Review by Jon Donnis
Remote Life is a side scrolling, 2D shooter, now as someone who grew up on R-Type, I have played countless shooters over the years, so how does Remote Life match up? Let's find out.
You find yourself taking on bio-mechanical type creatures which do in fact look quite similar to some of the aliens in R-Type, you play in a space setting as Pilot John Leone, your job is to save humanity, apparently single handedly, which doesn't seem very fair, but that is where we are.
You will have to complete 16 missions, and to do that you will need skill, guile and a nice collection of weapons (over 18 apparently).
The first big difference you will notice between this game and others of the genre is the twin stick control method. At first this will feel strange as classically in side scrolling shooters, you pretty much fire straight ahead, or straight behind, depending on the weapon you have. But in Remote Life you have directional control over where you fire. This can help you take out the enemy from all angles.
You have access to three main weapons that you can switch between, as well as an extra support weapon. As you progress through the levels you will collect power ups which will increase the ability of your weapons until you use them up. The main idea being that you save the upgraded weapons for when you will need them, whether that be larger enemies or even the boss fight. You can also pick up drones which will stay close to you and fire at the enemy, but they only last for ten seconds which seems a bit pointless. There is also no scoring system, no high scores etc, the only point of the game is to beat the levels.
There are some nice differences between levels, which help break up the regular style of gameplay, escort missions are one example. So there is more here than just nonstop 2D shooting.
Now time for a reality check, this game is tough, like really tough. And unfortunately, some of the game mechanics don't really help. The twin stick system is really hard to get used to, and never feels quite as accurate as it should, and with your ship being very weak, a couple of mistakes and you are dead. I played the game on a Nintendo Switch Lite, and even with my big hands, trying to control both sticks as well as the firing button and change weapon button, it left my hand aching pretty quick, now I did find a solution, I happen to have a spare wireless Switch controller, which you can connect to a switch lite, and the game did play much better on that, but obviously using a separate controller on a switch lite, makes the whole thing seem a bit silly.
There are also some issues with the visual elements of the game, the graphics are very good, everything is super detailed, the problem is that too much means it is hard to see enemy bullets as well as differentiate between background and foreground obstacles. You can however disable some graphical elements in the menu which does help a bit.
Also, when using the menu, it becomes clear very quick that this game is a port from the PC version, as you have a cursor of sorts on screen that you move about to select the options. And this just feels weird on a handheld console.
The Good
Super challenging game, with fantastic high-resolution graphics, and when you consider this game comes from a solo developer, it is pretty impressive. There are plenty of weapons, which all are different and it is satisfying destroying a boss while you swap between your 3 main weapons.
The Bad
The game is a little too hard at times, and could do with a bit more work to improve some elements of the game. This is a PC port, and I think it is clearly suited to PC gaming.
Overall
The game has its problems, but it also has some strong points, and if you want a challenge from within the shoot 'em up genre, then this is one to look at.
I score Remote Life on Nintendo Switch a generous 7/10
Out Now on Nintendo Switch for £11.99
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