Bless indie developers and the ability to make games that play well enough to justify themselves, even when they’re quite visually underwhelming. The Switch has made me a big proponent of “looks aren’t everything” at times, as I’ve encountered quite a number of titles to this point that weren’t lookers but brought compelling enough play to the table that they kept me playing anyway. 3D Don't Die Mr. Robot absolutely falls into that category, with a look that feels like something you may have even seen on the Atari Jaguar, but that throws a simple but possibly addictive challenge at you.

In terms of what the game’s about, aside from there being a few different modes that change up the structure a little bit it’s really an arcade-style dodge-em-up at its core, but then with a bit of strategy thrown in. Sure, there’s a wide assortment of different enemy types to keep an eye out for, each with their own style and modes of attack (I freaking hate the pairs of laser dudes), but staying alive is only a small portion of what the game is about. Once you start to get good, you’ll realize that the real emphasis of the game is on figuring out how best to drive up your multiplier and score… and that takes a mix of patience, planning, and some luck.

You see, there are typically fruits that will pop up on a regular basis, and when you hit them they’ll explode with a set radius, causing any other bombs or enemies within that radius to explode as well… each then with their own explosion area as well. Of course, if you manage to get quite a number of them in close enough proximity to one another that can absolutely light things up, making your score advance much more quickly in the process. Once you begin to get the hang of some strategies around this, it definitely gets to be more fun.

In terms of the downsides there aren’t too many. I’d say that outside of the Remix and Arcade modes, I didn’t feel nearly as much satisfying depth. I would also note that a downside of the explosions being so visually spectacular is that it can put you at serious risk while everything that hasn’t exploded yet is still moving around, and with some enemy types it can be really tough to avoid them when you’re toward the edges of the screen and they pop in suddenly. Still, if the core hook works for you there’s plenty to repeatedly enjoy here, and since there are leaderboards as well, that could be just the motivation to continue to stick with it for a while.