Reviews

• 

  _Heisenbird_

  Apr 16, 2017

  Take the opening scene from X-Men 2, turn it into a game, and you have Mr Shifty. Hotline Miami style game where the titular character has Nightcrawleresque abilities and you teleport around beating the sh*t out of anything that moves. Great gameplay hook, lots of enemy types and some neat puzzles make this an easy game to recommend. It's loads of fun and very empowering.
• 

  Marik Bentusi

  Apr 17, 2017

  Mr. Shifty is a short (5h) and sweet cheeky top-down brawler with a fast pace and focus on improvisation. Although it shares some similarities with Hotline Miami, the melee and teleport focused gameplay sets it suffiently apart. Could benefit from a level editor (+Workshop). [h1]Gameplay[/h1] The rules of Mr. Shifty are simple: Punch everyone in the face. Use your short-range teleport to get into punching distance and circumvent environmental hazards. Clear the room of goons and proceed to the next one. You fail and need to restart the room if you get hit at all. It's the details of these mechanics that give Mr. Shifty's gameplay a very aggressive character: The short-range teleport operates on a charge-based system that recovers after a few milliseconds or after punching people. Disposing goons quickly earns you a supermode that triggers in near-death scenarios to slow the world around you and grant you almost limitless teleport charges. You can pick up weapons, but they're all melee ones and break after a few hits. So unlike in Hotline Miami, Mr. Shifty's gameplay isn't about peeking and shooting. It's about getting in there and quickly punching people in the face. Side note: Failing a room repeatedly will grant you the bullet time supermode from the start, which I think is a cool way of lowering difficulty without ridiculing the player by granting them a chicken hat or asking them if they'd like to play on Easy Mode. Prove that you can play the room well and the free supermode won't even need to kick into action. [h1]Level Design & Enemies[/h1] The levels and the enemies placed within it contribute just as much to the Mr. Shifty experience as the gameplay rules. All enemies either engage in melee or use projectile weapons, and all attacks have at least a brief telegraphing attached to them, which means you can always teleport-dodge attacks and makes the game feel fair even when it gets difficult, which is quite important when you die in one hit. Enemies also have a reasonable aggro range, so you'll never get sniped from across the room without realizing there were enemies there. Enemies need to turn around before they can hit you, which might not seem like a big deal, but since it incentivizes flanking people and being smart about your teleports, it makes you feel a lot slicker! Level design gets increasingly more complex and the game keeps throwing new types of enemies at you until near the end of the game. Although the game doesn't feature (mini-)bosses per se, it does a good job of occasionally throwing in a harder floor that serves as a test for everything you've learned so far. Although a good chunk of Mr. Shifty revolves around punching people in the face, the game also mixes things up with sections that mostly focus on evading level hazards such as lasers and exploding barrels. It even features a few very short stealth sections, and destrucible terrain adds even more depth and possibilities to most rooms. The hand-picked enemy choices give a lot of rooms character. For example, a room may feature lots of melee aggressors and two enemies armed with rocket launchers. One way of dealing with this would be to prioritize the rocket launcher guys and then focus on the crowd of brawlers, but you can also kite the crowd and let the rocket launcher guys blast their comrades to pieces before you turn your attention to them. This room could have been completely generic, but smart enemy choices made it a compelling little experience with its own character. Because a lot of games these days pseudo-randomly spawn enemies and stitch together levels, Mr. Shifty's deliberate level design and enemy placement is a breath of fresh air. Unlike Hotline Miami, Mr. Shifty's level design, enemy variety and gameplay also allow for multiple different approaches to clearing levels, whereas in Hotline Miami levels could often feel like puzzles. Like you need to find out all the steps towards the solution and then choreograph it all perfectly. Mr. Shifty is much more about aggressive improv and attacking a problem from different angles. [h1]Graphics[/h1] I'm not a big fan of the "old school comics" art style myself, but it does a good job at setting the light-hearted tone and is very functional when it comes to making everything important stand out from the background, including the player character, which is invaluable in a game where you'll be teleporting all over the place constantly. It also does a nice job at characterizing each enemy type, so you'll never be confused about what you'll be up against, which is quite important since the gameplay encourages you to aggressively jump into action and improvize. The voice com avatars could have used some more work in my opinion. There's only one per character (your ally, the enemy boss, and occasionally the silent Mr. Shifty himself) with the occasional variant that zooms in a bit, which gets boring pretty quickly and doesn't support the dialogue very well, which already doesn't have voiceover. Basically it's no Mark of the Ninja, but it's all very functional. [h1]Music & Sound[/h1] Music's pretty nice and sound effects pack a good amount of punch. Nothing that sounds exceptionally satisfying and no memorable tracks. But for context, I rarely find soundtracks as memorable as a lot of other people. [h1]Story & Narrative (no spoilers)[/h1] Kinda flat even for the simple little thing that's all it wants to be. The game tries not to take it too seriously, but mostly does so by winking at the Fourth Wall a lot, which got kinda annoying to me. There's kind of a tone shift between beginning and finale towards the more serious, but not so much that it becomes jarring. The two characters, your obligatory voice com support lady and the main villain, try to be endearing through their quips and over-the-top scenes, but don't really succeed. Voice acting or more emotive voice com avatars could have helped a lot here, especially since the characters always look fairly serious but often pull out cheesy puns or lines like "That's a terrible plan. Count me in." Mr. Shifty himself especially comes across as stoic and serious due to his dialogue that amounts to "..." and an avatar seem from the back, face covered in shadows. Considering how wild the gameplay is and how cheesy the writing gets, the protagonist seems oddly serious and detached. IMO it would have been better to cut the voice com lady and give the protagonist some personality and motivations of his own. Maybe just a cocky thief that wants to get away with stealing from the biggest bad guy around. Barely slipping between the bad guy's fingers could have been what the protag greatly enjoys and what really pisses off the villain. On that note, the villain does a lot of "you see me in this level, but I'll vanish in a cutscene before you can even touch me" disapperaing acts in the game. Kinda got annoying. Especially since the power fantasy makes *me* want to be the guy that taunts the villain by briefly appearing but always being too glib to catch. All that said, the story is always very clear about your current objective and how it contributes to the bigger goal. The ending [spoiler]is clear, but kinda lacks a bit of "you did it! now let's chill at HQ, beer's on me" type of celebration. There's no eleventh hour superpower per se, but supermode-punching the villain felt really good, especially since once again you needed to flank him, which as I described above makes me feel real slick![/spoiler] [h1]Bugs & Performance (i5+GTX660)[/h1] I rarely experienced some chugging when levels got crowded with goons and explosions. I had one crash, which was preceeded by occasional stutter regardless of on-screen clutter, but couldn't repro it. Due to the teleporting shenanigens, once in a blue moon objects would overlap and spazz out. [h1]Game about teleporting, huh? Do you ever get to telefrag someone?[/h1] [spoiler] No, sadly you don't. :([/spoiler]
• 

