When it comes to arcade-style shooters, the Switch has been blessed with an abundance of indie-style love. Ranging from more old-school sensibilities, to more modern, and even a number of oddballs that just do their own thing, if you’re a fan of the genre the eShop has you covered. What remains surprising, and pretty great honestly, is that even with all of that talent out there I’ve continued to get a steady flow of games that have been worthy of some attention, and it’s even nicer when they come in at a budget price. Attack of the Karens, while looking quite unassuming and having a jokey kind of vibe, is one such title.

What first makes me happy here is that with its whole Karen theme, where a group of busybodies got zapped to become super-powerful killjoys, it could have settled for sticking with theming and humor, and then just let everything else fall where it may. Thankfully it didn’t go that route, instead delivering on a reasonably wide variety of more common enemies, many of which have their own attack behaviors, as well as stages that themselves can have surprises in store for you. That’s before you even get to the Karens themselves, each of which has more than one unique attack pattern, and some of which will make you sweat.

The most outstanding features, in my mind, are what helps you contend with all of this. At a high level you’ll have random power-ups you’ll encounter during your run, which you can give a moment to change once or twice before they’ll end up off the screen, and that will help you immediately. You’ll then collect upgrade chips that you can use to permanently upgrade your craft, not just with general enhancements like health or a quicker or more powerful shot, but also new weapons and helpful defenses as well. The thing is, until those get rolling, or perhaps once you have enough of them, the game may feel too tough or easy. To help balance that out you then have 8 boosts and 8 curses to choose from, which will allow you to skew the difficulty in either direction to better suit your skill level and preference. In my mind, in a budget title, this absolutely goes the extra mile and can balance out the experience to be suited to both veterans and novices alike.

Put this all together and I ended up being really impressed with this spunky and pretty funny budget shooter. It delivers on its theme very well with a variety of unique enemies and some classic Karen dialogue as well. It also does a great job of throwing numerous variables into every run to help keep you on your toes and make it feel like you’re going through the early stage motions after a while. Finally, it allows for an impressive level of tuning and customization that you’ll rarely find in arcade shooters of this sort at all, let alone ones with such a budget-friendly price. Whether you’re a shooting ace, or someone who wouldn’t mind having some fun with one that you have the power to tone down a bit, this is a well-made and unique game at a price that is more than fair.