As has been noted on this channel many times before, even if you’re bringing a budget experience to the table at this point, you need to do more than the bare minimum in most genres. Perhaps back in the initial days of the indie scene, or even earlier in this generation, going through the motions with a pixel art look and a low price could still suffice to some degree. Over 7 years into the Switch’s lifespan, and with literally hundreds of budget action games out there though? You’re going to get called on it.

You’ll be thrown into a mostly black and white, very low-res world where you’ll need to jump, slash, eventually grapple, and make your way through a bunch of one-hit enemies. In general, trying to jump around and keep moving without falling will be tougher than any of the combat, and usually the struggle then is more with things like your dodgy grapple than anything else. Perhaps sensing that the experience is lackluster, the game description even tries to push the second part of the game changing things up to be even better. This is a flawed approach when the eShop is full of titles worth your time, making a promise that things will improve while essentially punishing you with gameplay earlier on that is less engaging by your own admission.

Unfortunately, though it has an intriguing name that I’d say falsely implies what its action entails, Mangavania 2 fails to convey a sense of its developer going the extra mile to do something of substance. On the contrary, it simply feels like a hodge podge of simple ideas, blended together to make something pretty thoroughly unsatisfying. Its action is sloppy, its stage design fails to inspire excitement, and overall there’s nothing in it that would likely stick with you once you’re done playing, at least not in a positive way.