I don’t know how EXOR Studios managed it, but X-Morph: Defense is possibly the most impressive Switch game I’ve played to date. And I’ve played a plethora of excellent titles, so that is some feat. Let’s delve into why this game blew my mind.
First of all, X-Morph: Defense has the balls to mix not one but two genres I have almost no experience with: bullet-hell twin-stick shooters and tower defense titles. The only tower defense game I’ve played before this is Bloons TD5 and as far as bullet-hells go… Let’s just say I don’t seek them out. X-Morph: Defense combines these two and somehow gets them to work perfectly in tandem to create an extremely satisfying game-play loop.
Every level is made up of wave after wave of enemies, and you get prep time before each to construct your towers and plan your strategies accordingly. Ample information is given on the types of units heading your way, and there is plenty of variety. Infantry, helicopters, bombers, drones, tanks, BIGGER tanks, EVEN BIGGER tanks, FREAKING MECHS!!! And that’s not even all of them! It’s a good job that you’re given as much time as you like before summoning the wave. One thing I’m extremely fond of is that your resources never decrease. If a tower gets destroyed, you get the resources back. If you sell a tower, you get the resources back. Downgrade a tower, you get the resources back. You get the idea. You’re free to experiment and tinker as much as you like without it costing you if you accidentally misplace a tower.
But after the build phase, the enemies storm in from many, many angles. In later stages you’ll often have enemies approaching from four angles at the same time. Fortunately, there are tonnes of ways to direct the traffic towards your choke-holds. Creating laser fences between your towers is free, perfect for setting up some lovely winding passages of death. And if you don’t want to spend resources on towers, you could always destroy a skyscraper and watch it fall in dramatic fashion onto the path, preventing all enemies from taking that route. Did I forget to mention that X-Morph: Defense has realistic physics and destructible environments running at a silky smooth 60fps on the Nintendo Switch? Oops…
Seriously, I have no idea how they got this to run. I’d end up with thirty towers on my side, firing at well over fifty enemies, with explosions going off, trees swaying from the explosions, buildings crumbling, and my shots flying in every direction. It’s an absolutely amazing spectacle. And it looks great in both handheld and TV mode too (but it does seem to drain the Switch’s battery quite fast as a result). But where was I? Oh yeah, the phase where the enemy tries to swarm your core.
I should explain, you are the bad guy in this. You play the invasive alien force descending through the atmosphere to harvest the Earth of its resources. It’s your job to protect the alien core while it does its harvesting, simples. So once your towers are up and the enemies are on their way, in every other tower defense game I’ve played you’d just sit around and wait. Maybe press fast-forward to speed things along. In this, you pilot your space ship wielding plasma cannons, lasers, anti-air missiles, and bombs (to name just a few of the weapons at your disposal) to attack head on yourself, while also being able to switch into a ghost mode to place more towers and perform upgrades. You don’t get to sit still and wait it out. You get to fly all over the place, blowing everything up with some of the most satisfying HD rumble whenever your juicy plasma blasts fly through three tanks in a row.
I could keep gushing and gushing, but I’ll spare you all the five-thousand word essay and just get to some key points. It took me over 10 hours to complete X-Morph: Defense‘s main campaign on normal difficulty, in which I did die a couple times. Fortunately you get a checkpoint before each wave so it never felt like a major setback, and I usually figured out what to change to succeed on my second attempt. There is also an endless survival mode where you select a new upgrade after each wave and see how long you can last. This is the only mode where I managed a gold victory on normal difficulty; on the main campaign I was lucky to get a bronze victory. And if you want even more there are three DLC packs available which sadly, weren’t included in the review copy I received (grumble grumble).
Essentially what it comes down to is this. I really like everything that X-Morph: Defense does. It’s chaotic, yet strategic. Explosive, and satisfying. It even has customisable controls, something I’ve rarely ever seen on Switch, if at all. And I have no clue how they got this beautiful beast of a game to run so smoothly on the Nintendo Switch. Honestly, if you’ve not been convinced by this review already, I strongly recommend watching a trailer. Cause one thing’s for sure, I’d regret letting this one slip under my radar.
A digital copy of X-Morph: Defense was supplied for Switch by the developer.