Genetic Disaster

by Don

Any video game with the word “disaster” in its title may be tempting fate and putting a target on its back. However, the game Genetic Disaster on the Nintendo Switch avoids becoming a total calamity with some moderately satisfying gunplay and a cheerfully designed color palette throughout its levels of design. Genetic Disaster is a coop action game featuring 12 different levels to play through with friends or alone.

This title is best suited for playing in short spurts because shooting the freakishly depicted enemies scattered throughout a madly haunted mansion provides a quick burst of adrenaline. In addition, the gremlin-esque “ughh” groans the baddies make upon impact when splattered just sounds cool. Guns provide a loud and throaty banging noise too, adding to the atmosphere. Aiming your weapon is a bit cumbersome but not out-of-line with lots of other similar top-down shooting and exploring games on the Switch. The hand-drawn art style of Genetic Disaster is bright and happy-go-lucky, but sometimes the characters do seem a bit squashed down and hard to decipher. Meanwhile, the game’s music provides entertainment with a catchy kids Halloween TV-special kind of vibe.

Players can choose from several pleasantly gruesome cartoonish characters to control on their missions, and each character has its own unique strengths. For example, the turtle-shelled Bunker can protect the team with his shield and he absorbs weapons recoil. Another player-controlled character named Devil can build up anger energy with every kill and release it in a massive blitz attack. These characters also receive randomly generated special “mutant” abilities. Unfortunately, trying to figure out exactly what mutations are assigned to your character is confusing and counterintuitive at best.

The system for dropping and picking up weapons, grabbing ammo, and breaking open treasure troves also takes some getting used to at first. Game play can also feel a bit monotonous after a while. On the other hand, the simple map guiding you along where to proceed is a lot easier to navigate than in some other Switch games, which comes as a welcome relief. It’s also great that enemies are clearly outlined with bright red circles to give you a target. Watch out for big holes in the ground and other pitfalls that can get you killed though, or it’s game over. When considering its strengths and weaknesses, Genetic Disaster gets a 6 out of 10 score on the playability meter.

A BIG “thank you” to Publisher/Developer Drageus Games for our review code!

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