As more and more indie games make the leap to the Nintendo Switch, Death Squared – which was reviewed on PS4 back in March – seems to be a great fit, right down to the local co-op. The game puts one to four players into challenging block-focused puzzle scenarios requiring that require communication and co-ordination, avoiding obstacles and death as you go.
Within the game’s levels, there are a variety of rules to obey between cubes and holocubes to solve the puzzles. For instance, a blue cube is only able to move across a holocube with a matching colour, but it can then only stand on top of a holocube of other colours. Learning these these rules quickly ensures success and leads to fewer deaths when avoiding obstacles such as laser beams and holes in the stage.
Playing the game is slightly more difficult in handheld mode than on TV, with the Switch’s smaller screen making hitting or falling through holes in the levels so much easier to do, as the distance been the player and the obstacle is harder to judge and see on occasion.
However, once competent enough with the mechanics and level layouts, seasoned players can take their puzzle solving skills into the multiplayer scene for other modes, or an extremely challenging Vault mode for those who are looking to really test themselves.
Death Squared also boasts a local co-op mode, an on the Switch this makes use of the widely-praised Joy-Con. While it may sound overrated, split Joy-Con is an entirely new way of playing games and gives the game more of an identity. This niche has now caught the attention of many indie developers and it’s good to see Joy-Con support for a game like this.
The Nintendo Switch port for Death Squared looks extremely crispy with little to no tearing around textures and features perfect lighting which not only makes the game feel futuristic, but perfectly minimalistic at the same time. The game looks exceptionally good when docked in 1080p and there are no hiccups when it comes to frame rate, and it’s also worth mentioning running the game in handheld mode is on-par in terms of performance when compared to its release on other platforms.
At its best, the Nintendo Switch version of Death Squared is the same simple block puzzle game with fun co-operative gameplay and clever level design. However, when combined with the Switch’s split Joy-Con functionality, it becomes a co-op game that you can play anywhere with your friends. Alongside Overcooked Special Edition, Death Squared is another great example of what the platform has to offer between Nintendo’s almost monthly AAA release schedule.
