Developer: Samurai Punk
Publisher: Samurai Punk
Platforms: Nintendo Switch
Tested on: Nintendo Switch
Screencheat: Unplugged – Review
Playing a 4-player split screen multiplayer shooter on one console can be a lot of fun with some friends. But this way of playing has always had one disadvantage, your enemies/friends could look at your screen to see where you are to surprise and kill you. In Screencheat: Unplugged all enemies are invisible and by looking at your opponents’ screen, you can see where they are to put them out of their misery. This often resulted in screaming matches that ended up in calling your fellow players cheaters, but in Screencheat, you’ll have to cheat to bring home the kills.
Story
Screencheat: Unplugged is a remaster for the Nintendo Switch of the original Screencheat that released in 2014 on PC and Mac with the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One following suit in 2016. There’s no story mode present in this oddball multiplayer shooter. This game is fully focused on local multiplayer matches to play with friends and family on one Switch console or against bots. There is no online functionality at this point.
Graphics
When you enter a match in Screencheat: Unplugged, the screen will be split in 4 screens, each for one of the players. As player one, your screen is the top-left one. The other screens show your opponents’ locations from their perspective. The maps are all divided in four different color patterns. This makes it easy to recognize where you and your opponents are located. The game uses a cartoonish style of graphics. The objects and paintings inside the game maps all look detailed. Some funny texts will appear when you kill or get killed, like you got lol’d, followed by the player’s in-game name and there are enough variants to these texts.
Sound
The music in the menus has a bit of a retro arcade tune to it. When in-game, retro music will play while you’re trying to spot and destroy your opponents. Every time someone kills somebody, a bleep will sound, letting everyone know another kill has been made. The music fits right in with the retro arcade style the game itself has.
Gameplay
Screencheat: Unplugged is a local multiplayer first-person shooter. In Screencheat: Unplugged, you and your opponents are invisible to each other. Normally, it would be cheating if you’d look at your opponent’s screen to check where they are hiding, but in Screencheat: Unplugged you need to do this to find out where they are because you can’t see them!
Screencheat: Unplugged has the typical first-person shooter mechanics, only it’s limited to walking, jumping and using your weapons. These controls are easy to use and accessible to everyone. When you play with the whole console in handheld mode, you will use the left stick to move around and the right stick to look. One player can use one Joy-Con to fully control the character, but this has some limits as each Joy-Con only has only one stick to use. In this mode, the game uses the gyro inside each controller to look around. By default, looking around in this mode is inverted and that can be very hard to get used to. However, it is possible to change these controls.
There are ten different weapons available in the game that you can use to kill your opponents. You’ll start with the standard blunderbuss. The other nine weapons are unlocked by leveling up your rank, by winning matches against bots or friends. Weapons like the charging hobby horse, a car engine that shoots ricocheting energy balls or an explosive teddy bear will change the way you’re playing completely. Each weapon needs a different approach to be used effectively.
There are a lot of game modes available in local play, nine to be exact. The first one is the typical deathmatch. You can set the target score to an amount you desire. Examples of other game modes include, Capture the Fun, where you need to hold a pinata the longest or Gold Rush in which you need to collect and hold the most coins. This means a lot of variation to explore with friends. With all these different game modes, you can set your own rules and when unlocked, you can turn on Mutators that will completely change the game’s mechanics like low gravity or a slow mode.
A total of eleven maps are available to choose from in Screencheat: Unplugged. These maps are designed with color-coded areas, so you can quickly locate other players without really seeing them in front of you. All these maps have special things like trampolines or air vents that’ll quickly get you to the location of your opponents. If you get to know each map, your opponents will have no chance.
If you like a somewhat different challenge, a lot of Time Trials are also available to play. These Time Trials challenge you to master the game’s mechanics and your skill in “screen cheating” by setting relatively tough goals to clear each Time Trial.
Conclusion
Screencheat: Unplugged is a fun game to play alone but even more fun while playing it with friends. A lot of game modes and maps offer a lot of variety in matches to play. There are a lot of ways to kill your opponents with ten different weapons and mastering these can be a lot of fun on its own. The controls with one Joy-Con take some time getting used to, but if you play with a controller or both Joy-Cons, the game handles very well. Setting your own rules and using mutators to alter the gameplay spices things up even more. Unfortunately, there’s no online functionality in the game at this point, which feels a bit like a missed opportunity. All in all, a great screen cheating shooter game to play with friends.
Screencheat: Unplugged - Review,
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