INVERSUS Deluxe is a living proof of that old saying, “don’t judge a book by its cover.” When I first saw pictures of this game, the first thing that came to my mind was: “oh, it’s probably a puzzle game.” Little did I know, after I booted it up, that it wasn’t a puzzler at all. It’s a twin-stick shooter of sorts, with heavy emphasis on multiplayer and featuring more strategy than its uber-minimalistic art style may at first imply.

Think of INVERSUS as a mix between Geometry Wars, a bit of Splatoon, Ikaruga and artistic minimalism. That art style is a bit hit-or-miss: some people will love it, some will find the visuals extremely repetitive, as, at the end of the day, all you look at is dots shooting at each other, like a good old Atari game.

You control a square (yeah, not very aesthetically exciting, I know) and your objective is to keep shooting other squares by traversing tiles the same color as your shot. Just like Splatoon, once you shoot a tile, it becomes the color of your attacks, and you can walk though them. It’s not exactly easy to explain the gameplay with words, but a quick minute-long tutorial session is enough for you to understand. Another thing you need to learn is that the Switch’s four main face buttons are all used in the game for different shots, as each button corresponds to a specific direction the shot will go. It will take a bit of time for you to get used to, but it’ll eventually become second nature.

INVERSUS Deluxe is heavily focused on multiplayer, be it local or online. I see the potential in its online play, given the game’s very simple gameplay and quick matches, even if the matchmaking still isn’t that ideal. The game is still in its infancy in the eShop, and needs more people owning it in order to make its online population less barren. This is a game that’ll only be as good as the size of its community. I say that because of its single player content.

Simply put, this game’s single player content is quite disappointing. It has very few modes, very few unlockables, and not a lot to keep you hooked for more than, say, 15 minutes at a time. Playing it in short bursts helps. Thankfully, you only need one joycon to play the game, so you can always play it locally with someone else even on-the-go.

Overall INVERSUS Deluxe is a great multiplayer game and a perfect fit for the Switch. If you can get past the extremely minimalistic visuals (an element which will click immediately for some and act as a repellant for others) and the fact that, sadly, the game offers very little to solo players, you’ll be in for a very interesting shooter with a very unique concept. Like I said before, this is a game that will only be as good as the size of its community. The game isn’t all the rage among Switch owners, which hindered the online experience a bit. The more people owning this title, the livelier its online community will be, and the better its matchmaking will be. We can stick to its excellent local multiplayer for the time being, however.

Reviewed on Switch.
Also available on: PC
Copy of INVERSUS Deluxe provided by publisher.