Clash Force

Do you like Contra? Do wish there was a new game like Contra where you could run and gun? What about Saturday Morning cartoons? What if there was a game that took Contra gameplay and Saturday Morning cartoons and fused them together? It might be Clash Force for the Nintendo Switch! But does Clash Force live up to that hype?

Clash Force is going for a Saturday Morning cartoon vibe and its succeeds. Everything from the graphics to the gameplay to the radical characters fits into that vibe.

It also will remind old school players of games like Contra. Clash Force is a run and gun platformer that has a quick pace and its all about shooting the enemy and surviving. If you die in the middle of a level, you are going back to the beginning of the level. There no checkpoints during the levels, thankfully the game does save after the beat a level though.

The characters are pretty cool but they all play the same. I wish each one of the three had their own unique abilities. The only reason to choose a different character is for the sake of graphical variety.

Clash Force is a good looking game; I love the drawn boarders around the game even. It is a throwback in many ways but there’s nothing wrong with a fun 2D shooter. And the game has great controls. I was especially happy when I discovered that you could hold down on the L button to keep shooting quickly. That made things a little easier, but Clash Force does get harder as you progress.

Players can easily go back and play levels that they’ve beaten via the menu that pops up before you start a restart a game. There’s no real reason to go back and play the levels, you don’t level or anything in this game, but some of the levels are fun enough that you may want to revisit them.

Clash Force isn’t Contra, but it is a fun throwback with a Saturday Morning cartoon vibe. There are some things that could be better with this one but if you want a fun and sometimes challenging run and gun game, you could do a lot worse than Clash Force!

Clash Force gets a 7.5 out of 10

Thank you to Ratalaika Games for providing a digital code for this review. Clash Force is will be available later today (7/3) on the Nintendo Switch eshop!