Assault Gunners HD Edition (Nintendo Switch) Review

The game begins, and the player is greeted with the worst kind of storytelling: a scrolling wall of text (sorry Star Wars fans!), which would be tolerable if the plot was actually at all interesting. Yes, this is one of those titles where it is safe to skip every single "cut-scene" and line of dialogue, and just get down with the gameplay side of things, which can simply summed up as… blow things up.

…and that's what will be done here. Shoot, shoot, shoot, with absolutely no challenge involved, both in terms of agility, as well as strategic thinking - just side-step to avoid incoming fire, and keep on shooting at the baddies, while your brain has been turned off in order to handle the boredom. Some will surely use this extreme simplicity as an excuse: "Oh, it's mindless shooting fun that's meant to let you blow of some steam; don't take it that seriously!"

Serious Sam had mindless shooting fun, but it was also ten times better; first, because of its speed; second, due to the challenge involved; and, finally, because it simply felt good to play, which leads to another of this title's flaws: the lack of immersion. Videogames are basically interactive software where all you do is pushing buttons - what makes them special is their ability to make you feel that you are doing more than that, and this fails at that.

Assault Gunners HD Edition is incredibly boring to look at, with levels ranging from lifeless cargo-like, metal-everywhere areas, to lifeless sand-or-ice-everywhere, outdoor ones. Yes, everything is now in high-def, but that's not what makes a game stand out in terms of visual appeal. As for the Mechs themselves, the player-control ones are only marginally better looking than the generic pieces of scrap metal that act as the cannon fodder.

This is simply not worth anyone's time. There's a mission-by-mission "story" mode, an infinite wave mode, and there are lots of guns to equip your Mech with, but, in all honesty, all there is to do here is to shoot, shoot, and shoot, something that feels the same from beginning to end. This belongs on a smartphone, not on your 50" monitor, or even the small screen of the Switch. Mech aficionados are advised to look elsewhere to quench their thirst.