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Mr. Shifty |OT| Shift Happens

P

Plum

Member
VHJk0zm.png


Mr. Shifty follows a teleportation-fueled heist to break into the world's most secure facility. Shift through bullets, and master lightning-fast
takedowns in an all new kind of action game: A speed-stealth, kung-fu brawler about a teleporting thief, combining fast top-down gameplay
with the ferocity of '90s Hong Kong action cinema.

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  • Official Website
  • Twitter
  • Developer: Team Shifty
  • Publisher: tinyBuild
  • Available On: Steam / Nintendo Switch / Playstation 4 / Xbox One
  • Release Date: 13th April (Steam & Switch) / Soon (X1 & PS4)
  • Price: $14.99 / €14.99 / £13.49
  • Genre: Top-Down Action-Stealth Hybrid
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  • Use distraction, trickery, explore what's possible when stealth and action become one
  • Toy with enemies, laugh as they use doors to enter rooms
  • Shift through walls, between bullets, cover huge distances and be everywhere at once
  • One shot kills. Survive on skills.
  • Experience portability and immersive HD Rumble on Nintendo Switch (at a cinematic 30fps!)
E7thFf6.jpg


Trailers & Gameplay
E3 2016 Announcement Trailer
Open Beta Teaser
Nintendo Switch Trailer
6 Minutes of Gameplay - Gamespot
Direct Feed Gameplay - Nintendo World Report

Screenshots (click for larger version):

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GIFs:
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Metacritic

Nintendo World Report - 7.5/10
Mr. Shifty is a straightforward, focused caper with little fluff that will last you a few hours as you climb through 18 stages. What it lacks in length its makes up for with a dynamite gameplay hook
Click to expand...

Pocket Gamer - 7/10
Mr. Shifty is a fun and competent action game. The central mechanic, teleporting, feels great and is iterated on regularly enough to reinforce it as a standout feature. But while it might be more instantly fun to play than Hotline Miami, it completely misses the point of its primary inspiration, and as a result becomes quite repetitive over time, and doesn't have any of the replayability.
Click to expand...

Gameinformer - 5/10
I was finished with Mr. Shifty long before the credits rolled. It didn't make me feel like a skilled thief or a rad, teleporting vigilante. It just made me tired and disappointed to see such a neat premise amount to nothing more than a chore.
Click to expand...

Destructoid - 6/10
It becomes formulaic. It definitely is fun and I like how creative some of the fights are, but when the cleverness dries up and the theme never changes, it's hard to stay enthused about the whole affair.
Click to expand...

Eurogamer - Recommended
Mr. Shifty's interlocking systems are exceptionally clever, which goes a long way in setting it apart from competitors. If Hotline Miami was a game about planning and executing the perfect heist, Mr. Shifty is about reacting on the fly to everything going wrong while simultaneously being graced with super powers.
Click to expand...

Kotaku - Generally positive
Mr. Shifty stands victorious. The carnage was anything but cute, but it sure was satisfying.
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TeTUmzE.jpg

Credit to Munter for the title!
 
P

Plum

Member
purseowner said:
Do we know when reviews will hit?

Interested, but there's a lot of indies to buy at the moment.
Click to expand...

Review copies were only sent out two days ago so I'm not sure, there's no set embargo. We should be seeing them in the next few days. I'll keep checking Metacritic and if enough reviews come in I'll make a seperate review thread.
 
A

atomsk

Party Pooper
played a few stages of both versions... go PC if you can, but Switch version is fine too (HD rumble on the explosions is a nice touch)

just don't play them back to back.

only up to stage 8 or 9 so far, but I'm really loving the variety I've seen
 
C

culafia

Member
I beat it. Pasting from my Tweets.

Beat Mr. Shifty and ended up relatively pissed off by the end of it. Around 35-40% of the content in that game is frustratingly needless.

More than that, the game suffers from unacceptable slowdown in the back third, and my game crashed halfway through the final level.

Mr. Shifty is a significantly lesser Hotline Miami with one really cool mechanic. Would rather play HM2 again than this.

Leaning towards 2/5. Talked to my friend who also beat it and he came out on the side of "pretty good."

EDIT: 2 points to note. 1. I'm a HUGE Hotline Miami 1 fan so my standards for this kind of game are pretty high, maybe more than the average person. 2. Played on Switch.
 
S

Snkfanatic

Banned
atomsk said:
played a few stages of both versions... go PC if you can, but Switch version is fine too (HD rumble on the explosions is a nice touch)

just don't play them back to back.
Click to expand...

culafia said:
I beat it. Pasting from my Tweets.

Beat Mr. Shifty and ended up relatively pissed off by the end of it. Around 35-40% of the content in that game is frustratingly needless.

