Once upon a time, Xbox and Steam was the go to home for a myriad of independent games. The quality varied almost as much as the genres, mash ups and WTFs. The demographics of gamedom remain today, but the domain has swapped to the home and away Nintendo Switch. As you know, I’ve been searching for a title to scratch that mobile itch when the opportunity to check out Sword & Soldiers and Sword and Soldiers 2: Shawarmageddon fell into my red-and-blue-covered lap courtesy of Two Tribes/Ronimo. It’d be rude of me not to give the real-time strategy franchise a fair shake wouldn’t it?
Naturally, the genre was the first aspect of Swords & Soldiers that drew me in. A 2D side scrolling RTS on a portable device that is equipped to handle the controls had me heading to the eShop for quick download faster than Sonic after some donuts. I was immediately greeted with ridiculous humor of the vikings as they searched the world for the best barbeque possible. The cheeky, juvenile humor is what kept me going for as long as I did. I couldn’t dig into Swords & Soldiers. In mere moments, my RTS experience was able to minimize any threat posed by the challenging force. The tech trees offered little rhyme or reason to their organization and covered the entire game screen when open. All that real estate to view a Floridian basement. With deep apologies to other modes, I quickly set sail for the sequel in hopes the Shawarma was tastier than the brisket.
Holy cardamom Shawarmageddon brings the bacon. I haven’t seen a sequel improve so dramatically on its predecessor in quite some time. We gamers know that many a company, especially the indie developers out there, have teams that poor every ounce of their creative talents into the products that we chew through. Those at Two Tribes saw the fun universe they had created and knew it wasn’t tapped, that their skills weren’t tapped, and that Swords and Soldiers acted only as the appetizer.
Shawarmageddon takes everything up to 11. I chuckled deeper, exercising lung capacity I didn’t realize I had. Peepers popped per pleasurable palettes. The Campaign impressed with added mission depth, breath of challenges and integrated game modes. I even noticed the freaking overworld. Yeah, the dang map you bum around on to get to the next campaign raised a Gamer’s Eyebrow. Most impressive was the much-needed overhaul to the control scheme. Out goes the Floridian basement. In comes the twin stick unit and spell summons. This enables faster, more fluid control of the action, all types of viking excursions.
No longer am I setting sail for greener pastures. Neigh, now I’m debating participating in the Viking barbeque to the tune of 100%ing the campaign. Anyone looking for some bit-sized real-time strategy action on the Switch better fire up the eShop and punch in Swords & Soldiers. Best played with a side of Shawarmageddon and BBQ.
