Having wasted a fair portion of my youth in the arcades, and now doing the same in my middle age at my desk, I’ve spent a fair amount of that time enjoying arcade-style shooters. When properly executed, there’s something wonderful about getting into the zone and working almost as much on instinct as on active thought. Being great and compelling enough to get you to that place is a vital piece of the puzzle, and one that lesser games just can’t seem to capture. Unfortunately, I’d count Spellbearers to be stuck in that spot, as despite its best efforts it just isn’t terribly satisfying.

Going over what positives there are, while I’m not a fan of its art style for this genre, I suppose for the sake of variety it’s a good thing for it not to look quite like any of its competitors. It’s colorful, makes some nice use of relatively modest effects to throw in some visual flourish, and does make an attempt to use lighting in interesting ways. That isn’t to say it all necessarily works in favor of gameplay, but I can see how some people may be attracted to its different look. The ability to play with some friends locally is also a plus, if you’re into that, and since not all titles out there support this, it’s at least a modest perk.

While I’ll try not to be too brutal, unfortunately there are some negatives, and they also start with the choices made in terms of the game’s appearance. My biggest issue is the size and scale of the characters, as I’d argue they’re simply too big. This really makes the space feel almost claustrophobic in some ways, and that has an effect on the overall feel of the action. Another problem this contributes to is with the water-based enemies, which will give you a minor warning before popping up, but with everything being so big and chunky it’s very easy to be unable to see those warnings, making them popping up and right into you feel pretty cheap and lame. Throw in another critical issue in the boss fights simply dragging on far too long, with them being ridiculous bullet-sponges but then not even terribly interesting to battle, and one of the aspects that can usually throw the excitement into overdrive instead feels pretty weak.

The problem for Spellbearers, as has been the case for quite a number of arcade shooters that have hoped to find success in the eShop but come up short, is that the competition already out there simply blows it away. Whether you’re comparing it to straight arcade-style shooters like Assault Android Cactus or even some roguelike shooters like Tesla Vs. Lovecraft the gap between it and the collection of titles that do everything far better is a substantial one. You could argue about aesthetics or some other details, but in the end despite the apparent goal of the developers to emulate the likes of the classic Smash TV they’ve failed to even come close to even matching the intensity and excitement of that beloved classic, let alone its modern contemporaries.