More than that, the game suffers from unacceptable slowdown in the back third, and my game crashed halfway through the final level.

Mr. Shifty is a significantly lesser Hotline Miami with one really cool mechanic. Would rather play HM2 again than this.

Leaning towards 2/5. Talked to my friend who also beat it and he came out on the side of "pretty good."
Click to expand...

Oh...oh. Well then lol.

Might wait for a bit then. Or just get PC later.
 
brickarts295

brickarts295

Member
culafia said:
I beat it. Pasting from my Tweets.

Beat Mr. Shifty and ended up relatively pissed off by the end of it. Around 35-40% of the content in that game is frustratingly needless.

More than that, the game suffers from unacceptable slowdown in the back third, and my game crashed halfway through the final level.

Mr. Shifty is a significantly lesser Hotline Miami with one really cool mechanic. Would rather play HM2 again than this.

Leaning towards 2/5. Talked to my friend who also beat it and he came out on the side of "pretty good."
Click to expand...

Goddamn it, will wait it out then.
tenor.gif
 
L

Log4Girlz

Member
culafia said:
I beat it. Pasting from my Tweets.

Beat Mr. Shifty and ended up relatively pissed off by the end of it. Around 35-40% of the content in that game is frustratingly needless.

More than that, the game suffers from unacceptable slowdown in the back third, and my game crashed halfway through the final level.

Mr. Shifty is a significantly lesser Hotline Miami with one really cool mechanic. Would rather play HM2 again than this.

Leaning towards 2/5. Talked to my friend who also beat it and he came out on the side of "pretty good."

EDIT: 2 points to note. 1. I'm a HUGE Hotline Miami 1 fan so my standards for this kind of game are pretty high, maybe more than the average person. 2. Played on Switch.
Click to expand...

What a piece of shift
 
The Horror the horror

The Horror the horror

Banned
culafia said:
I beat it. Pasting from my Tweets.

Beat Mr. Shifty and ended up relatively pissed off by the end of it. Around 35-40% of the content in that game is frustratingly needless.

More than that, the game suffers from unacceptable slowdown in the back third, and my game crashed halfway through the final level.

Mr. Shifty is a significantly lesser Hotline Miami with one really cool mechanic. Would rather play HM2 again than this.

Leaning towards 2/5. Talked to my friend who also beat it and he came out on the side of "pretty good."

EDIT: 2 points to note. 1. I'm a HUGE Hotline Miami 1 fan so my standards for this kind of game are pretty high, maybe more than the average person. 2. Played on Switch.
Click to expand...

How's the music? I'm not expecting HM quality.
 
M

Mega Man's Electric Sheep

Member
culafia said:
I beat it. Pasting from my Tweets.

Beat Mr. Shifty and ended up relatively pissed off by the end of it. Around 35-40% of the content in that game is frustratingly needless.

More than that, the game suffers from unacceptable slowdown in the back third, and my game crashed halfway through the final level.

Mr. Shifty is a significantly lesser Hotline Miami with one really cool mechanic. Would rather play HM2 again than this.

Leaning towards 2/5. Talked to my friend who also beat it and he came out on the side of "pretty good."

EDIT: 2 points to note. 1. I'm a HUGE Hotline Miami 1 fan so my standards for this kind of game are pretty high, maybe more than the average person. 2. Played on Switch.
Click to expand...

What do you mean about the content being needless? Just the same thing over and over?
 
D

deejay

Member
culafia said:
I beat it. Pasting from my Tweets.

Beat Mr. Shifty and ended up relatively pissed off by the end of it. Around 35-40% of the content in that game is frustratingly needless.

More than that, the game suffers from unacceptable slowdown in the back third, and my game crashed halfway through the final level.

Mr. Shifty is a significantly lesser Hotline Miami with one really cool mechanic. Would rather play HM2 again than this.

Leaning towards 2/5. Talked to my friend who also beat it and he came out on the side of "pretty good."

EDIT: 2 points to note. 1. I'm a HUGE Hotline Miami 1 fan so my standards for this kind of game are pretty high, maybe more than the average person. 2. Played on Switch.
Click to expand...

But WHY is it needless? I can name a ton of games that have needless content, but that doesn't make them bad or less enjoyable (and sure, there are and always will be really bad games around).
 
M

More_Badass

Member
culafia said:
I beat it. Pasting from my Tweets.

Beat Mr. Shifty and ended up relatively pissed off by the end of it. Around 35-40% of the content in that game is frustratingly needless.

More than that, the game suffers from unacceptable slowdown in the back third, and my game crashed halfway through the final level.

Mr. Shifty is a significantly lesser Hotline Miami with one really cool mechanic. Would rather play HM2 again than this.

Leaning towards 2/5. Talked to my friend who also beat it and he came out on the side of "pretty good."

