Cactus Crashes onto Nintendo Switch with Assault Android Cactus+

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-GeekyGamerGirl87-

Last Year it seemed like twin-stick shooters and I were like oil and water. We just didn’t seem to mix very well. They wanted me to play with both analog sticks and that didn’t feel right with some of the games, and so I reverted to keyboard and mouse. Don’t get me wrong I do enjoy twin-stick shooters but some of the controls were off with a lot of the ones I played last year.  So, I figured I would not ever get the chance to play a good twin-stick shooter. Then March 2019 showed up and bestowed upon us here at thedailygamepad.com from Witch Beam Games was a free review copy of Android Assault Cactus+ for Nintendo Switch.  Finally, a twin-stick shooter that I really enjoy. Ever since I was given the game to review, I have been obsessing over it and to say that it has become one of my favorites this month is probably an understatement. However, before I go into my review, I would like to thank Witch Beam Games for providing thedailygamepad.com with a free review copy of the game.

The story of the game is Cactus — who is an officer android — is sent to check on the civilian freighter known as The Yankee Star. Three days prior to Cactus showing up, the ship sent out a message and then it fell silent. Upon getting onto the ship Cactus is filled in on the situation by the androids Holly, Lemon, and Coral.  From what she has been told the four sector lords that were supposed to be protecting them, went crazy 2 days ago and started attacking them due to them having an independent core, which puts them in the same categories as humans. Therefore, leaving the androids out of the uprising for robots.  Cactus then asks about the ships Nexus Core, who is supposed to be in control of the ship. Lemon informs her that the Nexus Core went silent three days ago, and in the chaos of trying to investigate what happened; the lord sectors made their move.  Cactus suggests that they go and get the Nexus Core functioning again.

In terms of gameplay, you go around as one of our lucky androids and destroy the rogue robots that are attacking them. Along the way are buffs that can help you in your fight. You can collect one of three buffs to give you more of an advantage. The 3 buffs are Fire Power (Red) – Gives you increased firepower/damage, Shut-down (Blue) – Temporary shuts the robot down for a few seconds and Acceleration (Yellow) – makes your android go faster.  A cool thing about the buffs are gathering multiples of the same buff will extend the duration of that buff. Also, you can collect different buffs at the same time causing them to stack amongst each other. Your Android can go down as many times as she wants, as long as the battery in the middle of the screen has some charge; you will be able to revive. You can recharge the battery by grabbing the green battery recharge buff that is dropped by enemies. The longer you wait to revive the faster your battery depletes. Also, each time you play the game you earn credits. The higher your rank the better the credits are. These credits can then be used to buy concept art as well as EX Mode options.

The game has five different game modes. However, when you initially get the game the only modes that are available are “Campaign Mode”, “Infinity Drive”, and “Daily Drive”. In “Campaign Mode” you move from level to level and destroy waves of robots. In “Infinity Drive” you get to play multiple layers, with each layer getting harder. Basically, if you are looking for the game’s arcade mode this would be it. In “Daily Drive” you play daily versions of the Infinity Drive mode. As this is a daily thing it resets daily. You can play this single player or with up to four different people. The other two modes unlock after you finish the “Campaign Mode” and they are “Campaign +” and “Boss Rush.” In “Campaign +” mode you play a harder version of” Campaign Mode”. In “Boss Rush” it allows you to fight all the bosses from the campaign without taking a break.

The game has a total of nine playable characters. You start out with four and the other five are unlocked after each boss fight in campaign mode. The four characters that you start off with are Cactus, Holly, Lemon, and Coral. The five characters that are unlockable are Starch, Aubergine, Shittake, Peanut, and Liquorice. Each of the characters had their weaknesses and strengths, which I am going to take the time to tell you more about each character. Just so you know that the asterisk indicates that this character is an unlockable character.

Cactus – Uses an assault rifle and a flame thrower. She seems to be your tank of the four originals. She can take a lot of damage before going down. Although she seems to deplete her battery a lot faster than the others. She also tends to generate them a lot more often than the others.

Holly –  Uses the heat seeker missile and cannonball. One of the things that I like about her is that she doesn’t go down as often. This is mainly due to her speed.  Another good thing is she also manages to fill up her power bar the fastest. Her only downfall is being able to shoot one cannonball at a time.

Lemon – Uses a widespread gun and a rocket and appears to be a little on the weaker side when it comes to taking hits and damage. She also doesn’t hit as strong and I found her best used with the Firepower and accelerate power-ups.

