Written by Patrick Orquia
Title: Varion
Developer: Rundisc
Publisher: Lightmaze
Genre: Action, Arcade, Twin Stick Shooter
Number of Players: Up to 4 players
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Release Date: Nov. 04, 2018
Price: $12.99
Also Available On: Steam
Varion is a multiplayer twin-stick shooter with procedurally-generated stages and robots that shoot and shoot some more. This game is pretty much specifically-designed for local couch multiplayer, but all the available modes of the game can also be played solo, albeit against AI opponents.
You play as one of the four robot shooters on an arena-style stage. You can choose a robot based on your play style, whether you value movement, strength, or power. The stages have randomly-generated with corridors and walls. These walls play a vital part of the game, as you cannot shoot down your opponents by shooting at them directly: you have to bounce your projectiles to hit them. This is a new approach to the shooter genre and would make you plan out your attacks on the go as other players are out to destroy you. Also, you can only reload if you move, so if you want camp a lot, you will get destroyed, so you have to be continually on the move.
There are three modes in the game: Tournament, Battle, and Challenge. The first two are similar, except that Tournament is divided into rounds while Battle is one quick match. These two modes can be customized with different options, such as ways on how to win, goals, number of points to win, etc. These two are also available for up to 4 players of different combinations: 1v1v1v1, 2v2, 1v3, and so on. If you are by yourself, you can battle against AI enemies. For Battle, it is an endless mode where you play rounds of battles until you run out of lives. You have up to 3 runs, each with 3 lives. All you have to do is to survive the round to reach the next one, but each round is harder than the last. Also, for this mode, if you can only play coop with one other friend. And that’s pretty much it for the game.
This game may be fun and all, but there is one big caveat: there is no online multiplayer. Yeah, so if you don’t have friends to play this with, tough luck. I think the absence of online multiplayer is one big missed opportunity. Battling against AI can be challenging and still be fun, but nothing beats playing with an actual person. I’m not sure if such mode can be patched into the game in the future, but until then, this game is not much fun for solo players.
Overall, this game is ok at its present price, though due to the absence of an online multiplayer option, it could have been cheaper. Nonetheless, if you have at least one friend, then is can provide at least an hour or two of good coop fun (the gameplay is pretty repetitive, so you might get bored at this game very fast, especially if you play it solo). But if you don’t mind the mindless fun shooting at enemy robots, grab this game and test your hand-and-eye coordination and rule them all.
REPLAY VALUE: Medium
PROS
- Cool visuals with futuristic vibe and neon colors
- Good soundtrack
- Excellent game to play with up to four friends in local multiplayer
- Lots of power-ups that can be picked up during gameplay
- You have to move in order to reload, which is a unique gameplay aspect
CONS
- The robots belonging to 4 different classes look pretty similar with each other
- Also, they are supposed to have different characteristics, but they are not very apparent during actual gameplay
- Gameplay can become very repetitive a few minutes after you start playing it, especially if you play it alone
- Stages get unlocked as you play more, but they still look very similar with each other (only the theme and colors change)
- The AI enemies are pretty tough even on easiest difficulty, making it more obvious that playing this solo is really not the way to go
- NO ONLINE MULTIPLAYER
RATING: 3/5 shoot ‘em up robots
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