Sling Ming
Nintendo Switch

Developed By : Good Night Brave Warrior
Published By : Good Night Brave Warrior
Category : Puzzle, Platformer, Adventure
Release Date : Apr 05, 2018

Princess Ming has had enough of the earthquakes plaguing her kingdom! On top of the non-stop earthquakes, her father the King is missing as well. In search for some answers, Ming heads underneath the castle and discovers an old vault door, her entrance to it hindered by three locks. Next to the locks is a star map that appears to be her only clue to getting into the vault. While underground, she comes across the old Oxylane system : a network that was put in place to allow for travel in the world through the city’s then-polluted air. Ming hooks up to it and sets out following her one and only vague clue, the star map, in search of the keys for the vault.

The first thing to jump out about Sling Ming on the Nintendo Switch is that it’s not your run-of-the-mill platformer. Most of the time, when you think “platformer’ you think any combination of running/climbing/jumping, but that’s just not the case here. All your movement in Sling Ming is done on the Oxylane. There are several nodes along the line that you can select, to which Ming will automatically be transported, making it more point-and-click platforming.

Which makes the game sound like it’ll be incredibly easy, except it’s not. The puzzle portion of the game is what ramps things up for you, and rightly so. The simplicity of the “movement” is heavily countered by the things you’ll have to move around and, more specifically, how you’ll have to move around them.

One big key to this is the inclusion of a number of glowing-green nodes. These nodes can be “picked up” and moved around anywhere you need to. Just about anywhere, at least, as the level’s will confine the areas around these nodes by rock walls and other limitations. Speaking of, Ming will have to get around some limitations of her own. Portions of rocks, ledges, and other things can jut out in the way of the Oxylane path. This is where her momentum comes into play. You can’t manually control how fast she goes, you can only select the node to travel to. Instead, you’ll have to find the right angle and distance to set Ming off from in order for her oxygen line to be pulled taut allowing her suit to swing around whatever’s in the way.

While the main quest of the game is to find the three keys and get into the vault, you’ll also be able to collect itoms in the game (yes, that’s how it’s spelled). These aren’t all required to be picked up, but let it be noted that there are some portions of the game in which you’ll need a minimum of these to be collected in order to progress. However, what shocked me the most (and believe me, I mean that in a good way), was the existence of boss fights and combat (in a form) in Sling Ming. During these sections, the Oxylane still plays a huge part in things. You’ll also have some sort of item, such as an acorn, you’ll be able to pick up that can be later hurled at whatever you need it to, whether it’s a boss or a switch that’s placed really far out of reach.

Overall, Sling Ming is a really great game on the Switch. It’s short, it’s fun, and it even manages to bring quite a bit of humor along on the adventure too, poking fun at both itself and the overusage of questing for keys hidden in far away places. You can pick up Sling Ming right now in the eShop, and you should most certainly consider doing so to help Ming restore peace to her kingdom. Plus, you know you wanna know what’s in the vault.

Playability

Sling Ming offers both touch and button controls, with touch being limited to handheld mode for obvious reasons. While the touch controls are fun, I still much preferred playing this game with button controls. I felt like I had more control over Ming’s moves when they were necessary.