Assessment: Anomaly Agent (Nintendo Swap)

Anomaly Agent is many issues. It’s half platformer, half brawler, and half shooter. It entails time journey, combo strikes, boss fights, and upgradeable weapons. It additionally has a rocking soundtrack. In brief, it’s a enjoyable and fast-paced motion title from newcomers Phew Phew Video games. It occurs to be the primary title for this indie dev, and it’s a stellar option to kick issues off.

In Anomaly Agent, you play the function of the famend Agent 70 as he embarks on his remaining mission earlier than a promotion. He works for an organization referred to as TDAY, a peace-keeping outfit just like the TVA of Marvel’s world. Their job is to cease anomalies brought on by the misuse of artifacts that may, for instance, disrupt the circulation of time. There’s one unfastened finish that wants tying up earlier than Agent 70 can start his new job, and it simply occurs to be a doozy. 

I received’t spoil the plot; half the enjoyable is unraveling the story as you go. Put merely, somebody has messed with time, inflicting a number of anomalies to look. Your objective is to cease them earlier than they trigger everlasting injury, and set issues proper once more. Issues get difficult, and there are selections to make alongside the best way about the place your loyalties lie. The story is well-written, creating an attention-grabbing and fascinating narrative. 

Whereas time-related shenanigans are nothing new, Anomaly Agent places its personal spin on issues. One such facet comes about midway via when Agent 70 turns into caught in his personal private time loop. To rectify this example, gamers are despatched again to beforehand conquered areas (for causes I received’t spoil). Revisiting ranges in a recreation is dangerous, opening up room for repetition. Nonetheless, Anomaly Agent handles this properly, protecting the degrees shorter the second time round. Moreover, you now transfer from left to proper, somewhat than the standard proper to left, protecting the expertise feeling recent.

Anomaly Agent options three problem ranges: straightforward, medium, and arduous. Even on the bottom setting, I wouldn’t say it’s a very straightforward recreation. Having stated that, Agent 70 comes outfitted with an ungradable well being bar and limitless lives. Save factors are automated and frequent. It creates an expertise that’s by no means irritating, even when issues go fallacious. And so they usually do.

Boss fights are the proper instance. There are lots of all through the sport, together with halfway via the degrees. These large baddies are sturdy, forcing you to search out one of the best strategy to take them down. Fortunately, most fights happen in a number of phases; when you deplete half of their well being bar, there’s a pause of some type. Perhaps the battle relocates, initiating a chase sequence. Maybe the temporary interlude consists of taunts or new weapon drops. Both method, it breaks up the gameplay sufficient to maintain issues recent and offer you a respawn level. 

Normal enemies largely tackle the type of “clones,” Agent Smith-like characters that may merge with one another to turn into extra highly effective. There are lots of variants, with stronger variations of every as you proceed. To fight them, you’re outfitted with a number of weapons of your personal. These embody melee weapons like your fists and a baseball bat, together with long-range objects like a boomerang. When you don’t sport a gun of your personal, you should utilize these dropped by enemies, creating some enjoyable and various fight kinds.

This results in two issues. Firstly, there’s a terrific combo system. Unlocking new combos provides you stronger methods to beat enemies. These not solely look cool, however they’re satisfying to drag off. Secondly, there’s a deep leveling-up system. You possibly can cease by the native robotic merchandising machine to swap cash for issues like additional injury, additional bullets, or including toxic gasoline to different weapons.

Graphically, Anomaly Agent appears to be like nice. It sports activities a colourful cyberpunk fashion with pixelated characters and different environments. I admire the splash-screen intro to every new character, giving a comic-style vibe that works properly. Some background and foreground components may use a bit of extra distinction at instances; there was the odd event after I wasn’t positive if one thing within the background was going to hit me, or if one thing within the foreground was a platform or a backdrop. 

One other minor deficiency is a noticeable lag after prolonged play periods. When my jumps turned too sluggish to be helpful, I restarted the sport and located no additional points. It’s most definitely one thing to do with the restricted reminiscence of the Swap, but it surely nonetheless feels prefer it may have been optimized higher.

The synthwave soundtrack is an actual deal with. The tunes bought caught in my head (in a great way), and I beloved revisiting ranges simply to listen to them once more. Every part of the sport options completely different songs, surging with adrenaline-pumping beats that preserve you shifting alongside rapidly. When ranges function nightclubs, the audio turns into notably essential, but it surely rocks the entire method via.

General, Anomaly Agent gives a quick, slick journey via time. The builders have completed a fantastic job with this, their first recreation, paving the best way for the crew’s promising future. Regardless of a number of little technical glitches, that is one title value testing.