Assault Android Cactus+ is a twin-stick shooter that sees a team of androids led by the titular Cactus fight their way through 25 levels of intense action in an attempt to re-take control of a ship with its governing AI gone awry. The game is a port of Assault Android Cactus which first released on PC in 2015. Every aspect of the game can be played in seamless local co-op with up to four players at once. Starting with your choice of four androids and unlocking another five as you go, the campaign mode can be completed in an hour or two. At which point you’ll realise you’ve only just scratched the surface.

Developer: Witch Beam Games

Publisher: Witch Beam Games

9+ Hours Played // Review Copy Provided // $19.99

The gameplay here is easy to explain and very easy to pick up. One control stick moves your android, the second determines where you’re aiming. If that’s too much at once then the Switch version of the game comes with a single stick mode with auto aim.

Right trigger fires, left trigger switches between primary and secondary weapons. You can die as much as you like in a stage (if you’re happy to take the points penalty), but you don’t fail it unless your battery runs out. Refilling it is easy as enemies will randomly drop spare batteries and the game uses numerous audio and visual cues to make sure you don’t miss them. Save for some power-ups and energy orbs that beef up your main weapon.

That’s all you need to know to play and enjoy Assault Android Cactus+.

Depth of Gameplay

What you need to know to master the game, however, is a lot more in depth. But you don’t need to master it if you don’t want to. There’s nothing wrong in Assault Android Cactus+ with smashing through all 25 levels in a couple of hours and taking a D grade on any you struggle with. That’s fine, that’s cool. If you don’t like a level you only need to do well enough to make it to the end and you can pass it by forever.

But if you want to master Assault Android Cactus+ then there’s a lot of depth to get your head around. Dodging, for example, is only possible via the split second invulnerability that comes from switching weapons. Run out of juice for your secondary weapon? No dodging for you. None of the androids are a one size fits all match for the levels. Want to get a high score in a particular level? Pick the right android for the job and master getting the most out of their unique skill set.

Playing as Lemon got me as far as S rank, but one of her companions could be just what I need for that precious S+

The power-ups aren’t set in stone either. When their timer runs down they turn into a different one according to a pre-set cycle. Power-ups that don’t make much of a difference to Cactus can turn the tide of battle for one of her companions. Learn the order they rotate through and how long it takes them to switch and the power-ups stop being random drops and start being another tool in your arsenal.

Then once you’ve mastered the mechanics and understand the strengths and weaknesses of all nine playable characters you can do the whole game again in the Switch exclusive Campaign+. A game mode that forgoes the gradual introduction of enemies in favour of throwing everything it can at you from the first level.

Enemy Known

The game provides a rich variety of enemy types to go with its stages. I could list them all here but there’s a joy in encountering each one for the first time and experimenting with what it can do and how best to deal with it that I wouldn’t dream of depriving a reader of.

As a singular example, I’ll mention the Fido brand of enemies, which when first encountered establish a behaviour of moving away from me in order to launch rockets. When the blue ones were introduced I braced myself for a new type of rocket only for the Fido (or “Fetcher Fido” as I later learned it was called) charge at me and use an energy tether to hold me in place. An action that made me a much easier target for the 20-30 other enemies present. I learned that blue Fidos need to be prioritised – even over harder hitting enemies – lest I end up getting held down and pummelled.

Then just when you’ve developed your strategy you have to face them again but on a different stage. The Fetcher Fido was a thorn in my side on a level with a few pits to work around. Dealing with them on a stage with deadly lasers spinning around was a great escalation. Assault Android Cactus+ refuses to let you rest on your laurels, and as soon as you’ve proved yourself on one stage the next ramps the challenge up again.

Just when you’re getting comfortable, the game throws erratically spinning flame throwers at you as a stage hazard.

The Droids You’re Looking For

The stars of the show for Assault Android Cactus+ aren’t the enemies or the stages (though both are excellent). It’s the case of playable androids with their unique personalities and weapons that make the game stand out. Even just from the character select screen and their limited banter with the bosses, each of them bubbles with personality. It’s such a shame that there aren’t more cut scenes to see in the campaign to let us get to know them further.

These characters initially present as stock twin stick character types. Cactus is a fairly vanilla character, Holly’s homing bullets make her a logical choice for beginners, Coral’s shotgun makes her seem like a more advanced option. A second look, however, demonstrates the great deal of depth that characterises Assault Android Cactus+. Holly is not for beginners because her homing bullets are short ranged so you have to get stuck into the fight to make the most of her. Coral’s secondary weapon creates a protective barrier that hurts all who try to get too close. The androids aren’t to be sorted by difficulty level, each one shines with the right player on the right stage.

And then there’s Aubergine.

The boss fights are classic bullet-hell experiences, though make sure you bring the right android for the job…

Aubergine and Helo

Aubergine was my favourite of the androids and her unique mechanics were what brought the game into focus. You see, Aubergine doesn’t have a gun. Aubergine uses a drone called Helo who flies out with blades spinning around like a Frisbee of pure death. The same mechanics that control your aim on the other androids instead let you guide Helo around the stage. The trigger controlled sending it out and pulling it back in whilst the aim control directed it left and right.

Aubergine isn’t for everyone, she requires a different play style and skill set to the other characters. But once you get the hang of flinging out and recalling Helo, I promise you that you’ll fall in love. Holding off a wave of incoming enemies with an assault rifle or rocket launcher feels badass in Assault Android Cactus+. But throwing out Helo and watching it chew through a group of enemies who you had bottlenecked into a neat line, then bringing it around and letting it finish off the rest of the group on the way back brought a level of satisfaction that an action game hasn’t instilled in me in some time.

You are no match for Aubergine and her spinning disk of death!

Conclusions

Mastering Aubergine makes you realise where a lot of the game’s appeal lies. So you beat a level? Now go back and do it again but this time get an S rank. Done that? Do it again on Campaign+. Done that? Now do it all again but with Aubergine, or Peanut, or Liquorice, or whoever you personally find hardest. You can stop anytime you like, but the game makes the idea of challenging yourself so appealing that you won’t.

As a bit of an aside, it’s lovely to have extra content that you unlock via skill and not putting in your credit card details.

I’ve always been against the idea of measuring the size of a game by its width rather than its depth. Huge sandbox games with not much to do bore the pants off me. Tightly designed games with a lot of content and room for mastery are where it’s at, and Assault Android Cactus+ is absolutely where it’s at. There’s as much depth as you want, as much challenge as you set yourself, and as much fun to be had here as anywhere else in the Switch’s current library.

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