Mr. Shifty Beta Review for PC

Mr. Shifty is a thrilling and fast paced top-down action adventure game developed by Team Shifty and published by tinyBuild GAMES. Mr. Shifty is set to be released sometime in the second quarter of 2017 and I cannot express how much I enjoyed playing the beta and how much I look forward to what the developers do with this game going forward. (Also I would second the developer’s recommendation and use a console controller when playing this game.)

The game itself begins quite simply as any action adventure game should—an unsavory villain who needs punishing and a character of extraordinary skills to dispense the judgement. You play as Shifty or more directly—a man that has the ability to teleport short distances and launch devastating combos on unsuspecting or outwitted enemy goons. From there you must make your way through a series of progressively more difficult levels and overcome obstacles and foes along the way. As you progress further the game becomes a bit more complicated and you must strategize your approach to a zone and in some cases experiment with different plans. Aside from beating down enemies with a flurry of punches, Shifty can equip sticks, cups and other items found when you break furniture and other objects in the game. These items are either thrown for damage or can be used to bash enemies in a larger area—which is useful when surrounded. However these items have durability and will break after a preset amount of attacks which means prioritizing targets is essential in the harder instances.

The game also ran seamlessly and for a beta I encountered zero bugs, glitches or wonky mechanics while playing. The game is a bit regimented when it comes to progression and you really don’t have any freedom with it when it comes to exploration as the game alerts you when you’ve cleared a level. In addition I would have liked to see maybe a bit more customization in terms of items or power-ups that could make some encounters a bit more engaging or difficult. Additionally another thing that I would have liked to see was increased difficulty settings. Although you die after being hit once by anything, after getting used to the mechanics in Mr. Shifty having the ability to blink pretty much instantly can make the gameplay somewhat easy in my opinion. Due to this game still being in beta I’m sure that higher difficulties or additional mechanics and enemies will no doubt be added later on. The full game will feature 120+ levels.

Although this game is still being polished up, I believe that it has everything a beta should in terms of gameplay. As it stands there seems to be much more content coming down the pipe that I didn’t get a chance to demo. This is exciting because for me the game was just getting challenging and I would welcome the increased challenge. Additionally, if you’ve ever played Hotline Miami then this game is somewhat reminiscent of that playstyle with less of the pixelated graphical style. In my opinion and all things considered, I rate Mr. Shifty a solid 9/10 points and look forward to its full release!

Here is Mr. Shifty Beta Gameplay Video #1:

And, Here is Mr. Shifty Beta Gameplay Video #2:

Mr. Shifty releases on Steam Q2 2017. Console release date will be announced at a later date.

Brandon Clayton

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As a young adult, I find myself drawn towards the competitiveness and the challenge that online gaming provides. My most preferred gaming genres include multiplayer based teamwork and strategy such as RPGs, shooters, MOBAs, MMOs, and top-down strategy games. While I've utilized and enjoyed both Xbox and PlayStation gaming platforms, I find that I prefer the use of a PC.

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