Mr. Shifty Reviews
Mr Shifty makes an incredibly strong first impression with its unique teleporting twist on top-down brawling action. But it's a game that overstays its welcome, with a dry well of ideas that struggle to evolve past their basic premise.
Mr. Shifty reminded me a whole lot of Hotline Miami when I first played it. I came away from my E3 demo amazed. Developer Team Shifty took the exemplary gameplay from Hotline Miami, tweaked a few things, added a new warping ability to the character to make the game unique, and ported the game to Nintendo Switch. Surely, this would be an excellent indie release on Nintendo's newest platform?
Mr. Shifty is a game you’d play whenever you are bored or you just got no other game to play anymore. If you just wanna get those braincells working, give it a GO for this game.
Mr. Shifty is an okay brawler that uses a stylish warping ability as a cool way to get the drop on unsuspecting foes. While it's fun to smack down security goons with quick melee skills, the horrible framerate of the final act will test your patience. If you do endure and manage to drop the final boss, Mr. Shifty doesn't present enough reasons to replay it.
A great top-down brawler game for on the go with 18 chapters including constant rising difficulty throughout the game
While the combat may have some depth and the game is certainly tongue-in-cheek, it just doesn’t present enough new ideas to sustain itself. I think it’s worth a playthrough, but I don’t believe we’ll be talking about Mr. Shitfy for years to come. Just as quickly as Shifty himself enters and leaves a room, so too does this game enter and exit your mind.
While Mr. Shifty brings an interesting and fun gameplay, thanks to its mechanics that emphasize fun over everything else, it suffers from technical issues that can harm the overall game experience.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Mr. Shifty begins in the same place it ends; by punching a man through a window. Defenestration is appealing, especially when it's preceded by short form teleportation, but the first instance is more gratifying than the last. Mr. Shifty deals in scale, quantity, and strategy in the wrong order, assuring its sharp edge dulls after an auspicious opening.
You'll have a cathartic blast with Mr Shifty, but your adrenal gland will have been worn out before you see the credits roll, and just like its titular hero, it doesn't stay with you for long.
Mr. Shifty boasts some unique combat and gameplay elements that has the player getting creative throughout its 18 stages. Unfortunately, even with a cool comic book-inspired art style, the game feels plain. At a length of only 4 hours, players will likely teleport through this one and never come back.
A failed attempt to copy the Hotline Miami formula.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Mr. Shifty has a promising gimmick but the fact that you can easily exploit it makes it far too easy and tedious.
Arguably a better follow-up to Hotline Miami than its own sequel, but it wastes its best idea on repetitive action that lacks any substantial challenge.
Mr. Shifty has a lot of potential, but is marred by technical issues and a dull endgame
Mr. Shifty is a game with a great idea and an interesting first levels, which is sorely lacking variability and rebalancing of gameplay in the later stages. Repetitive interiors and almost endless waves of heavily armed enemies begin to disappoint in the middle of the game. Which is very sad.
Review in Russian | Read full review
We want it to be clear that the version we played for this review was the full Switch eShop release. We've been told that the game runs much smoother on PC in the launch period, so you might want to make that your platform of choice if you want to check this one out – and honestly, you should. There's nothing groundbreaking to be found here, but it's a decent game with interesting ideas that unfortunately aren't fully fleshed out. We just can't fully recommend the Switch version in its initial form, and it's disappointing that this one falls under the category of games released in a sub-par state that leave owners hoping that promised updates will save the day.
Bland, inoffensive, and instantly forgettable - Mr. Shifty does nothing a lot wrong, but it does nothing a lot right either.
Mr. Shifty is like Nightcrawler from X-men starred in a boring Hotline Miami ripoff.
The biggest problem for the game is the current technical issues on the Switch. It’s bad enough that I think the game should not have been released until the issues were ironed out. The developer has stated that it is working on fixing the issues, but as of this review, the game is just in too rough a shape to recommend.
Mr. Shifty is a wonderful indie game with gameplay that makes you feel unstoppable. It's an exhilarating feeling when you take out enemies with teleportation. The levels are challenging and, most importantly, it is extremely fun to play. At $14.99, I can't recommend Mr. Shifty enough.