Review: Glitch Busters: Stuck On You (Nintendo Switch)
Glitch Busters: Stuck On You is an action multiplayer game developed by Toylogic and published by Skybound Games. You play as an AI bot within the internet, keeping everything in order so the humans can enjoy their cat videos and whatever else they do on the web. But when a virus breaks out, mayhem ensues.
Glitch Busters: Stuck On You is a charming party game that you can play alone or with friends locally or online. I first started playing the game alone to get a feel for the controls. When you play alone, you control yourself, plus three NPC characters.
However, the game begins with a brief tutorial explaining how to move, jump, and pick things up. Then, the virus breaks out, and you need to complete the level by making it to the other side while shooting the glitched AI bots, essentially rescuing them from the virus. When you make it back to the hub, there’s one more tutorial left, and that’s a test of teamwork.
I was tasked with controlling my character and three NPC AI bots (but there’s no difference between any of them). I was impressed by how smart the AI was. They’ll run around and warp to you if they get too far away. If they see an enemy, they’ll begin shooting. You can also use a pin-point to tell one of them where to go. The closest AI bot to the pinpoint will rush over there. Also, you can stack on top of each other and shoot vertically. Everything was smooth, and the different things you can do with these bots are great. However, it’s a lot of controls to learn, so I was pretty slow at first. The longer I played, the easier the controls got.
After that, multiplayer is officially unlocked. Your character returns to the hub world, and 1-3 others can join you locally (or you can turn on the online setting). Whether you’re alone or have a few friends, you can then jump into the story mode.
These levels are all more or less the same. You and your buddies run through various parts of the internet, shooting the virus with your gun and collecting coins. The coins can be used as currency to buy upgraded guns and more health back at the hub. At the end of each level, there is a boss.
I played through the first level independently, and my NPC bots did most of the work during the final boss. I kept losing health and focused on running around and healing any of my buddies who lost all their hearts. But then, I found a spot I could stand in where the boss’s attacks wouldn’t reach me, but my shots could still reach the boss. So, I stacked the four AI bots on top of each other and had everyone continuously shoot at the boss until it was killed.
Being a multiplayer game, I had the opportunity to play with my sister for some two-player co-op action. Glitch Busters: Stuck On You plays exactly the same with multiple human characters. We still had two NPC bots on our side. Truth be told, I thought the game would be more fun with more human players, but that wasn’t the case.
When playing with a friend, I realized just how slow the action in this game is. There are hordes of enemies that come at you throughout the levels, but you’re never in real trouble. The AI bots are pretty smart and handled the enemies much better than me when I struggled to aim or simply wanted to gather the coins dropping. I found myself doing the same with my sister. She’d attack the enemies, and I’d run around reaping all the rewards.
Aside from the story mode, Glitch Busters: Stuck On You has a Patrol Mode, which is basically a run-and-gun. You can choose the difficulty level and how long you want to go for, going from one end of the level to another. The point is to see who can get the most points, but it was so similar to the main story’s levels that I didn’t care for that mode too much.
Overall, Glitch Busters: Stuck On You is a solid title to play alone or with a group of friends. However, the slow-paced action may ruin some of the fun.
