Mixx Island Remix Plus

Genre: Action

Players: 1

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Review:

Mixx Island is a game originally released on PC in 2020 as a follow-up to the 2019 PC game Mini Island, which was packaged together with multiple expansions in its 2020 release on Nintendo Switch, Mini Island Challenge Bundle. Mixx Island received multiple updates, with its most recent (as of this writing) update, Mixx Island Remix Plus, releasing on Xbox One and Nintendo Switch in 2023 in multiple versions, each of which is functionally identical – publisher RedDeer.Games is just doing that thing where they pack each release in with different free DLC content as a pretext to push the game on the eShop again, though all of the releases will let you download all of the free DLC, so the only reason for all of these releases is just so RedDeer.Games can junk up the eShop.

Now, having said alllll of that, while Mixx Island is a new game, the core experience is extremely similar to Mini Island, and as such I will be copying much of my text from my review of Mini Island Challenge Bundle.

As with its predecessor, Mixx Island Remix Plus is a boss rush-style Action game that players take on using a machine gun, a dash evade, and a grenade, making use of these to survive to the end.

The presentation here uses colorful pixel art visuals with some nice effects, including a nice reflective lake toward the bottom of the screen, mirroring the action from above. These visuals are backed by a decent synthesized soundtrack that alternates between some really nice placid music during calm moments in-between battles, and more fast-paced music during the action. It’s nothing truly remarkable, but it works well for what’s on offer here.

The gameplay here is fairly simple. You can fire a stream of bullets, you can dash, and you can use a limited number of grenades or a special move, and that’s it. No jumping, no special weapons, nothing like that. Dodging automatically evades most, but not all, forms of attack. Players must succeed in combat by knowing when to properly use each of these moves, and must also watch enemies to understand their attack patterns.

Enemy attacks are forecast by markers showing their area of effect, making them mostly pretty easy to dodge if you react quickly enough, so much of the time taking out enemies is a matter of knowing when you have a brief moment to stop and attack. Some enemies require a bit more finesse, but this pattern of dodge-attack-dodge-attack is what the majority of the game boils down to. Unfortunately, the lack of variety in your abilities, and the lack of interesting upgrades really makes this experience repetitive before too long. Oh, you do get Roguelike-style upgrades after each fight, only… well, they’re all just stat boosts. Do you upgrade your health, shield, energy, or attack? That sorta’ thing.

As with Mini Island Challenge Bundle, I think Mixx Island Remix Plus has a decent enough foundation – the intense action here is well balanced out by giving players an advance warning when an attack is headed their way, at least most of the time. However, while that core action may be good, it doesn’t make up for how simple and repetitive this game is. Players may enjoy this fast-paced action in brief spurts, but it’s not a game you’ll want to stick with for long.

tl;dr – As with its predecessor, Mixx Island is a boss rush-style Action game, and while the core action here is decent, it’s also somewhat shallow and lacking variety. The result is a game you might enjoy for a little while, but not one you’re likely to play for very long.

Grade: C

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