EDIT: 2 points to note. 1. I'm a HUGE Hotline Miami 1 fan so my standards for this kind of game are pretty high, maybe more than the average person. 2. Played on Switch.
Click to expand...
From what I played of the beta, I wouldnt compare this to Hotline Miami. Besides being top-down, one hit kill, and fast paced action against enemies, it doesn't really feel like HM. More action puzzler than HM ever was, especially since you have a limited number of teleports at a time and so on.

What do you mean by "needless" content?
 
C

culafia

Member
The Horror the horror said:
How's the music? I'm not expecting HM quality.
Click to expand...

It's all right. Very limited compared to HM, song count-wise.


Mega Man's Electric Sheep said:
What do you mean about the content being needless? Just the same thing over and over?
Click to expand...

deejay said:
But WHY is it needless? I can name a ton of games that have needless content, but that doesn't make them bad or less enjoyable (and sure, there are and always will be really bad games around).
Click to expand...

Hotline Miami has exactly the amount of content it needs to explore its mechanics fully and tell the story it wants to tell. Shifty drags and drags and drags and I found it to be a game that overstays its welcome by about an hour and a half (it is about four hours long total). The fact that it has like 6 false endings (this is not a spoiler as much as it is referring to the game's poor storytelling) doesn't help at all.

A tighter package would have made for a much better game, especially because the mechanics themselves are often quite good.
 
D

deejay

Member
culafia said:
It's all right. Very limited compared to HM, song count-wise.






Hotline Miami has exactly the amount of content it needs to explore its mechanics fully and tell the story it wants to tell. Shifty drags and drags and drags and I found it to be a game that overstays its welcome by about an hour and a half (it is about four hours long total). The fact that it has like 6 false endings (this is not a spoiler as much as it is referring to the game's poor storytelling) doesn't help at all.

A tighter package would have made for a much better game, especially because the mechanics themselves are often quite good.
Click to expand...

Alright, that's clear I guess. But no offense, that might just be you. Gonna give it a try once it has been released and see for myself.
 
C

culafia

Member
deejay said:
Alright, that's clear I guess. But no offense, that might just be you. Gonna give it a try once it has been released and see for myself.
Click to expand...

Go ahead friend, I hope you love it.

I do feel like I could end up on the lower end of scores. I could see an outlet or two giving this a low 8, and I think a lot of critics are going to land in the 6, maybe 7 range.

That said, I do feel my criticisms are fair, as is my score. Not law, obviously. I'm just one guy with one perspective on a video game.
 
F

Formless

Member
It looks cool but I can see how it could get old. I wasn't a huge fan of Hotline for whatever reason so take that as you will.

Seems like the Switch version stutters (outside of lower framerate) which is disappointing.
 
T

TheGreatMightyPoo

Banned
Formless said:
It looks cool but I can see how it could get old. I wasn't a huge fan of Hotline for whatever reason so take that as you will.

Seems like the Switch version stutters (outside of lower framerate) which is disappointing.
Click to expand...
Thank God for the modern era of patches.
(not saying it will be)
 
AHA-Lambda

AHA-Lambda

Member
culafia said:
I beat it. Pasting from my Tweets.

Beat Mr. Shifty and ended up relatively pissed off by the end of it. Around 35-40% of the content in that game is frustratingly needless.

More than that, the game suffers from unacceptable slowdown in the back third, and my game crashed halfway through the final level.

Mr. Shifty is a significantly lesser Hotline Miami with one really cool mechanic. Would rather play HM2 again than this.

Leaning towards 2/5. Talked to my friend who also beat it and he came out on the side of "pretty good."

EDIT: 2 points to note. 1. I'm a HUGE Hotline Miami 1 fan so my standards for this kind of game are pretty high, maybe more than the average person. 2. Played on Switch.
Click to expand...

damn.
 
J

jwk94

Member
Been playing this on Switch and yeah the frame rate gets really bad in the last half of the game. There are moments where it just stops for a second before continuing. Otherwise, it's fun as hell.
 
The Horror the horror

The Horror the horror

Banned
culafia said:
Go ahead friend, I hope you love it.

I do feel like I could end up on the lower end of scores. I could see an outlet or two giving this a low 8, and I think a lot of critics are going to land in the 6, maybe 7 range.

That said, I do feel my criticisms are fair, as is my score. Not law, obviously. I'm just one guy with one perspective on a video game.
Click to expand...

How would you score the story? HM had a dark and psychedelic-noir tone. How would you characterize this one?
 
N

NoFaceNico

Member
culafia said:
EDIT: 2 points to note. 1. I'm a HUGE Hotline Miami 1 fan so my standards for this kind of game are pretty high, maybe more than the average person. 2. Played on Switch.
Click to expand...

