Let me tell you a little story about Patricia Wagon. Patty, as she was often called, wanted to bring justice and peace to the world. So, she entered the Planet Land Police Academy, survived a broken VR training tool, and became a Galactic Penal Squad cybernetic peace officer and was renowned for taking down the notorious Hooligan Sisters. Years later, during a massive series of fires, she even donned an Infinite Dousing Apparatus to help the Galactic Fire Brigade put out fires and rescue citizens (like the reformed Hooligan Sisters). Unfortunately, a wide audience didn’t get to play some off the games, due to exclusivity arrangements. Now, with Mighty Switch Force Collection, well, everyone can.
Mighty Switch Force Collection is a complete compilation of every Might Switch Force game (and almost every Mighty game in general, for that matter). People get to follow Patty’s escapades through four games, though Mighty Switch Force! Hyper Drive Edition is an upgraded version of the original Nintendo 3DS game that swaps its pixels for hand-drawn designs and brings in Hyper Mode versions of levels that are more difficult. Still, it is a chance to get a collection of games, with three being puzzles that rely on shooting down enemies and knowing how and when to swap between which blocks are active with the Siren Helmet to collect every Hooligan Sister and the area. Everything is constantly timed, so you can try and constantly improve yourself, Once you arrest/save every woman, Corporal Gendarmor the robot flies in so Patty can hop in and fly away. The first game gives you 21 levels, the second 16, and the remake of the first has 21 and the 21 Hyper Mode versions. Mighty Switch Force Academy is ideally a multiplayer, competitive game with 20 stages (and five classic ones from the original two games) where you see the whole stage ahead of you and try and platform your way to more Hooligan Sisters than your opponent.
The real allure here is accessibility. The original Mighty Switch Force is the one the largest audience had access to. It started out on the Nintendo 3DS, before the Hyper Drive Edition found its way to the Nintendo Wii U and PC. This meant that the latter two platforms received a version of the game with the most possible content. The other two were far more exclusive. Mighty Switch Force 2 was far more exclusive. It only showed up on the Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Switch, with its Mighty Switch Force! Hose It Down! puzzle game being a mobile and PC release. This game added a bit more strategy to the formula, since you needed to put out damaging fires, defeat enemies, and save sisters along the way while still alternating blocks. Mighty Switch Force Academy, on the other hand, was just for PC owners. Ideally, you were meant to play through it with four people. Its selling point was getting to see the whole level at once.
The thing is, all of these translate incredibly well to a larger screen. All of these games rely on precise timing and knowing when to use the Siren Helmet to swap blocks. When the original games appeared on the Nintendo 3DS, they were great! But there’s something helpful about having it on a larger screen and with better controllers when trying to work through puzzles and solve things. Having the larger screen might help with judging the distances and working through possible solutions too. Plus, having everything in one place might give you a better chance to keep going through them one after another, taking what you have learned forward to help you with later puzzles.
The best way to look at Mighty Switch Force Collection is as an opportunity. This is a chance to play every single game in one place. All of the puzzles are good and lend themselves well to the larger presentation. Plus, having a controller (or control scheme) you may be more comfortable with is very handy. It’s very efficient and might make it easier to learn the right rhythms to succeed and maybe challenge the Hyper levels or shoot for best times.
Mighty Switch Force Collection is available for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
