As a fan of beat-em-ups from the old days to now, in general I’d say that the Switch has been blessed with quite a number of notable titles that have done the genre proud. Granted, not everything can go a few rounds with the A-listers at the top, but if you’re looking to get your fix on, there are generally a fair number of options out there to help fill in the time until another top-notch banger.

Heroes of Mount Dragon is one of those titles where, for me, it didn’t make the best first impression. Visually there’s no doubt it has chosen an odd overall aesthetic, with 3D rendered characters and elements on a hand-drawn background. Perhaps it wouldn’t be quite so bad if the characters didn’t look kind of blurry, but it took me a little while to get used to. More often than not the pretty empty large spaces you’ll operate in, without too many enemies around, were also an odd choice, though there are challenge sections where things do get hectic, so it isn’t like it’s always that way. The last issue is just that your attacks and the somewhat slow execution they have take getting used to, especially since making combos between your attacks either doesn’t work well or isn’t very fluid.

That said, giving it some time, and playing with a few different characters it did manage to grow on me. You can absolutely mix it up with melee, learning how to make the most of your jump attacks (especially since they can inexplicably keep you airborne for a while), but magic users can be positively lethal if given an opportunity to work. If you’re able to play with someone else, whether locally or online, mixing up your party can absolutely work in your favor. I do wish your dragon attack, though it looks pretty cool, felt like it was a little more effective since that’s supposed to be the big attack you save up for, but it does work reasonably well if you can use it at the right moment and aim accurately.

If you enjoyed the Golden Axe titles, I’d say this is clearly more in that mold, complete with more stilted attacks but still with some opportunities for fun. I do wish that it didn’t feel like I was constantly walking through the same general stage flow and layout though. Too quickly I found myself getting a heavy sense of deja vu, and that absolutely harms playability. Bearing all of that in mind, this at least offers a different flavor than many of the others on the eShop, so there’s at least some room at the table for it overall, but the shadow of more complete titles does loom over it.