Lichtspeer: Double Speer Edition (Nintendo Switch) Second Opinion Review

The opening does a great job in establishing the type of humour that Lichtspeer: Double Speer Edition is going for, while imploring not to take this game too seriously. This is sort of like a 'tower-defence' action title that plays similarly to the popular Plants vs. Zombies franchise on mobile devices, albeit on a 2D plane. The chosen hero takes a spot on the screen, and then has to throw their given speer to take down the oncoming waves of enemies.

The left Joy-Con controls the aiming, while the back trigger on the right Joy-Con is used for throwing the Speers. Fortunately, for simplicity's sake, these are the only two controls that are vital to playing through this. However, there are also skills that can be bought in the in-game store in order to add them to the hero's repertoire, although the cool-downs prevent them from being spammed. While some of the skills, such as the Tri-Speers ability, which splits the speer into three, are cool, most of the skills seem pretty useless and barely offer any advantages. By the time the game is finished, there are likely only two skills that will be used often enough to justify their existence, while playing around with the others often results in unnecessary deaths.

While the gameplay is not mechanically complex, the controls do have a way of turning on the hero sometimes. Due to the limitations of aiming the speers up into the air, oftentimes the hero will turn in the opposite direction right as the speer is thrown. Trying to hit targets up in the air and one boss fight where hitting his weak points at the top of the screen are constant chores due to this limitation. In addition, sometimes the hero will turn in the opposite direction because the Joy-Con flicks back to its starting position too hard and such mistakes are costly in a game that already jokes about the constant deaths that will be had.

In saying that, though, Lichtspeer: Double Speer Edition is an extremely fun, and equally harrowing, experience. However, if the single-player doesn't provide the right amount of fun, the Double Speer Edition allows for a second-player to jump in as the hero's speer-throwing dog. Don't be fooled, though, as playing in local co-op does increase the frequency of the enemies and, thus, heightens the difficulty to balance out the dual-speers. Playing in a team can either bring partners closer together, or turn friends into enemies as these heroes have a one-hit kill health bar. Therefore, there can be no room for errors, and this title is not forgiving for a barely missed speer throw.

The boss fights rely on the same gameplay mechanics of throwing the speers, but they have weak spots that inflict damage on them. The flashing spots don't make these bouts any easier, though, for the bosses are just as unforgiving as the rest of the enemies. They each need different strategies to take them down, however, and the fights are unique in such a way that they never feel like they are overstaying their welcome. Some boss fights are harder to complete in local co-op and it is only after changing it to single-player that a specific boss may become easier to tackle, so it is something to keep in mind for those real tough challenges.

If playing the already-too-difficult game is starting to get a little bit easy, then there is a 'Rage Quit Mode' that doesn't heighten the difficulty of the enemies, but it does punish deaths. Where the stages are made up of five screens, with each screen serving as a checkpoint in the normal mode, 'Rage Quit' gets rid of the checkpoints, and requires the entire stage to be completed with one life. Getting hit by an enemy and dying will reset the entire stage, although the checkpoints are only present right before the boss fights, to at least allow for deaths in those arenas.

Upon completing the game, New Game+ becomes available, where the skill trees carry over, allowing for further upgrades to existing skills. While this does throw a bit of an incentive to replay, the lack of any good skills hurts this appeal, unfortunately. There are plenty of stage objectives to try to achieve greatness for bragging rights, though.