Thoth
Nintendo Switch

Developed By : Carlsen Games
Published By : Carlsen Games
Category : Action, Arcade, Twin-Stick
Release : Jan 09, 2020

Released simultaneously with his other project 140, Jeppe Carlsen’s Thoth for the Nintendo Switch takes the visually simplistic and colorfully vibrant combination from that platformer, and throws it into the mix as a twin-stick shooter.

Much like it’s partner game, in Thoth there’s really no story, no rhyme or reason to what you’re doing. You just load into the level and do the things. In the case of this game, the things require you to obliterate a cast of shapes that are out to destroy you. You’ll face off against these guys in small arena levels that will put your precision to the test.

The thing that ramps up the difficulty in this game is that when you destroy your enemies, they aren’t removed from the battlefield. They still float around freely, and even a little faster to boot, gunning for you still posing a constant threat. They all come in a small variety of shapes, mostly squares and cubes but some spheres as well. However, different ones will do different things. For instance some cubes may have a darker, smaller shape inside that will shoot out like a projectile once the host-shape is destroyed. Some spheres will send out a smaller orb that you will teleport to once you destroy the next shape. Each variant adds a new curveball to keep you on top of your game.

Enemies aren’t the only thing, as the levels themselves can shake everything up to throw you off a bit too. These are grouped together in packs of four, with each set acting as it’s own checkpoint block. Each set shares the same color scheme, so you’ll know when you’ve hit the next one when the colors switch up. They start off as pretty basic arenas, but the further you go the more you’ll run into new barriers creating sectioned off portions of the arena, and dotted barriers that will destroy you if you go through them.

But, it’s not just enemies and level shake-ups that will make this game challenging for you. As I said, the levels are chunked off in small groupings. To progress in the game and reach the next checkpoint and chunk of levels, you need to complete your current set almost perfectly. You only get two chances to pass a level, with the exception of the first level in each group. To make it worse, if you lose your first strike on a level, your second attempt will be even worse. The level will remain mostly the same, except that all of the hard barriers and walls in that level will become dangerous, killing you if you make contact with them.

Thoth is an intense quick-play of a twin-stick shooter, and its extremely fun at that. I was worried initially that the color combinations would be painful and deter wanting to play, but they were actually quite enjoyable once I got into it. This game, for me at least, definitely brought out the dogged determination of getting through to the next set of levels. And it was absolutely worth it to do so. I loved playing this game and found myself jumping right back into the levels after I had completed them all.