Mighty Switch Force! Hose it Down! (iOS) Review

Right from the get-go, the differences are clear: Hose it Down! is not a platformer like its predecessors, but rather a touch-screen based puzzle game. Taking the majority of its inspiration from Mighty Switch Force! 2, series heroine Patricia Wagon plays the role of a firefighter, spraying water through various maze-like pipes in order to extinguish the fires sweeping the city, with pipes appearing in blocks that can be dragged around via touch to form a path for the water from Patricia's hose to reach the flames. It's a major change from Mighty Switch Force! 2, which tasked players with switching between two available sets of blocks in order to reach the fire, as well as forming platforms and trapping enemies.

In fact, Mighty Switch Force!'s titular mechanic is noticeably absent from the game entirely - save for the presence of two different types of blocks (blue blocks are dragged around the screen to form paths, whereas red blocks are stationary but can instead be rotated) - and while there's no problem with the core gameplay of a franchise evolving and developing over time, the overall experience feels like a completely different title with the series' aesthetic slapped over the top.

That said, the style and sound of the game's older siblings is just as charming as ever, with bloated sprites and the return of Jake Kaufman's fantastic soundtrack. While there are no new assets at play here, some of the series' best tracks are present and the graphics retain their cuteness.

However, the game's wonderful decor doesn't do enough to detract from its fundamental issues: there simply isn't very much to Hose it Down!. Beyond the aforementioned two types of block, only the occasional dirt obstacle, and frustrating neon blocks that hide the orientation of their pipe appear to spice up a formula that quickly becomes dull and repetitive. The game also lacks the challenge of its predecessors, with the difficulty failing to ramp up across the 25 levels on offer here, which are criminally short and add up to under an hour of gameplay; par times are set for the player to try and beat á la the original two games, but the only other way of elongating the experience beyond that is paying even more for a further 25 levels.

Hose it Down! had great potential as a pick-up-and-play spin-off for one of the eShop's best platformers but sadly its brevity and simplicity leave this fire-fighting puzzler feeling slightly damp. Long-time fans of Mighty Switch Force!'s platforming prowess would be better off sticking to the versions on the Nintendo eShop, as Patricia's latest challenge is ultimately her dullest.