Flight Necessity
Manticore: Galaxy on Fire, from Deep Silver, had to be on Nintendo Switch. It is a port. It has been a successful franchise on mobile devices, Macintosh, and personal, computers. Nintendo Wii’s few flight games, and the exciting, but disappointing Starfox Zero, on the Nintendo Wii U, make Manticore’s arrival, on this system, a grace. The reality is Nintendo Wii had many titles, but not enough core play titles.
The console’s motion controls, and mass appeal, drove it to success. Nintendo Wii U presents players with core play, motion control, and a variety of game play ideas all in one console. However, it was Nintendo’s least successful system.
Nintendo Switch is simply a home, and portable, console in one machine. This makes it possible to bring back the nostalgic feelings a Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, or Colony Wars once offered players. The Nintendo Switch has no alternative purpose. You play games on the system, in two views, with options for motion controls. Is Manticore: Galaxy on Fire worthy?
A Space Tale
As a pilot, you board the Manticore, a mercenary carrier, and help a professional force discover the origin of a destructive event known as “The Shattering.” You bring “space pirates, deadly, mining companies, and rival mercenaries” to “justice.”
The game boasts eight hours, or more, of story, in English, or Japanese, voice modes. The three-dimensional game offers 60 frames per second over television, portable, and tabletop modes.
This game takes place in 35 different locations, and works with both the Nintendo Joy-Cons, and the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller. The left analog stick controls the direction players move their space ship.
The right stick accelerates, decelerates, and rolls your craft, left, and right, through both space, and enemy attacks in the game. The ZL and ZR buttons allows players to fire their primary and secondary weapons. The R button allows players to cycle through a variety of primary weapons. The minus button, on the controller, opens a galaxy map players can follow.
I Apologize
The Nintendo Switch is a place for the expansion of the Nintendo player’s arsenal. It is the new platform. The Switch offers previous game play options for the Nintendo-specific player, or portable game junkie that might not have been available before.
For example, no matter the delay, Dark Souls, from Bandai Namco, will release on a Nintendo console. However, as much I want it, Nintendo Switch cannot simply be a nostalgic plaything. Manticore: Galaxy on Fire is a space shooter. It acts like a mobile game, or a small, computer specific adventure.
Past Space Adventures
It cannot be Colony Wars, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, or Star Fox. It takes influences from those adventures, but is very much a smaller game piece. It has a cinematic element to the game, but exists in windows that present the game play for a portable audience.
For example, the game has portions where you enter a space quadrant, dramatically. The game, however, displays all communications through voice, and small text windows, and not massive, cinematic presentations, as on other console games.
This is what moves the game forward. Players can explore the space in this game. However, there are limits and boundaries to the space in the game. The game’s controls are fine. Dogfights in this game are enjoyable. The enemies in Manticore: Galaxy on Fire challenges the player. However, there are limits to this adventure.
Conclusion
Manticore: Galaxy on Fire works because you can take it anywhere. It is a wholesome adventure. It just is not the fresh take on the three-dimensional space shooter. This console needs its own Afterburner. It needs a lengthy, Rogue Squadron, in my opinion. The game does not have to be as beefy as Star Wars: Battlefront.
It just needs a fresh take on the genre for a Nintendo Switch. Starfox, on Nintendo Switch, has to fly, with the option of motion control, but must have tight, basic controls, and operate as a fast, beautiful, space shooter, with some online components.
My Expectations
This title reminds me of the expectations of Gear Club: Unlimited, on the Nintendo Switch. The Eden Games and Microids title represents a simulation racing experience on the console. However, it is a redo of previous, mobile, experience.
That is what Nintendo Switch can give you, for now, in abundance. That, in reality, is enough. The above is opinion. Manticore: Galaxy on Fire is solid. Worthy is an idea that differs in each player’s eyes. My hope is more original, Nintendo Switch content graces the console.
However, current available titles scratch a necessary itch. This is something some Nintendo Wii, and Wii U, owners understand. Quality variety is reality. For example, the beat’em-up genre was non-existent on Nintendo’s previous consoles. Streets of Red: Devil’s Dare Deluxe, 9 Monkeys of Shaolin, Double Dragon IV, and other titles give Nintendo’s newest system life. It is a necessary revival that opens the door to a brighter future and Nintendo originals, which are not Nintendo specific content.