There are a lot of games on my 3DS that I've owned for ages but never gotten around to playing. Whether it was something I was recommended that I just haven't gotten around to, something I got in a humble bundle, or something I got for free through My Nintendo Rewards, there's a lot of 'em, and these were two of them XP. In a somewhat unorthodox review format, I'm gonna review two games at once here! It's largely because they're both SO similar and on the same platform (not to mention fresh in my memory), that reviewing one and then the other would be repeating a lot of the same words. Not to mention, most of the points worth making about the games is in relation to one another, so I figured I might as well make this a two-for-one review~. It took me a few hours each to beat each of the games without really worrying about the extras in either.

The Mighty Switch Force games were developed by WayForward for the 3DS. They're both puzzle platformers that revolve around the titular group (presumably) as they go through levels as cops rounding up escaped prisoners in the first game, and as fire fighters (who seem to have employed the prisoners from the first game) saving civilians in the second game. You go through a level with a radar on your bottom screen saving all five people and then getting to your robot buddy to exit the stage. There are time trial goals (and in the second game, an optional hidden baby to save) in each stage you can also go for, but they're ultimately optional.

Each game has sixteen stages, and the main gimmick is the titular "switching" you can do with the A button. Pressing the A button toggles the state of the stage and makes certain platforms disappear and the other ones reappear. You can also jump and fire your gun to get through the game's platforms and enemies as well (in the first game it's just a gun, but in the second game it's a back-mounted fire hose). But you better be careful, as switching the level's state while you're standing in front of a disappeared block will pop you out of the level, sending you back to the last checkpoint you were at (as well as making you lose one of your three health hearts).

The level design between the games is pretty similar in general quality, but I'd say the second game has better polish overall in just about every way. A lot of that owes to being a firefighter instead of cop, as there are way more interesting puzzles/obstacles revolving around your firehose than the simple destructible blocks and enemies that the gun solves in the first game. While there ARE stationary fires you can put out, it's more than just that XD. The first game is mostly about platforming and precise timing with your state switches, but the second game cranks that up a bit by incorporating blocks you can fire water though to rechannel water (they have pipes inside them~). There are also blocks in each game that won't disappear if you're standing on them, and doing such will switch which level state they're tied to. With three sets of those as well as some with pipes inside them, the second game's levels can get to be quite the head scratchers at some points.

Given the time-trial nature of the game, both games can very sped through with great momentum if you're good enough, but that's far easier said than done XD. Another cool feature each game has is that the 16th level is not just far longer, but it also takes the ability to manually toggle the level's state from you. Instead, your helmet will flash three times before the state toggles automatically, and this makes for some really tense platforming (although it can get really annoying if you're having trouble getting the timing down). It would've been really nice if they'd given you more practice up to that point to get used to automatic toggling, and that's especially true since levels have no true checkpoints. They have checkpoints in a sense, but those are only for if you fall in a pit or get crushed by a block. If you lose all three of your hearts, you're starting that whole level over again, and that can get really annoying for levels with time trial goals of 4+ minutes XP. The game is however merciful on its final stages, each of which have pretty tough bosses at the end, and if you die at the boss, you just restart at the start of the boss.

The presentation of the games is a mixed bag, but not in a way unfamiliar to WayForward. Both games don't have a ton of music, but the music they do have is really pumping and heckin' rocks. It's easily one of my favorite parts of the game, especially the vocal remix of the 2nd game's main level theme that it uses for its credits song. The character designs, however, are much more WayForward in how incredibly horny they are. The only character coded male in either game is your cycloptic robot companion, and all the other characters are very skinny, very sexually clothed women (from the main character, to the prisoners you're finding to the civilians you're saving). If that's something you can just blaze past without caring about, more power to you, but I found it really obnoxious in the same way I did with how Shantae does it.

Mighty Switch Force
Verdict: Hesitantly Recommended.
Mighty Switch Force 2
Verdict: Recommended.
Both games are $6 on the 3DS eShop, and for what they are I think that's a fair price, but I think the 2nd game easily outshines the first with what it adds to the formula (even if it is a decent bit harder than the first). Neither are must-plays, but if you haven't tried them yet and the character design I've mentioned hasn't frightened you off, they're worth their price of entry. I'd hesitate to drop the $20 the HD pairing of the two goes for on Switch, but if these both sound like incredible games you MUST play on Switch, then I guess that's your choice to make XP