[Review] Kill it With Fire - Nintendo Switch

Developed By: Casey Donnellan Games LLC
Published By: Tinybuild Games
Categories: Exterminator
Release Date: 03.04.21

The term “Kill it With Fire” is often used when regarding spiders. Especially the big scary ones. The definitive way to get rid of those pests, right? In Kill it With Fire, you are tasked to kill spiders…yes even with fire.

In each stage, you need to kill these spiders. In any way possible. Starting with just your clipboard, you’ll eventually amass a quite sizable arsenal. An aerosol can with a lighter, a frying pan, Molotov cocktails, dynamite, a variety of guns, ninja stars, anvils, and even using different flavors of cheese poofs as bait. The more spiders you kill, the more each stage opens up and lets to explore and kill more. A house, a garden, the local convenience store, a farm, etc. Something great is that depending on where you are, you can see where the other stages are in relation to the current one. I love stuff like that in games.

Each stage has it’s own set of challenges. Some related to slaying the spiders, some not. Commit arson at the barn. Clean the dishes. Put this guy’s tools away properly. It’s really kinda silly and makes the game into more than a bug killing simulator. On top of those challenges, you can find the hidden weapons and batteries. On top of all of that, once every challenge is done you are given access to the “Arachno-Gauntlet”. These are super hard challenges putting your abilities with the new weapons to the test. These are both hard because of a strict time limit and something I’ll bring up later in the review.

Between levels you can upgrade yourself, or a bug tracker you hold around. This is what the batteries and completing challenges is good for. Want to move faster or throw things further? Douse bullets in kerosene? Give your tracker longer reach? There’s even some silly upgrades I’m not gonna spoil, but it’s well worth the time to get every challenge and battery if you can.

The game for the most part runs perfectly fine, there’s very minor hiccups when the action gets a little too chaotic. Be it there’s too many spiders, too many explosions, or too much fire. It has a bit of a cartoony artstyle, but those spiders still look like spiders and anyone with arachnophobia is probably going to have a field day with this game. The music is a mix of goofy, funky tunes, with some hard rock in boomboxes, to creepy ambience when surrounding by the eight legged freaks.

The big issues with Kill it With Fire is that with the game being first person, items you hold can obscure your view, much to your detriment. Aiming can also seem a bit slow. I feel like Gyro Aiming would solve this, but as of the time of this review, it’s not included.

Since you’re doing the same thing every level, you would think it’d get repetitive incredibly fast. To me though, there’s just something incredibly cathartic in using a flamethrower to completely torch a room and burn every spider in the room with it. The different stages all having their own format of challenges and unique spiders doesn’t hurt either.

Kill It With Fire is a funny game and in my opinion, a great, quick stress reliever. For those with arachnophobia, it might be a hard play, but it also might be a great play as you can kill the spiders in plenty of fun and creative ways.