Code Shifter
OpenCritic Rating
Top Critic Average
Critics Recommend
Critic Reviews for Code Shifter
If the shrug emoticon were a video game, it would be Code Shifter. It's just a tepid experience from top to bottom, one that doesn't do anything to make me hate it but certainly doesn't do anything to garner a recommendation.
Code Shifter is a neat idea that simply does not do itself any favors. The game play is fine, just uninspired. I wish it was more fleshed out with more variety in combat and design.
Code Shifter is basically a playable version of an unenthusiastic sigh. There is platforming. There is fighting. There is a story. Each of these things is there, but all of them feel underdeveloped or underutilized in their own way, and never really come together all that well.
With an enjoyable story, the novelty of changing between a large cast of characters, and a fun extra game mode, Code Shifter makes up for its shortcomings with many ideas successfully carried out. Bright, colorful, and energetic, Code Shifter is worth a buy for studio fans.
Code Shifter looked cool to me when I saw it but after playing it I walked away feeling pretty disappointed.
Code Shifter boasts a fantastic premise along with a commendable collection of classic characters. It's too bad that its gameplay is executed in a fashion that's substantially below Arc System Works' generally high bar.
Code Shifter is unfortunately, a big bag of missed potential. On one side, you have some of the best chiptune remixes to grace any video game, and it’s clear Arc gave it their all to represent each character in their own special way, nailing the crossover aspect in that regard. But on the other hand, the majority of the game sports this absolutely dull art style that honestly feels as if it belonged to another game before Arc characters were thrown in at the later stages of development. Combine that with some confusing design decisions such as the lack of D-Pad support, character themes getting interrupted by bosses, to even the 8-bit minigame lacking so much as stage, music, or CPU select options, and you have a mess of a crossover that barely feels like one, and isn’t even as fully realized as it easily could have been.
Overall, Code Shifters, while short, is a fun platformer with plenty of replayability with the difficulty options and a whole other game inside of it. Touching on the issue of crunch time with its narrative while also giving us plenty to see and do within the different coded aspects of the game was a fun approach to why would need to cross some rather extreme terrains. Adding in that upgrades are only granted to doing your absolute best, and there’s more than enough to test those that excel at the style.