  RoadRedemptionDeveloper

  Apr 18, 2017

  Awesome game. Like a more focused Hotline Miami. Perfect controls. Awesome gameplay. Squeezes every ounce of juice out of the premise and gameplay concept.
• 

  Randomness

  May 9, 2017

  Awesome game, well done by the developers and definitely recommending it. It can also be a stress relief game where you just get punch a lot of enemies and break stuff.
• 

  Azurean

  Jun 10, 2017

  A fun top-down action game with fast-paced fights and fantastic controls. It lasts two hours, which is just the right amount to keep you adrenaline-pumped the entire time and finish on a high note. The only downside (but it's a big one) is the price. I'm fine with a 15-euros 2-hour game, but only if it has high production value, and this game just cuts too many corners : few musical tracks, few environments, only 2 dialog NPCs with one facial expression each... It has a lot of replayability if you aim for the no-death achievement, but replaying a 15-minute level because I got hit once sounds too frustrating for me to even attempt. If that's your thing, I recommend this game. Otherwise, wait for a discount.
• 

  thegav777

  Jun 20, 2017

  It's a fun top-down arcade-style game. For what the game sets out to achieve, I think it does well. The teleportation mechanic is the centrepiece of the game, and it reinvents itself throughout. Depending on the level it can feel more actiony or more puzzly. But it's mostly action and reflex oriented, with a flavour of stealth, and some room for strategising against the enemy. The storyline isn't the most original, but the writers are clearly aware of that as the story makes fun of itself constantly. It reads more like a parady of an action movie. The game isn't particularly long. I've completed it with 7 hours on the clock, but it can be done quicker than that. For a game that tracks how fast you have completed each level and the number of times you have died, I thought that it would have a leaderboard built into the game, but there doesn't appear to be one. I have found other websites which track that, but I think intergrating it would have been a nice touch. The soundtrack is well produced and fits the game style perfectly, but does tend towards the repetative side. In terms of replay value, there isn't much - unless you're into speed runs, but that's not for me. Overall, I enjoyed the game. If you're looking for a fast-paced singleplayer arcade-style game, definitely consider this one.
• 

  hoohex

  Jun 25, 2017

  you're nightcrawler from the x2 scene, when you throw shields at guys and it bounces off walls you feel like captain america
• 

  Miyuki

  Jun 30, 2017

  Would certainly recommend if not for the random crashing and game breaking bugs combined with the inability to continue levels from checkpoints.
• 

  Substance

  Jul 1, 2017

  Like Hotline Miami on steroids. The final levels can get pretty crazy but nothing a 100 re tries cant solve. Impatiently waiting for a sequel. Mr Shifty is one of those charming "one more level, one more try" experiences. Not overly long, highly enjoyable and recommended.
• 

  76561198143688990

  Jul 9, 2017

  Imagine Playing as Tony but with teleportation abilities and a Slow-mo mechanic, but having a character with the same personality as Jacket. Added on with decent humor. If you love Hotline Miami, You'll love Mr Shifty. Simple as that. I'd also LOVE to see a level editor added to this game and I'm sure many others do as well. I'd definitely play it a lot more.
• 

  tearfromthered

  Jul 10, 2017

  "Hotline Miami with a teleport power". Yeah this is accurate, however this game is not a rip off. you'll get a simple mechanic of dash with cooldown to start with, but a variety of mobs and levels with new mechanism that will hook you for 2 to 4 h of pure fun. Nice little story, perfect controls... this is a great action game.
• 

