Jitsu Squad Nintendo Switch Review

ININ Games are a publisher that have released some interesting games from Indie developers. Now we have another fun looking game from an Indie team that is called Jitsu Squad. This crowd funded title is a fast-paced, beat’em up that has great 2D graphics and has the retro feel of the old school arcade classics. The Kickstart was successful and it hit the target in around 24 hours so obviously a lot of people were interested in this so let us tale a look below to see if it is any good.

Jitsu Squad is a beat’em up action game has four player CO-OP and this takes the form of tagging in the characters Yooka-Laylee and Maximillian Dodd. The story goes that Master Ramen sends his four best students: bunny kunoichi Baby O’Hara, burly Warthog Aros Helgason, tighty-whitey rockin’ frog monk Jazz, and the raccoon ninja to retrieve a ancient artifact called the Kusanagi stone which grants the user unlimited power. They must battle across eight different planets to complete their quest and get the artifact back.

Not something I usually start off with but my first observation was that the graphics are stunning including both the animation and the background. Colourful visuals and the special effects make this game really standout, even though the effects can sometimes seem to overwhelm and end up being a slight distraction. The soundtrack is on point as well and it fits the gameplay very well being mostly played on guitar for the atmosphere.

The actual gameplay is not that long with the game having eight planets that you battle through fighting enemies. The theme of the levels determines the style of the enemies that you must fight. To play through a previous planet is done by simply loading the game and going to the planet select screen. Playing the game is a fun experience but I did find that some of the game mechanics not improved from the old-school beat’em ups which is not a bad thing.

You have your basic attack button and then if you press this repeatedly then you get to put a combo together. Combat is fast and furious, but this get to be broken up as in order to pull of some combos you need to leave a delay in pressing the button which can be a little slow and make combat tricky. You find secondary weapons as you explore the levels which are unique to each character. You can also unlock new moves by collecting scrolls.

At the end of each level in true arcade style you must defeat a boss. These are big guys that have an arsenal of weapons and special abilities that can make the fight challenging and fun. The bosses have the ability to use a special ability which allows them to get a armoured suit which allows them to be impervious to your attacks, so this is the part where you must dart around the screen using dodge and ride it out until it wears off and you can inflict damage again.

Sadly, there is no real replayability to Jitsu Squad and this hurts the game slightly. There are only two modes which are training and story and also the co-op is only local play with no online option, which is a shame as the ability to team up with other gamers would have been fun.

Final Thoughts

Jitsu Squad is a fun arcade-style beat’em up which brings the feel of retro into modern gaming. The visuals are stunning and breath-taking with a soundtrack that rocks. There are some issues like no replayability and some of the mechanics don’t work fully, but it is still fun and worth a playthrough.