Nintendo’s Summer “Nindies” Direct, the publisher’s indie game-oriented showcase, brought a few surprises with it today. Among these was the sudden announcement of a Transistor port coming this November. One would think that a four year old game would be past its porting period, but it seems the Switch experience is just transformative enough to justify one more version of the game; one that is sure to please any curious buyers who happen across it.
Since its launch, Nintendo’s Switch console has been slowly building up a reputation as a safe haven for quality independent titles. Its marketplace isn’t perfect, but it’s arguably better than alternative’s like Steam. Combine that with the Switch’s unique player experience, and Nintendo’s got something that’s perfect for indie titles both old and new. This is probably why Supergiant Games has gone ahead and put together one last port of Transistor.
For those who haven’t yet had the pleasure of playing Supergiant’s exceptional action-RPG, Transistor follows the story of Red: a young woman on a journey through the mysterious city of Cloudbank. The game sports a solid story and plenty of mysteries for its more dedicated players to chew on, but the real star of the show is its unique combat and character building systems.
Combat in Transistor comes in two flavors: real-time and pre-planned. In real-time combat, Red can use her abilities freely with no cool-down or penalties. However, using them to their fullest can only be done using “Turn()” a mode that freezes time and allows players to plan movement and attacks ahead of time. Only so many actions can be taken on a single Turn() and players have to wait a few seconds for it to cool down afterward. Still, the sheer number of precise combinations it allows for makes the mode absolutely worth while. Same goes for trying out all of Red’s various powers and abilities. There are a great many builds to play around with for those who enjoy looking for them.
Transistor is currently available on PC, PlayStation 4, Macintosh, and iOS devices. The Switch version launches on November 1.
