoyable game despite these flaws.

Grade: B-

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