In general there’s nothing I like more than seeing genres and styles of play that feel like they shouldn’t have much of anything to do with each other mashed together in some way. Of course, the last generation has taught me quite well that the results of such collisions tend to be mixed at best, but I do truly appreciate the effort nonetheless. Interestingly enough, this re-release of a somewhat gussied up handheld title from over a decade ago, shows that there have been folks out there experimenting for quite some time.

Very obviously involving the talents of the folks from WayForward, whose popular Shantae series feels like a visual sibling of this outing, this RPG-meets-space-shooter does show promise in principle. With your hardened veteran pilot enlisted to go undercover behind enemy lines, your mission will be to get your hands on the plans to an alien superweapon. For the most part that’s where you’ll be spending your time on the RPG side of the coin, walking around in different environments, talking to and helping your fellow crew, working out puzzles, and dealing with some very rudimentary combat. You can also find various spots that will then shift you into space shooter mode, in theory amping up the energy and excitement… but not really.

As a big fan of arcade shooters, of which the Switch has many, even taking into account this game being originally made for a handheld system, the action here is seriously underwhelming. In general the ships you’ll work with are ploddingly slow, the different weapon types you’ll unlock the more you take on these challenges usually range from uninspired to pretty useless, and they just feel very random as a whole. What you’re left with is a re-release of a game that feels ambitious but ultimately flawed. There’s certainly a charming retro quality that some may be drawn to, or who perhaps had the game way back when, and would love to give it another shot. If one of those applies this may be worth a look, but otherwise the primary selling point is just that it’s a pretty unique oddity.