Deathchron Nintendo Switch Review 6/10 "A great premise hindered by design" 🤖 @CM_Games @RatalaikaGames #IndieGame #GameDev #IndieGameDev

The actual premise of Deathchron – in that you are a child in a mech that needs to occasionally leave the safety of the suit in order to get into small spaces or activate certain switches etc. leaving you vulnerable as you do so – very much appealed to me when I watched the trailer for Deathchron.

The vibrant music, tasty pixel art visuals, and platform-based side-scrolling action presented in super-smooth 8-bit fashion all had me twirling my moustache in anticipation, but upon actually playing the game – it became clear that there were too many factors working against my enjoyment to really make this a keeper.

Following a cool intro sequence setting up the events of the game, Deathchron wastes no time in throwing you into the 2D side-scrolling action. In your Deathchron mech suit, the protagonist is a gun-wielding, upgradeable killing machine as you take on the robots and enemies that lurk within each screen. However, once the boy leaves the mech -as you regularly need to do for the various environmental puzzles – death comes much swifter, as a single bullet can spell doom.

Whilst the 8-bit style, music and controls are all well and groovy – the level layout, enemy placement, and checkpoint system feels like it’s at odds with the rest of the game, and very quickly sucks out the enjoyment initially set out in the premise.

You’ll find yourself suffering through myriad deaths that feel a bit cheeky due to the traps and enemy placements, with your will to proceed ebbing away as the spawn points for failure – such the insta-death of falling into hazards etc. - are quite far apart, meaning that you’ll be re-trying the same sections over and over, and when the deaths feel unfair, it’s a bitter bill to swallow.

SUMMARY

Whilst Deathchron has put Crescent Moon Games on my radar, I do hope that their next game is a little more balanced, as there’s a very big difference between ‘challenging’ and ‘unfair’ and Deathchron unfortunately falls into the latter category, a shame as there’s a fun little game tucked away under all the teeth-grinding.