GameCrafter and GameTomo‘s formerly PC and PS4-only indie Project Nimbus blasts onto Nintendo Switch with a few tweaks as Project Nimbus: Complete Edition ($19.99) and it’s a near total blast for mecha fans who crave dynamic action and some pretty cool-looking well-armed and armored machines to zip around in. The game looks and sounds great, runs quite smoothly and has three distinct play modes that add to the experience and make it infinitely replayable. While it’s not a flawless game, it’s definitely well made and entertaining enough that it’s going to keep those hooked into it busy bees whenever they need that mecha fix they crave.
Campaign mode is a four-chapter story arc that’s pretty much a Mecha 101 course packed with a ‘we’re making war to have peace’ political narrative (there’s an AI named after a certain former US President!) told though audio logs and in-game engine CG sequences. It does what it does well enough and keeps interest high throughout the campaign’s twists and turns. Gameplay here has you piloting a few different Battle Frames as the story progresses and sometimes your loadouts will be limited for the plot’s sake, while other times you’ll have access to a number of pretty tricked out BF’s to deal with the more impossible odds. There’s also a first-person option (in campaign mode only) if you’re wanting to get a cockpit view at the expense of some tactical advantage. I don’t own a Labo VR kit, so I can’t comment on whether the game supports Nintendo’s cheaper DIY Switch VR solution, but if there’s an update for this, I’m sure it’ll get love where it’s needed.
Some very bad children need to be taught a lesson. Let’s start by taking them to school…
In terms of controls, they’ll be initially daunting to some players, but once you do a few missions and adjust to the on-the-fly weapons switching and learn when to manually reload your equips, the game clicks into high gear. Expect a few types of automatic rifles, shotguns, missiles and even swords, the latter which are great to see, but may be underutilized by those who prefer exploiting purely ranged combat options. The three difficulty levels do make a huge difference, as your reaction speed and aim need to be on point in the harder modes. The more casual mode is great for learning the ropes and blazing through most missions with little to somewhat fierce opposition and yes, you can change that difficulty before any mission in any game mode.
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