Fabraz, the developer behind Slime-San, was at PAX East with Spiritsphere DX. Fabraz has worked with the developer Eendhoorn Games to bring an enhanced version of Spiritsphere to the Nintendo Switch. Take traditional air hockey or tennis, throw in some retro graphics, and add some magical beat downs. That’s the formula at play here. It creates a game that is easy to pick up with minimal learning curve. Feeling like I had a legitimate chance at beating a developer after about 30 seconds was something I’m not used to. Let’s go over some of the fast-paced modes Spiritsphere DX has to offer.
Single player is a story mode that has randomized encounters and modes to keep things fresh and allow for short gameplay sessions. Use this as a tool to get familiarized with the game and prepare to take on your friends. The meat of the game is the multiplayer experience and that was the focus of my demo.
The first two player mode that I tried in Spiritsphere DX wins my totally made up award for “Most creative use of a Nintendo Switch so far.” Tate mode has two players turn the Switch long ways between them, both holding one end of a still attached Joy-Con. From there, press start and and try to win. The whole length of the playing field is on the screen and we started playing digital, chaotic, air hockey. I commented to the devs how I could imagine that mode being perfect in the back seat of a road trip. Having no need to remove the Joy-Cons or prop up the system in any way makes this specific multiplayer mode desirable in short bursts. A target break mode is that allows to test your timing and accuracy with a friend trying to hit different types of targets that spawn on the normal two player field.
Have you ever had one of those moments where you have three players and you can’t figure out what to play? Spiritsphere DX has a solution. Hop in to some 2v1 action and have one player control a boss. This was pretty straight forward and easy to play while we waited for a fourth player to walk up. I would need some more time with this mode to figure out if it is balanced. We won as the attackers but all of us were still learning the controls. This mode is also available as two players where the boss is AI controlled. The other three player mode the devs mentioned to me was ghost mode. This gives a third player the chance to join in to a 1v1 game and cause problems for the other players. Finally, there is a 2v2 mode That just expands the regular 1v1 mode as long as you have enough controllers. Put this on the big screen and it would make a great family friendly party game.
I had a lot of fun playing against random attendees and devs alike. I never felt like I was at a huge disadvantage and it makes me excited for the possibilities of adding this to my library. I can never have enough games that are easily accessible and I know will be a hit in any setting.
Spiritsphere DX will release sometime in spring 2018 on Nintendo Switch. The retail price will be $11.99.
Check out the steam page if you’re interested in checking out the original game and Spiritspheregame.com for all information on the upcoming release.
