While you wouldn’t have known it in the early days on the Switch, over the years it has become an absolute powerhouse of side-scrolling retro-styled shooters. Whether they’re collections of arcade classics, ports of older games never released in the US, or even new indie titles that have captured the classic look and feel, there’s an avalanche of great games out there to enjoy if you’re a genre fan. Of course, the problem there is that if you’re now bringing a new shooter into the space you’d really better be bringing some originality, flair, or a serious challenge with or you’ll get swallowed by the eShop never to be seen again.

Unfortunately, that’s the only real outcome I can see for Cilla, an oddball shooter that may have a reasonably-good art style, but otherwise fails to leave much of a positive impression. The first, and probably most, critical issue I have with the game is that its enemies simply don’t show much sophistication in the way they operate, and it makes entire portions of the experience odd. Many of them simply come onto the screen in their stock spot or pattern, and will shoot straight forward only. Since most won’t loop back, or somehow carry a consequence for simply letting them go by, in general you’re essentially better off ignoring them unless you’re able to hit them as they enter the screen. Engaging with them will generally require you to be in or near their line of fire, so what’s the incentive to deal with them? Well, except for the one type that aims at you with an on-screen reticle that loves to shoot you from behind in a way that really feels cheap.

Another issue is pretty underwhelming power-ups, which typically don’t last very long, and much of the time also really don’t feel all that effective or impressive when you do trigger them. While initially some of the screen distortions when you blow up enemies or get hit may look pretty cool to some degree, I also found them to be quite distracting to my built-in zone out dodge abilities, which also ended up being frustrating at times.

There are loads of shooters out there that fill the screen with a mix of friendly and enemy fire, requiring you to dodge your ass off while blowing up half the screen… and by comparison this lacks even a fraction of that interest or excitement. There’s almost a downright sterile feeling here, backed up by the breaks between sections that include very odd and generally stiff dialogue. Just when you consider the other retro-styled shooters that are out there ready to be played, and many carrying a budget-friendly price to boot, it's difficult to justify this as being worthwhile. It’s just an odd bird in a category with too many winners to feel you need to settle for this.