Coral – Uses a Shotgun and a Plasma field.  She is a lot weaker than Lemon and she takes a moment to reload. So, using her plasma field accompany with the firepower and shutdown effects works great with her. She is a little at a disadvantage with having to reload, but she hits hard usually killing robots within one shot.

*Starch  – Uses a Laser and Micro Missiles. She also tends to hit very hard but like Cactus, her battery tends to deplete quickly. Cactus tends to have battery recharges drop frequently but with Starch, it’s not as frequent as Cactus, but a little more frequent than the others.

*Aubergine  –  Uses Helo and Singularity. Helo is pretty much a smaller robot that serves as a propeller blade and Singularity releases a tiny black hole. She plays well and doesn’t die as often. The Key with her is using Helo to your advantage. She doesn’t deplete battery life as fast as the others because she doesn’t have to keep shooting for her weapon to do damage.

*Shiitake  – Uses a Railgun and Propeller Mine. Her Railgun is powerful usually damaging lower robots within one shot. The Propeller Mine is useful when there is a swarm of enemies. She also doesn’t seem to deplete her battery as fast as some of the others.

*Peanut – Uses Magma Welder and Giga Drill Lance. Peanut is probably one of my favorite characters in the game. Once she looks completely awesome, and two her magma welder is a 24/7 flamethrower which makes her tough. Her Giga Drill is useful and allows you to hit multiple enemies. However, if you use accelerate with her, she will most definitely excel to new heights. Also, she tends to generate battery recharges the fastest.

*Liquorice – Uses Panzer Cannon and Vorpal Blade. She is only available after you complete the campaign mode. Her Panzer Cannon packs a powerful punch and her Vorpal does a ton of damage as well if you can land it just right. She is a powerhouse.

In terms of the controls for the game you can play with a wired controller, Switch-Pro Controller, Joy Cons Attached (Hand-held mode), and Joys Cons Detached. I spent a lot of my time playing the game with the wired controller and the Nintendo Switch attached to the TV Set. However, the game ran and looked good in its handheld form as well. The controls were smooth and didn’t lag at all, and they felt that they were mapped out correctly.

Earlier, I mentioned that with the credits you earn you can buy concept art. However, if you save up you can purchase options from the EX Mode. What the EX mode does is add other features to the game for you. One of my favorite features in the EX Mode options was the feature that allowed you to play with A.I. characters. It should be known that you cannot get onto the leaderboards when using this mode. However, if you are not into going onto leaderboards and want to play co-op without the local players, I would suggest purchasing this mode. Each of the Ex Mode options adds something new and different to the game.  The game does have online leaderboards; however, it does not offer online co-op which is a bit of a bummer. I would love to have played with others, or even have it be a 1 vs. 1 or everyone for themselves match. It would be nice to see who could destroy the most robots and try to stay alive. It would also be cool if in said 1 vs. 1 or everyman for themselves match you could also attack other players. Again, let this be known that that was all hypothetical and there is NO ONLINE CO-OP.

Another thing that bothered me a bit was there was no way to skip cutscenes if you have already seen them. The only time you can skip it is if you keep the same character. Other than that, you can go into the menu options and choose to skip the bosses dialogue. This will turn the dialogue off completely. Therefore, if you choose this option you won’t see the dialogue of the bosses, but the downside is that each boss has a different dialogue depending on the character. One of the cool features that I did like is that I like the ability to change out characters after the battle ends. In fact, you can pause the game and select a new android in the middle of playing if you feel like the android isn’t a fit for the level. You do have to start the level over, but it’s still a nice feature.  

As far as content for the game goes the game has a ton of content. Every time, you end a play session something is getting unlocked. Rather it is new modes, new game settings, or even something as small as sound clips to the game. Therefore, you will never run out of content for the game.  No matter what mode you play, there is a chance you will unlock some type of content. Based on the content I have unlocked so far, I can say there is quite a bit more because it usually gives you items in the bulk as suppose as separately.

Overall, I can say that I highly recommend Android Assault Cactus+. In fact, I would like to say that this might be my indie game of the month. I had a lot of fun with the game and am looking forward to playing more of the game. I hope to see more projects from Witch Beam Games in the future. If you would like to play Android Assault Cactus+ you can do so on the Nintendo Switch for $19.99.  Although Android Assault Cactus+ is only available on the switch. You can pick up the original game Android Assault Cactus on the following platforms (PC, macOS, Linux ) Steam, Humble Bundle, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One for $14.99.