Flinthook
Nintendo Switch

Developer: Tribute Games
Publisher: Tribute Games
Category: Action, Platformer, Adventure, Arcade
Release Date: 03.09.2018

Have you ever wanted to be a bounty hunting ghost that inhabits the body of a space pirate? Oddly specific? YES! Everyone’s gotta have a fetish, right?

Ermm..uhhhh….moving on, I guess.

Flinthook for Nintendo Switch gives you the opportunity to do exactly that! In Flinthook, you play as a possessed space pirate that is out to loot whatever space ship he can come across, and to pursue the bounties of baddies for even bigger rewards.

Ships are presented as a series of randomly generated rooms that can contain a various selection of obstacles, enemy waves, or treasures. Your goal in each level is to find Ghost Gems to feed to the goo that lives inside the compass belt buckle of your belt that slows down time. When you feed enough Ghost Gems to your slimey belt buckle friend, he will use his compass abilities to find where the next bad guy is. The premise and execution are absolutely absurd, and remind me of the glory days of the NES. Game plots didn’t make sense, partially because writers were trying to be original, partially because the stories were written by game programmers or marketers instead of actual writers, and often because something was changed or lost in translation.

As you progress through the ships, you’ll earn experience and gather currency. This currency enables you to upgrade yourself, and your weapons/gadgets. You have your trusty grappling hook gun that gives the game its name, a time-bending belt that enables you to slow down time, and a gun, which shoots stuff.

The grappling hook gun is often your best method of travel. You will use it to grab onto to hooks that are positioned around the rooms of the ship, and it is the only way to go through a door. Some enemies require you to hit them with your hook before being able to shoot them with your gun. Combining your time slowing ability with the hook can make for some very strategic battles. and adds a lot of depth to an already fun game. When you die in a level before completion, you still receive experience points and the loot that you collected. You then go back to your ship and can buy upgrades, or sell past upgrades back to get more powerful ones in their place. The next time you go back into a ship, it will be all new again, but you are better prepared for what hazards you may face this time around. While you are in the ships, there are sometimes ships that sell you health items. You can also find booster packs that give you more upgrade options.

The music is fun and engaging, but it gets repetitive very quickly when you realize that there is one song that loops over and over through each type of ship that you go on. So, while you’re pursuing one boss, every ship that you are looting in pursuit of him, will be the same song. There is some variety, but I wish that there had been more songs for the same location.

Flinthook offers plenty in the way of content, and is a lot of fun to play. It’s nice to have an interesting action platformer that doesn’t try to be like anything else. Plus, there’s this cool “bwingy” thing going on with the HD Rumble when you fling yourself upwards on a hook.

If you love retro style throwbacks and surprisingly deep combat for a sidescroller, Flinthook is an immediate buy for you.