With the success of the Nintendo Switch, an influx of games will come to the platform. Real gems can be found from the indie community when this influx happens. Even titles originally released on mobile phones can find a new home on the Switch and be a success. However, with any influx of games, there typically come great games, okay games and…the truly terrible games. Bullet Battle: Evolution falls in that last category: terrible. It’s amazing how this game made it past Nintendo certification and was allowed to release. In short, Bullet Battle: Evolution is one of the worst things we’ve seen on the Switch.
Bullet Battle: Evolution is a 4v4 third-person online shooter where you fight through a small number of maps with a familiar set of game modes (TDM and Survive). Think of any typical third-person shooter except without good gunplay and responsive controls. Even from the moment you start the game, it’s obvious that something just isn’t right. You’re presented with the option to choose between three standard classes (Assault, Sniper, and Medic). There’s one small detail that is instantly noticeable. One of the classes you “could” choose from is behind a paywall. That’s right, a paywall.
Bullet Battle: Evolution costs you $15, and for that price you’d expect that you’d get the full game unlocked for you. Not at all. For some reason the developer felt it was best to keep all of the microtransactions that were present in the free-to-play mobile version of this game, Bullet Battle. Want to purchase a new weapon? You need to spend more money. Want to buy a new melee move? More money. Even more confusing is that the ability to spend more money on these microtransactions isn’t even available to you unless you pay more money. Let me say that again in bold letters. YOU HAVE TO PAY REAL MONEY JUST TO UNLOCK THE ABILITY TO SPEND REAL MONEY IN THIS GAME. So, your progress is hampered by a micro-transaction system you can’t even access. Think that’s bad? Just wait. I’m just getting started.
Once you manage to make it into a match, there’s no way to adjust your aiming sensitivity. In fact, there are no options in the game except “Leave Match.” The cherry on top of changing your settings is that the developer locked out the ability to change it. YOU HAVE TO PURCHASE THE ABILITY TO CHANGE SETTINGS. No, I’m not lying, that is literally what you have to do. Want to add a secondary weapon besides the generic M4 rifle? There’s the option to select a secondary weapon in the loadout tab, but guess what? YOU HAVE TO PURCHASE THAT TOO!
How does Bullet Battle: Evolution play? Really, really badly. Bullet Battle: Evolution is a nightmare to control. With the aiming sensitivity locked, this makes aiming and then shooting both slow and choppy. Any kill you get is pretty much pure luck and involves absolutely no skill. Even better, your weapon has an extremely low number of bullets and, oh yeah, there’s no way to get more bullets once you’re in a match. So the 45 bullets you have in your gun…that better last an entire match. You could, in theory, melee your opponents, but that too is so slow that it’s almost pointless to use.
To be completely fair, Bullet Battle: Evolution has some okay aspects to it. Load times are pretty quick and visually, despite looking like a PS2 era game, some aspects of the game look pretty decent. Character models have a good amount of detail, and some environmental details look like they had a fair amount of effort put into them. That literally is the only good thing I can say about this game. It looks fine but not great.
Developer: TROOOZE
Publisher: TROOOZE
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Release Date: 6th June 2019