Imagine that you are in the middle of an investigation when suddenly your ship gets goo-ed up by an unknown green substance. As you step out in your diving gear, brush in hand, your submarine is taken by a giant unknown sea monster, leaving you flying off and to the seabed. You are in the deep unknown world, and you must venture forth to find out what happened and ultimately go back to the surface. This is the premise of Deep Ones, a retro-inspired game based in the ZX Spectrum era of retro games. In the plethora of games found in the Nintendo Switch eShop, Deep Ones stands out for its colorful graphics and retro appeal, but does it hold out? Let’s find out, shall we?
With Deep Ones, the game play is what you come to expect in this classic style of games. You move around the different environments, jumping over gaps and enemies with the A button during the first part of the game. Then after sorting through some frustrating pits, you’ll pick up a gun which you’ll need to defeat enemies with Y. Simple right? Well it both is and is not. The fact that you are under the sea makes things harder, since jumps have to be well timed unless you want to see your diver make a jump and be one pixel off the edge and slowly fall to his death. I get what the developer tried to do here. Since you are underwater, your movements are not supposed to be as fluid as on the surface, and that is okay. Nonetheless, not being able to shoot your gun and jump at the same time can sometimes take away from the fun. This is even more so since some enemies are set in a way that you have to jump to hit them.
Speaking of your gun, don’t expect to be a rapid fire gun like Megaman or Contra. This is a speargun, so it’s to be expected to be slow and without rapid fire. However, in a game in which three hits and you’re dead, every shot counts. I would have liked for the bullets to be faster and more frequent in rate. You’ll be fighting a few bosses like a school of sharks or a pirate king, and while the game’s heart is in the right place, these boss fights end up more of an exercise in patience rather than adding to the game. If you die, you have to do it all from the beginning, and I see no problem with that. However, with the slow game play and clunky controls, I sometimes wondered if I wanted to do it again. I grew up in the Nintendo Hard era of retro games, so I don’t give up easily. But with slow game play and controls, it was more a chore than fun. Later in the game, you can ride a seahorse in a shooter style, and you can swap weapons between your speargun and a cutlass, but it doesn’t quite make things better.
Looking at the level design for Deep Ones, I have mixed feelings. There are some areas that are really fun, especially the part where you hop on popping bubbles or between manta-rays. It’s simple but ultimately fun. But then there is a change of pace of just moving forward and shooting all enemies on your way. It’s game play that feels uninspired and just thrown out there to give you something else to do.
Bottom Line: Deep Ones is a good concept, but it’s not executed properly. While it has colorful graphics and good music going for it, the slow game play and clunky controls take away much of what it could have been a retro goodness. If you don’t mind the controls and are looking for a cheap retro-inspired game, there is some fun to be had. However, if you are looking for something else, Deep Ones is not deep enough to satisfy your craving.