Mr. Shifty Reviews
A solid riff on Hotline Miami, but with its own, fun spin.
All in all, Mr. Shifty was a lot of fun to play for the first few hours, but towards the end of the game it stopped introducing new challenges and started to stagnate.
Shifty is a straightforward, focused caper with little fluff that will last you a few hours as you climb through 18 stages. What it lacks in length its makes up for with a dynamite gameplay hook. Teleporting is incredibly neat and opens up a lot of daring and rewarding circumstances where you can mow down foes. As long as you can overlook the handful of moments where the combat isn't the focus, Mr. Shifty is a great addition to the young Switch eShop.
There's not enough substance to Mr. Shifty to leave a lasting impression, but the moment-to-moment gameplay is certainly enough to get your blood pumping for a bit. In this case, that was certainly enough for me.
Mr Shifty is a fun, fast-paced experience, that stutters and stammers on Switch
Mr. Shifty is not as refined as its closest analogue, most likely the game will not be as a huge army of fans, but to catch a couple of evenings, it certainly can, the developers have tried to make something new, maybe not entirely successful, the main problem of the game is the similarity of gray levels which could be done varied.
Review in Russian | Read full review
Mr. Shifty is quite an interesting experience. The whole game revolves around Mr. Shifty's ability to short distance teleport. When the job goes bad, the only thing that we can do is to retaliate. You will be going up and down your jailor's tower and decimate his defences. The game provides fast gameplay and an unique ability to flawlessly traverse most levels without stopping. Think before you teleport and you might just make it.
Review in Polish | Read full review
Though lacking in polished visuals and complexity of design, 'Mr. Shifty' still drives home the sheer pleasure of its teleportation-based combat, offering a satisfying way to spend a few hours punching bad guys in the face.
Can you go from loving to loathing something in two hours? Apparently you can, if it overstays its welcome.
It’s not without its flaws, and hopefully some of them will be ironed out in the future, but even without a patch there’s still a charm to Mr. Shifty.
A blissfully fluid action game with a compelling twist, let down occasionally by tedious encounters.
In quintessential evil villain fashion, what awaits you is a face-off to see who will be the only one to survive. Soon the credits roll, the overflowing confidence and braggadocio rapidly disperse, and you're left with an overwhelming disappointment that you're not actually as powerful as Mr. Shifty. And you never will be. But at least you had fun pretending to be.
Mr. Shifty encourages you to replay a stage to run it faster and finish it with fewer deaths with the ultimate goal being a perfect 0. Mr. Shifty will be released on both Steam and the Nintendo Switch with the later of the two being the better platform. With stages set to last between 5 to 20 minutes this style of gameplay lends itself to pick up and go mobile play.
Mr. Shifty is immediately reminiscent of Hotline Miami. Shift into a room, punch Mr. Mc Pistolman twice, shift out before his friend can get a bead on you. Repeat until dead.
Mr. Shifty is an undeniably fun game, with a neat gimmick to add to the top-down action genre. It is a perfect title to make those in control feel like they are Nightcrawler, and it a great experience that can be enjoyed in short spurts. Some gameplay issues and short length keep it from being a full, must-have type of recommendation, but there is definitely still plenty of intense enjoyment to be had in this release.
Mr Shifty is an intense and gratifying experience that has its tongue pressed firmly into its cheek. It's not quite on the same level as some of its contemporaries but it makes the most of what makes it unique and introduces new ideas from the ground floor to the penthouse. The occasional section of trial-and-error and the mountain-esque difficulty spike towards might be enough to make some players rage quit, but if you can push through the frustrations, there's a funny, exhilarating game to be found underneath.
For what it sets out to be, and the price point, if you're looking for an engaging brawler that will test both your reflexes and your wits Mr. Shifty delivers some pretty solid goods. While it has issues that keep it from being easy to recommend to anybody if the game looks like it has elements that appeal to you it should reasonably deliver the goods, even if it feels like it doesn't quite live up to its potential.
I found Mr. Shifty to be a really fun and enjoyable game, that had a great core mechanic and played like one of my all-time favourite games. The challenge isn’t quite there however and it does get a bit repetitive the more you go on. There isn’t a great deal of replayability besides beating previous times, which isn’t enough to keep me coming back. But for those who want a short-lived but super slick and really fun game then I can certainly recommend Mr. Shifty to those people. It’s no Hotline Miami beater, but then again, what is?