Review #016: Danger Mouse: The Danger Games (Nintendo Switch)
Updated: Oct 8, 2019
Reviewed By: Allan J.
Developed By: 9th Impact
Published By: 9th Impact
Category: Racing, Action, Arcade, Party
Release Date: 9.13.18
Download Danger Mouse: The Danger Games from the Nintendo eShop here.
Read our interview with Finn, co-founder and lead developer here.
He's the greatest...
Danger Mouse: The Danger Games is a run-racer game where up to four players can race each other in a foot race through town while dodging, breaking, or jumping over objects and enemies along the way. It is another mobile game that has found its way onto the Nintendo Switch, and while some mobile ports lend themselves very well to the Switch, this is unfortunately just not one of them.
Gameplay
The controls are clumsy and laggy. Your character runs automatically, but you can hit Y to briefly boost your speed. To keep any sort of lead in the race, you basically have to keep hitting this boost as often as you can throughout the race. In addition, you can jump over or slide under object in your way, such as cars, buses and randomly placed wooden crates. There are weapons and power ups that you can pick up along the course to help you out, though most are not that helpful. The baseball bat, for example, is often placed so far in advance of the objects that it is intended to smash, that it disappears before you have any real chance to use it.
There is a pretty bad delay in response to the commands, and the character, as a result, almost feels like it basically does whatever it feels like doing. The speed of the racing feels sluggish, yet somehow, at the same time, the objects seem to appear too quickly to respond in time.
Audio & Visuals
The music is OK, but difficult to hear over all of the random sound effects and voice-overs. Visually, this looks like a remastered N64 game. The character art in the menu is good, but the gameplay graphics are rough at best. It looks and sounds like a mobile game. There are other games just like this out there like Shopkins Run! – a game my 3-year-old niece plays - that are basically completely the same game, but with smoother graphics and better course designs.
Fun Factor?
I thought to myself while playing this game, “Maybe it would be more fun playing with a few of my friends and family"? Well, I was wrong. My wife played a couple of races with me in local split-screen mode and quickly moved on to something else. I was also unable to play online multiplayer while at the same time playing with local split-screen, so I had to pick either or, which was a bit disappointing.
I could never really fully tell what was going on, because I had trouble figuring out where anybody actually was. It became even more complicated when everyone chose to play as the same character and the character voices don’t seem to increase or decrease in volume much, if at all, in relation to their distance from you on the course. Fun-wise, this game is not very. It is good for a quick distraction if you need to kill 5-10 minutes, but beyond that, it is too repetitive to hold my interest.
Wrapping Up
Danger Mouse: The Danger Games is not a very good game, even for a kid. I try to see the positive in every game I play, but sometimes it’s just difficult. This game really did not impress me and I can’t recommend this game personally. However, at $4.99, maybe give it a try and see if you like it yourself? Maybe this is just not the game for me, but I don’t think this one will be back in my queue anytime soon.
Final Score: 3/10
Download Danger Mouse: The Danger Games from the Nintendo eShop here.
Read our interview with Finn, co-founder and lead developer here.
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