Anyone remember the old game Snake, sometimes called Snafu?  Or maybe you would recognize it as the light cycle game in TRON?  You know, where you leave a trail and try not to touch it?  Or you try and block other players with your trail?  Now just add bears in astronaut suits running around spherical planetoids like you do in Mario Galaxy and you have Astro Bears for Switch!  And you know I couldn’t pass up reviewing a game called “Astro Bears” anyway.

One word of warning is that this is mostly a multiplayer game, so make sure you have lots of gaming friends around before you download this.  In the main mode, up to four players can compete at the same time.  Each player chooses a bear, each with his or her own special stats.  Then you all run around a planet leaving a trail behind you.  You can dash and jump over trails, but if you hit one, you lose.  Whoever is left standing last, wins.  You can choose rules like the size of the planet and if your trails are infinite or disappear after a while.

The other mode is called Competition and you choose a team of three bears and play several rounds with random rules.  But it’s pretty much the same thing, just longer.  Finally is a single player mode where you try to catch “Jetfish” on a planet and try to get as many as you can before you hit your line.  Two players can also do this mode co-operatively.

And that’s pretty much the game.  Aside from not having enough single player content, the only other problem with this game is that it feels like a mini-game that should’ve been part of a bigger Mario Party style game or something.  But if you really enjoyed those TRON light cycles but thought they needed more bears, here you go.  It’s at least a simple to understand game that anyone can figure out quickly.

Kid Factor:

Nothing violent here.  If a bear hits a line, they just disappear.  Reading skill is helpful for some for some of the text, but not necessary just to play.  Astro Bears is rated E for Everyone.

Tags: Game Reviews