Looking for a traditional run and gun shooter with updated game mechanics? Look no further than Weapon of Choice DX. In Weapon of Choice DX, players run through huge levels while destroying tons and tons of enemies equipped with unique weapons specific to each character. Unique game features include gaming elements such as “death brushing” and an automated Spiderpack which we’ll get more into later. Several of the gameplay changes cater to older gamers while still benefiting all players. The DX version improves on the award-winning XBLIG hit with difficulty rebalancing, hidden collectibles, a new widescreen layout, and uprezzed 4K art.

Developed by Mommy’s Best Games, Weapon of Choice DX is a throwback to the glory days of run and gun shooters. Think Contra, but more hectic with super weird weapons and crazy-looking enemies and bosses. We’re talking some screen-filling enemies and some that won’t even fit on the screen. As crazy as that sounds, the unique abilities of each character and their weapons are even more ridiculous.

Anyways, let’s start with the gameplay. Weapon of Choice DX features huge sprawling levels that extend out both horizontally and vertically. You don’t have to follow a set path and you can pretty much go in any direction you want until you find a boss to kill and secure the area. Each level has the option of choosing a path you want to take after, meaning each level has branching paths so in essence, you can kind of replay parts of the game differently each time.

Hidden on each level is also a soldier you can rescue to add to your roster of players you can play as. You can only rescue one soldier at a time however and I’ll explain why this will be important. This plays into the games way of dealing with playable lives. Let’s say you “die”. You don’t really die. Instead, you can pick another character and they rocket into the same spot as your previously downed character. You can choose to rescue this character for future use or rescue a new character instead. You can only carry one character at a time so choose wisely.

Speaking of death, I like how the game handles near-death situations. The game calls this “Death Brushing” and basically what it does is that if you’re about to die, the game does into slow motion mode and you can see where the death blow is going to come from. This gives you time to react to it by either trying to move out of the way or kill whatever is about to kill you. If you succeed, the game will go back to regular speed and you’ll be on your merry way. If you fail, you’ll drop right where you are and have to call another character in to save you and complete the level.

Other notable gameplay features include the Spiderpack, which is very cool and lets you hang from ceilings and walls as if you were a spider. This also allows you to move around which makes for a cool gameplay element. Weapons in the game also have a primary fire mode and a secondary fire mode. Each playable character carries two weapons. One is unique to the character while the other is standard for all of them. Each character also has a unique ability related to their double jump as well.

Overall, I’d say Weapon of Choice DX while it does take inspiration from many past run and gun shooters, it also brings with it a whole ton of really unique gameplay elements that help differentiate it. This game really helps evolve the genre in its own way and I think that run and gun shooter fans will really enjoy it. Weapon of Choice DX is also quite challenging and does require a bit of skill and luck to get through it. Luckily, if you aren’t that good at the beginning, you can always turn down the difficulty setting until you are better at it.

Weapon of Choice DX is available now on the Nintendo eShop.

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Received game from developer and/or publisher for coverage purposes.
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