Banking heavily on support abilities doesn’t allow you to kill off swarms fast enough before new Deep Ones are summoned, but going all in on damage perks doesn’t provide enough survivability. These perks reset at the start of every stage and are totally random, but they’re all equally meaningful.ĭo you choose between being a glass cannon with a ridiculous rate of fire and spreading bullets, or play it safe with dodge cooldowns and the ability to offset oncoming damage? It’s always a tough choice, particularly in the late-game when the difficulty ramps up. Each level offers a choice between two random perks (like bullet-piercing rounds, dash cooldown reductions, and an increased number of power-up spawns), with more unlocking as the player progresses through the campaign. I always felt like I was accomplishing something since this allotted enough time to shoot my way through 3 or 4 stages.Īs you mow down swarms of baddies, Tesla levels up rather quickly. This is meant to be a quick pick-up-and-play arcade shooter and that’s when I had the most fun especially in handheld mode on the Switch when I only had 10-15 minutes to spare. From charging brutes and lesser “fodder” enemies to projectile spamming squidlike beings, there’s an admirable array of baddies to lay waste to while dashing around for dear life. The button mapping is comfortable, with a dash, special ability, and shooting function tied to the shoulder buttons, and a level-up and mech summon function within Y and A.Īside from the occasional boss fight, most stages are three- to four-minute battles against swarms of monsters that typically end when all of the floating Cthulhu statues have been destroyed.

As Deep Ones spawn from the ground, you’ll move Tesla around with the left analog while aiming with the right. Like I mentioned above, it’s a fast-paced, top-down twin-stick shooter (hyphens!). His Deep Ones begin taking over the city and you, as Tesla, use the power of science and invention to fight against them. The story exists purely to push the “science versus fiction” theme, with Tesla showing off a new invention and Lovecraft objecting to the point of being forcefully removed from the building. Lovecraft certainly falls into that category as well, it’s an admirable evolution of a genre they’ve been heavily investing in over the last few years. And while their latest, most ambitious release Tesla vs.

Recently, they’ve put forth a slew of top-down twin-stick shooters in JYDGE, Time Recoil, Neon Chrome, and Crimsonland. has been rabidly supporting the Nintendo Switch, but it’s safe to say that originality isn’t their strong suit.

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