Well, at least that explains the poor performance. I haven't had any issues with the beta but my friend who has a lower spec pc was having trouble. I can only imagine the switch version would be even worse than his pc. The last build I played wasn't 100% stable but I didn't get any noticeable performance dips.

I think you're too fixated on Hotline Miami to enjoy any other game with similarities. And when you say you say you'd rather be playing HM2... well... I don't want to insult your tastes but let's just say I'll be looking towards other reviews regarding the final game.
 
A

AGoodODST

Member
Hmn at these impressions. I was looking forward to this. Will wait and see what others think.

Is Wonderboy next week? Might just hold off for that.
 
C

culafia

Member
NoFaceNico said:
Well, at least that explains the poor performance. I haven't had any issues with the beta but my friend who has a lower spec pc was having trouble. I can only imagine the switch version would be even worse than his pc. The last build I played wasn't 100% stable but I didn't get any noticeable performance dips.

I think you're too fixated on Hotline Miami to enjoy any other game with similarities. And when you say you say you'd rather be playing HM2... well... I don't want to insult your tastes but let's just say I'll be looking towards other reviews regarding the final game.
Click to expand...

I was insulting Mr. Shifty more than praising HM2.

If it matters, I was pretty excited for this game, and had played 2-3 of the early stages before launch. I had a pretty good idea of what this was. Of course, I hope you get what you want out of other reviews.
 
M

Mega Man's Electric Sheep

Member
Plum said:
A 5, damn. Seems like the main criticism is thay it outstays its welcome. Thanks for posting!

As for the title, thought I'd keep all the R&M references to the thread body :)
Click to expand...

No, their main complaint was the stutter, slowdown, and crashes. The back half of the game being endless waves of enemies just made the other problems worse. Their review reads more like a 4/10 IMO :(
 
F

Father_Brain

Banned
More_Badass said:
From what I played of the beta, I wouldnt compare this to Hotline Miami. Besides being top-down, one hit kill, and fast paced action against enemies, it doesn't really feel like HM. More action puzzler than HM ever was, especially since you have a limited number of teleports at a time and so on.

What do you mean by "needless" content?
Click to expand...

Really? I would say it's much more focused on combat and direct engagement with enemies than HM, based on the PC beta, but maybe I was just playing it badly.
 
W

Wasp14

Member
This game wasn't even on my radar but I'll be picking it up for the Switch tomorrow. I really like the art style, arcade pace and tone of the whole thing.
 
N

NateDrake

Member
Father_Brain said:
Really? I would say it's much more focused on combat and direct engagement with enemies than HM, based on the PC beta, but maybe I was just playing it badly.
Click to expand...

It depends on the area. Early stages are combat and direct engagement, but some later sections will have you devising ways to exploit the environment in your favor to defeat foes or to solve a simple "puzzle" type situation - by puzzle I mean evading the aim of a laser while trying to escape a room or blowing up a wall with explosive barrels. Making use of the environment will make combat easier, so one could even say combat has a bit of a puzzle characteristic to it.

The footage I shared on this page shows some of these examples.
 
W

watershed

Banned
Some Switch direct feed footage had some clear choppiness. Unforgivable for an action game like this with 1 shot kills on the player, plus it doesn't look like the most demanding game.
 
E

EDarkness

Member
watershed said:
Some Switch direct feed footage had some clear choppiness. Unforgivable for an action game like this with 1 shot kills on the player, plus it doesn't look like the most demanding game.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't be surprised if there's some Unity tweeking needed under the hood.
 
M

Mega Man's Electric Sheep

Member
Wasp14 said:
This game wasn't even on my radar but I'll be picking it up for the Switch tomorrow. I really like the art style, arcade pace and tone of the whole thing.
Click to expand...

You might want to read the Game Informer review that calls the second half of the game nearly unplayable, which is being verified by a poster in this thread. I added money to my wallet for this, guess I'll save it for Wonderboy :(
 
T

TheGreatMightyPoo

Banned
watershed said:
Some Switch direct feed footage had some clear choppiness. Unforgivable for an action game like this with 1 shot kills on the player, plus it doesn't look like the most demanding game.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I really wanted this and it was the coolest looking game at the very good Nindies Direct but I won't reward such laziness/ncompetence.
 
Craig Majaski

Craig Majaski

Member
I'm actually very surprised at the low scores. I absolutely loved the game! I mostly played in handheld mode and this game is perfect for short bursts. Sure, the mechanics are fairly straightforward, but it's a lot of fun to just rampage through the enemies.

My full review is at Nintendo Times - I gave it a 9 out of 10 and think it's one of the better games on the system. Of course this isn't the first time I've been on opposite sides of a Game Informer review.
 
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