Help a space lady make it to the exit of each level in this hybrid single screen 2D precision platformer mixed with an action puzzle game.  Your heroine has a gun that when you hit a box with a bullet, you’ll swap places with it.  Use this skill to solve all sorts of puzzles and bypass obstacles in Swapshot, available on all current consoles and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here.

Your character can jump and use the R shoulder button to fire a bullet.  You must avoid obstacles like spikes, and if you hit one, you’ll have to start the level over.  If you mess up the puzzle, you can also press pause and restart the level, too.  When you shoot a bullet and it hits a box, you’ll swap places with the box.  You’ll use this skill to solve all sorts of switch based puzzles and the boxes can help you reach higher areas, too.  Sometimes you must fire a bullet and quickly run to where you need to be so the box can be where you are at when it gets hit.  Brown wooden boxes can be pushed, but purple boxes are stationary.  There are around three dozen levels in all.

I did like the puzzle aspect of this game and it kept me interested longer than most precision platformers like this do.  But it does have some problems.  I wish you had a little bit more control over your jumps.  And the game gets really hard about a third of the way through.  You have to have pixel perfect positioning in some parts to get your box where you want it to be after you shoot.  And the game gives you just enough bullets in each level to solve the puzzles.  I kind of wish they would give you a little more sometimes, though.  But otherwise, this is one of the better types of games like this that I’ve played in a while.

Kid Factor:

Swapshot is rated E for Everyone with an ESRB descriptor of Mild Fantasy Violence.  When you hit spikes, you just flash and disappear and that’s it.  Reading skill isn’t needed to play, but younger gamers may get frustrated at the high difficulty.

Tags: Game Reviews