Welcome to our review of Acorn Tactics, a game out now on the Switch eShop.
Alien blobs from space are invading! It’s up to the ACORN to stop them.
Alien blobs from space are invading the Earth. It’s up to the Alien Counter Offensive Response Network (ACORN) to stop them from enacting their evil plans. Construct and customize a strike team of giant walking tanks and airdrop them into combat.
Customise, upgrade and train to save the planet from King Blob in a giant 25 mission hand-crafted story campaign. Then take your custom battle team into the random mission generator and visit procedurally generated bases and challenge yourself to endless battles. Collect and upgrade a deck of battle-cards to take with you into combat. Use their special effects to turn the tide of war against your foes.
Can you defend the planet from invasion?
Yup, that was the official description of this game. It sounds awesome and in reality, the idea behind the game really is great! A Mech-based tactics game, mechs that seem to have been very inspired by the Tachikoma from the Ghost in the Shell anime. This game has everything to be a mass hit, but sadly the pace is what ruins the experience.
While in itself being a very solid game, the pace is just all over the place. The moves you make, the time needed to attack, to move on to another mission, … No, this game is slow, to say the least. There do not seem to be any ways to speed up the action or at least I have not found any. Which really is a pity, speeding up this game sure would be a welcome feature.
Aside from the usual upgrades and money that you find along the way. This game does possess the usual elements of any strategy/tactical game of the genre. I loved having turrets at my disposal to say one thing, even though you can not steer them yourself, they do come in handy as they attack some enemies for you.
So is this game any fun?
To be honest, it was not, the slow pace and the weird and underwhelming attacks did not impress me much. On the contrary, they rather disappointed me. I am not a hater of this genre, nor am I a lover. I often play them but seldom will I end up finishing them. This game just struck me as a great idea but not properly developed into what could have been.
In conclusion, this game does have a great backbone for the story, but the slower aspect of the game is what will ruin your experience. I do not like breaking down games, this time is no different. Lovers of the genre might want to pick it up when it is on sale. I hope you will enjoy it more than I just did.
My rating is a 40% one. I do feel the game could shine with some alterations to the gameplay and will give it the benefit of the doubt the day I see a patch come in. For now, though, I stand by a 40% rating.