  Yaerveth

  Aug 13, 2017

  Imagine a Tony that can't kill in one hit but has a teleportation ability. That's Mr. Shifty in a nutshell. Great gameplay, sweet graphics, excellent level design, and amazing soundtracks. I really loved this game. I wish it was longer, it's only 3 hours but at least it has some tough achievements to keep you busy for a while. Grab it when you have the chance, you won't regret it!
• 

  Grimscribe

  Aug 18, 2017

  [b]tl;dr[/b] Great gameplay premise and controls are held back by almost everything else, most of all boring level design. If still interested, only buy on sale [i]>50% off[/i]. --- Mr. Shifty is one of those games I would rate as neutral, if I had the option to do it. The premise is quite obviously pretty cool: Hotline Miami with superhuman strength and Nightcrawler's teleport ability. I'm sold. Right from the start it is clear that this mixture works and is translated perfectly into entertaining gameplay by the responsive controls. So far, so good. Sadly, Mr. Shifty's premise suffers from a lot of problems other areas of the game's design cause. Despite the good controls and awesome powers the game becomes pretty dull for large parts of its campaign. This is due to uninspired level design that will not challenge you for a majority of the time, the ony exception being some stages were the devs just throw more and more enemies your way. This only changes in the last few levels were some interesting new mechanics are introduced and you are not just challenged by the sheer number of enemies but also get some genuine ideas thrown in your gears, those parts easily provided the most fun I had with the game. But even the later levels hold some frustration based on questionable design decisions: You don't have the option to safe after reaching a checkpoint, instead you have to start over if you quit before finishing a level. This would not be a problem if the levels had a similar length to the ones in early or midgame, but thanks to the "difficulty-through-numbers" approach the levels are often three times as long. Also for a game that has a linear campaign of about 4 hours the amount of backtracking I had to do inbetween was at least slightly irritating. Another negative is the implementation of "story" (if you can call it that) into the game. The dialogues are poorly written and can not be skipped. Even when they are supposed to be cheesy fun, they are not. There is a lot of cringe you have to sit through. That aside, the prompts also bring the flow of the game to a full stop, killing all the momentum you had. You finish a room, rush forward, ready to fight and... you get a cringey text with irrelevant drivel you can't skip. Oh, I'm finished. You're allowed to fight now. Have fun... and don't forget your lunch! PS: Someone you don't care about. Those design complaints out of the way, I also encountered some minor glitches and performance drops that should not happen on my system. I think Mr. Shifty would've benefited a lot from longer developement. At the moment it feels unfinished, almost like a proof of concept to show that its basic premise can work, while everything else is just thrown in half-heartedly. As I said in the beginning the basics really do work, and they are fun - the developers really were onto something here, but that is about it. In conclusion I think Mr. Shifty could've been a lot better than it turned out to be and its current price tag does not fit quality nor quantity of the product. That is why I will not recommend the game. However, if you are still interested, I suggest buying Mr. Shifty on sale with at least a 50% discount.
• 

  verifiedVirus

  Dec 10, 2017

  This game is amazing. Actions in this game are very satisfying plus no repetitive level. But some levels were too difficult that I had to die more than 60 times to complete that. Overall 8/10 ... a great game.
• 

  kit kat

  Dec 30, 2017

  I'm really dissapointed by Mr. Shifty. The idea itself is fantastic, and the gameplay is terrific. For the first half of the game, I was having the time of my life. Teleporting and punching my way through bad guys was riveting. The second half of the game was terrible. Instead of coming up with new ways to challenge the player, the devs instead decided to make each level overly long with too few checkpoints. Then, they flooded every room with hundereds of enemies in order to artificially increase the difficulty. If the game had stopped after the first half, it would have been far better.
• 

  Spider3

  Feb 10, 2018

  Yes yes and yes! No reasons to dislike thio game. It's absolutely a good alternative to hotline miami. Less frustrating, good variation of enemies and maps, controls very responsive, and very enjoyable gameplay. Maybe somewhat expensive, but the game is very polished and fun.
• 

  Hyperlancer

  Jun 26, 2018

  What if Hotline Miami let you teleport and sometimes throw a shield around like Captain America?
• 

  Shaa-Li

  Jun 27, 2018

  Great little game, play if you liked hotline miami 8.5/10.
• 

  Ctrl+Alt+Del

  Jul 2, 2018

  If you miss the scene of Nightcrawler invading The White House in X-Men 2 and think they should use him a lot more in the X-men movie series, this is the game for you. Nightcrawler simulator 10/10!
• 

  Head

  Jul 7, 2019

  Honestly just wears thin very quickly. Good concept, but every time the developer has the option to make things more fun they opt out and do the most annoying thing they can think of. Played an hour, got annoyed & then quit.