Tonight on GeekNights, we review a game we've been waiting for longer than you can imagine. Just Shapes and Beats. Rym got it on Switch, Scott got it on Steam. They're both fine. It's shapes and beats. It evokes the same brainfeel as Super Hexagon, but fully evolved.
I had a significantly easier time getting through the levels single player than I did as a four-person group. Part of that is us making bad decisions in attempts to save each other. But even I personally was not performing that great.
In retrospect, I figured it out. When you get hit, the game throws you quite a bit. I had a very hard time distinguishing between the circle and triangle colors. They are both kinda yellow/orange. Once you take some damage the shapes are somewhat interchangeable.
Also, I was playing the polite host and playing with disconnected joycon pair, letting my guests use my two grips and one pro controller. Might need to snag a second pro. I should have just turned one joycon sideways. You need a two-hand grip to get real stick precision.
Things I have observed after an hour of single player story mode:
Some obstacles are randomized between runs - generally bullets and lasers. Other obstacles are very scripted and never change. It doesn’t look like the position of shapes have any influence on where bullets go.
The invulnerability dash’s distance can be controlled by returning the stick to the neutral position. This feels very good.
The shapes bounce and squash and deform when you make small adjustments, and generally act like they have a “front” and a “back” in a twin-stick shooter sense. I’m not a huge fan of this but I can deal with it because it probably aids with identifying where you are on-screen in multiplayer. I’d like to see what the game looks like with a glowing Cave-style hitbox in the center of your shape.
Anyway, this is still a game about dodging, it works, and they got Nanobii - Rainbow Road into the story mode so it’s still GOTY material.