[Review] Murtop - Nintendo Switch

Developed By: hiulit
Published By: Flynn's Arcade
Categories: Arcade
Release Date: 05.18.23

Ok so it’s Dig Dug mixed with Bomberman. Then put in cute animals, with you playing as the bomb dropping rabbit Murti. This is Murtop.

I find myself decent at Bomberman, but I am awful at Dig Dug. I’ll quickly explain how both play right now though. In Bomberman, you drop bombs, which make a cross shaped explosion. You need to usually clear a screen of enemies. In Dig Dug, you do this as well, but usually by blowing air into enemies you dig deeper and deeper underground to get to. You can dig around boulders to make them drop on unsuspecting enemies…or yourself. Replacing inflation with bombs is a very welcome change, as it allows for multiple kills at once and has such a wider spread to clear the screen out. However, I am dumb and will get caught in the flame. Thankfully, if you die, you don’t restart the stage, you’re just spawned at the top of the screen, above ground. Only running out of lives will restart the stage.

How do you get more lives? Well by getting good of course. It’s all point based, which can be done with combos, time, and how many carrots you collect in a stage. There’s even bonus stages where carrots just drop everywhere, reminding me of some of those Cotton bonus stages. And let me tell you, there are over 200 stages and a kill screen and lord help me I do not have that patience. I will try though. I am positively awful at this game though, so it might take a bit. Just remember, you drop bombs behind you, not on the spot.

It’s rather impressive how many screen options there are. So you get the upscaled and pixel perfect options and the option for borders and the like. You can play in Tate (horizontal so you can get a full screen game) Mode, which is perfect for the Flip Grip. You can also change color options. Gameboy Grey or Greenscale? Virtual Boy? Old Micro computers? You play however you want. The game is a nice looking, colorful game by default. Murtop is a fun, especially for those arcade hounds. I’d actually be keen on seeing this in an actual arcade one day, it’d be a good addition…though you won’t be able to just credit feed your way through the game freely anymore.