Aperion Cyberstorm (Nintendo Switch) Review

On paper, something like Aperion Cyberstorm seems like it should have been something solid or, at the very least, visually striking. Geometry Wars proved that this formula was a simple and effective way to make a radical shooter and it pulled it off thanks to its amazing audio-visual feedback and tight controls. This was back in the early 2000s. Today, almost anyone can make a game with the available options and technology, twin-stick shooters especially. When something like Aperion Cyberstorm comes out today and it is the most dull and joyless twin-stick shooter ever made, one has to wonder: "Where did it all go wrong?" The short answer is, basically everything imaginable.

What is one thing that anyone can expect for a quality twin-stick shooter? Electric and frantic music that gets blood pumping. Hopefully, something with some personality and texture that makes it stand out from others within its genre. Aperion Cyberstorm's sound design and music is utterly limp. The music can be best described as a blur of generic beats with an accompaniment of blips and bloops. The sound design stands out simply because it is extremely weak. Explosions and gunfire are flaccid 'piffs' and 'poofs,' lacking any and all bite at all. There is no crunch to anything, and everything feels so pathetic as a result. This lacking in audio design is also extended to the game's graphics.

Not only does Aperion Cyberstorm sound weak and pathetic, it looks it, too. The lacking visuals can be best attributed to how cheap the art direction looks. Everything is just outlines with simple neon colours, with no animation or interesting pulsing vibrancy. Light doesn't bounce off neighbouring surfaces or react to other objects; it is extremely spartan in design, giving a very flat and lifeless presentation. At times, Aperion Cyberstorm can resemble a very early Geometry Wars with all the graphical effects turned off… and if it was remade in Flash. Character portraits are by far the most unfortunate visual element included, resembling MS Paint drawings done by a high school kid who was really into Image Comics in the '90s. It is a really sad game to look at in action. None of the ships are cool, striking, or convey what they are supposed to be, and it is even prone to all sorts of AI glitches where enemies get stuck in the level geometry.

The act of playing Aperion Cyberstorm is a cure for insomnia. Facing the storm of ugly visuals and dull sound will leave slow and boring gameplay; a perfect holy trinity of bad game design. Movement feels floaty and shooting feels off. Sometimes it seems like the analogue sticks lose alignment with the directions of shooting. Nothing feels accurate and the lacking feedback only worsens the playability. The one saving grace is that it supports local co-operative play so that others can suffer together and lighten the burden of enduring Aperion Cyberstorm. It is not a broken title, but considering the vast options in this genre, there are certainly much better choices out there in terms of refined controls and playability.

Aperion Cyberstorm, for all its (many) faults, does attempt something interesting with a story mode. The campaign is a semi-metroidvania with some poor implementation of back-tracking. It wasn't bad enough that this was designed as the most monotonous twin-stick shooter ever, but to have to be forced into long bouts of obvious filler to artificially lengthen the action makes it true agony. Aperion Cyberstorm is one of those kinds of games where going to sleep is more fun.