Game Type DX (Switch) Review
Release Date: September 8, 2022
Publisher/Developer: Mommy’s Best Games
Platform: Nintendo Switch (reviewed), Xbox One/Series family, Steam (Soon on PlayStation)
Price: $5.99
“Knock knock”
“Who’s there?”
“Banana.”
“Banana who?”
“Knock knock.”
…..
We’ve all been there. A joke. Might be the best joke you’ve ever heard even. But that’s it: you’ve heard it. It might be antiquated, overused, or just plain obvious by now where it’s going. But someone new heard it, and wants to share it. So you roll with it so they can get a laugh. This is the feeling I get when I play Game Type DX: for an indie game, it’s a good one, that plays on tried-and-true tropes to good results, but the core of the reason it was created was basically a middle finger to a hot-button issue at the time of first release that is since either much less relevant or much more prevalent, depending on your thoughts on the issue. Some younger players may even have this go straight over their head, not getting the joke at all.
Let’s do the history bit here: In the era of Xbox 360, Microsoft did a whole lot of jigging around with the main unit’s dashboard. The Kinect came out, the Glorious Purpose of the Xbox brand was “realized”: make the console the center of Everything. Play movies. Listen to music. Watch television. Oh yeah, and game. I remember having to tab over three, four, five screens on the main menu just to simply get to a tab called “games.” On top of that, there was only room for big names on the front page due to advertising revenue. Therefore, indie games found themselves struggling to stay relevant, relegated to a tiny corner of the menu if you just wanted to browse them, strangely labeled “Game Type”. I even feel I remember the picture looked like some stock image of a girl in a wild pose in a hoodie as the icon itself.
This led to the creation of Game Type on the Xbox 360. Two “games” in one, the game boots up to a menu chock full of advertisements in which you actually have to FIND the shooter game to play in the first place. Now rereleased, the “DX” version adds powerups, power DOWNS, and many more videogame jokes. In the shooter, “Hoodie Girl” uses her slap shot, kick beam, and parkour skills to take down advertisements and earn cash.
Game Type (and thereby DX) may be a fun game, but it was created as a statement. Many say that this game forced Microsoft’s hand, making them change up the menu to make indie games easier to find and admitting the sloppiness of their update. However, much like the old joke, it makes me wonder why we are revisiting it going on eleven years later. If the title itself is fun, why do we need the wraparound menu that younger people gaming now won’t even understand? Are we making a statement about how game menus are now? If so, why not update them for modern console types? And if it’s for historical/archive purposes, why not put some more context in there to help people understand? I remember the “enemy crab massive damage” joke, but my son was five when that popped on the scene. And there are so many cat enemies that remind me of the web’s utter obsession with cats (ok, so we might still be a bit cat obsessed).
As for the gameplay, I again say that it’s very well done! There’s an addictive multiplier loop: as you play the SHMUP, killing enemies causes cash to fall. When not shooting, cash is magnetized toward you. Cash=multiplier, but not collecting cash causes it to plummet. Yet, collecting too fast results in gaps. Between shooting enemies, there’s this balance of having hovering cash following you, but not quite collecting it so you can snag it and keep your multiplier humming. It really is fun. There are three modes to the game that really do the same thing in the end. A pattern of enemies come at you, then faster and faster in each wave until chaos takes you out. Once you are good at the game, it gets a little frustrating to pound through the slower levels just to get back to the challenge, but the loop is there and it’s genuinely fun. I’d have preferred a “story mode” at the least, because these levels feel like “challenge modes” to an original story that led up to you taking down the vicious “Media Ball” (*insert iseewhatyoudidthere.gif), but this is all we get. It also commits one of my big frustrations with certain Switch games, insisting that you be able to access the internet to upload a high score. I played a lot of this offline, and the game wanted to sniff out the internet after every run when there was none to find.
Game Type DX is that quality joke that you’ve heard before. Going back to it is a lot of fun, but in the back of your mind you either have heard it before, are too young to “get it,” or wish it could be updated to be more relevant. I think the developers could have taken the time to make a modern mode with a few more relevant jokes, or at least added a historical section to explain what the old jokes were (insert hellofellowkids.gif). Ignoring the jokes and playing for what it is, Game Type DX is an excellent little indie shooter with a fun gameplay loop. It just confuses me why it was ported near directly to modern consoles without any tweaks to keep it relevant to modern times.
Pros:
-Really a good shooter with a tight and fun gameplay loop!
-Power-ups and DOWNS keep you on your toes to watch what you collect
-Multiple modes to switch up gameplay
-Parkour!
Cons:
-In the end, it’s a one-note joke/act of rebellion that has since been quelled, at least in this specific instance. If this is a new statement, it could stand to have modern references.
-The gameplay loop, while fun, is short and sweet.
Special thanks to Mommy’s Best Games for providing a code for review!