Gnome More War

Genre: Arcade

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local)

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Review:

Gnome More War, sometimes titled Gnome More War Defense Shooter, is an Arcade-style game released on mobile devices in 2019 and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2020. In this game, players take the role of a woman defending her barn from gnome invaders trying to steal her chickens. She does this by… constructing a rope and pulley system to lift and lower her as she shoots projectiles towards the gnomes as they parachute off of a nearby cliff. Hey, sometimes videogames don’t make logical sense and you just have to deal with it.

The presentation in this game feels very much slapped-together, with some traditional 2D art and some pixel art, neither of which looks especially great. This is backed by a pretty terrible blaring and repetitive soundtrack that you’ll want to mute soon after starting the game.

As for the gameplay, this plays a bit like a Shmup where you’re firing from right to left, though your range of movement is oddly restricted on both axes, your firing speed is sluggish, and your shots move extremely slowly. I credit this game for providing a surprisingly good variety of enemy types, and there’s an upgrade system with a lot of potential to make things interesting, but it hardly matters when the core gameplay is so very lacking.

In the end, I don’t know who Gnome More War was meant for, but I can’t imagine anyone will walk away from this game being very impressed. Yes, it’s only $3, but $3 for a sluggish, unsatisfying pseudo-Shmup just sounds to be like $3 wasted.

tl;dr – Gnome More War is an Arcade-style game where players on the right side of the screen shoot at gnomes parachuting off a cliff on the left side of the screen. There’s good variety in enemy types and upgrades here, but it hardly matters when the gameplay is so sluggish and dull. Even for only $3, I think you can do better than this.

Grade: C-

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