Digital Shorts: ‘Full Metal Furies’ Review (Nintendo Switch)
In DIGITAL SHORTS we review some of the latest video games that are only available digitally (at least in the UK), in a short-form review format. In this edition we take a look at Full Metal Furies – another side-scrolling brawler now available on the Nintendo Switch.
My love for local co-op side-scrolling brawlers is well-documented throughout the annals of time and I’m pleased to say that Full Metal Furies stokes my raging inner fire even higher and hotter with its clever twists on a well-established formula. A fun jaunt in single-player, the game is elevated much further with friends as it forces you to work together as a unit to make progress throughout the zany world of Full Metal Furies.
Jaunty of music and pixelated of graphics, Full Metal Furies casts you as the titular all-female four-member battle squad. Consisting of a sniper, engineer, tank and fighter, each character plays completely differently to each and has their own upgrade trees and unlockables, which feel satisfying to work through. Starting you off with the usual tutorials and enemies, the game pretty quickly introduces some pretty tasty variations on the brawler theme by having such circumstances as enemies shielded by bubbles of colours which correlate to the playable characters and as such, can only be attacked by the same-coloured character. This simple idea gives any in-game rumble a level of tactics which isn’t present in many other games of the genre as you need to constantly jump in, helping each other out in each skirmish that takes place.
The controls are tight and varied as well, with each character not only using different weapons (the sniper has a rifle whilst the engineer lobs dynamite, the tank has a shield and finally the fighter has an enormous hammer) but also having different special attacks, making truly co-operative play a must in order to proceed. The single-player campaign is handled by allowing the payer to scroll through the four characters to suit the current situation. Whilst a lot of the game is the standard ‘head right and kill everything’ fayre, there are also additional sections for unlockable items that require a different approach such as dashing and avoiding increasingly hectic gunfire for a minute or perhaps a really intense boss battle as well as the discovery of secret areas where further items can be picked up to tip the odds slightly in your favour.
The writing in Full Metal Furies deserves praise as it is light-hearted and genuinely funny, the banter between not only the Furies themselves but also the various enemies encountered really works tonally and the quirky pick-ups that you encounter are all tongue-in-cheek and amusing.
With its solid combat, local co-op focused approach, solid writing and top-notch presentation in both sound and visuals, Full Metal Furies gets a big recommendation from me for those multiplayer nights. Whilst the fun factor is (as always in these cases) somewhat lessened in single player mode, the game is still a fun blast of action and will clearly be a staple of my co-op gaming nights for a while to come.
Full Metal Furies is available on the Nintendo eShop now.
