I’m always fascinated by remakes of older games that seem like they would have been my jam back in the day, but I somehow missed the first time around. Sometimes it’s just a matter of timing, the game having been available on the wrong systems, or simply a mystery, but the good news is that someone decided they were a worthy candidate for some mild updating, and then being released on modern systems. Given that there are already a load of great arcade-style shooters of all sorts on the Switch, making an impression can certainly be a challenge, but thankfully X-Out: Resurfaced is quickly able to set itself apart right from the get-go.

What makes this different from pretty much every other arcade shooter I’ve played, is the ability to customize your ship from the very beginning in a very direct way. While you’d typically start out with a stock ship, picking up or choosing upgrades as you go, or have a versatile fighter that allows you to switch between firing modes, Resurfaced instead gives you a budget and lets you play with quite a variety of builds yourself, which you’ll then be able to further enhance if you’re able to survive. This pretty well automatically builds in a certain degree of replayability, as it’s hard to resist the urge to try out what can be pretty unorthodox combinations at times, just to see how well they’ll work out. Perhaps unsurprisingly, you’ll likely find that many combined configurations work horribly, but in many regards that’s part of the game’s charm.

What further ratchets up the game’s difficulty though is that it can be pretty unforgiving in a variety of ways. The first lesson you’ll learn is to never collide with anything, as this will mean death and since you don’t have multiple ships this can make for some pretty short-lived runs. Considering lethal collisions include those with any of the game’s bosses, the fact that your ship isn’t terribly nimble makes for a second challenge, as evasion is sometimes more a matter of anticipating movement and getting out of the way in advance, rather than being reactive. The last challenge is the fact that, for the most part, it feels like your degree of control is at the cost of your own effectiveness more often than not. While, in theory, full control over your build could allow you to make a ship that’s virtually unstoppable, there are just enough constraints in place that you’ll end up having vulnerabilities, and it will require some experimentation to determine what setups work best for you.

In terms of scoring, there’s no question that the game earns some points simply for the audacity of doing things differently. While perhaps being able to specifically configure your ship’s weapons provides no guarantees for your success, there’s something thrilling in the attempts, even if many of them end in failure. Throw in the fact that the degree of challenge in surviving is also quite high, and it makes for a shooter experience that absolutely feels distinctive on the system. While I wouldn’t recommend it for those who frustrate easily, if you’re a true blue shmup fan this feels like a game whose originality absolutely deserves a good look.