Review: Vinebound: Tangled Together (Nintendo Switch)
Vinebound: Tangled Together is a lighthearted action survival game developed by Riftpoint Entertainment and published by Silesia Games. You can play this title on your own or with a friend on a single console. Both ways are pretty fun, so let’s get into it.
The premise of Vinebound: Tangled Together is to survive a horde of enemies for as long as possible. As you survive, mini bosses will appear. Once you defeat all the mini bosses, a big boss enters the ring. Defeat the boss and you’ve survived the level. It’s as simple (and difficult) as that.
There are three levels, and they’re all timed, but it’s not a countdown—it’s more to see how long it takes you to get through the level. For replayability, you can try to beat your previous time. The timer is also what triggers each mini boss. Even if you don’t defeat the first mini boss, if the timer reaches seven minutes, for example, the next mini boss will spawn. If you don’t take care of them quickly, things can get pretty hectic, especially since hordes of other enemies continue to spawn.
So, you need to clear the screen and survive as long as possible, but how do you do that? First, you need to choose your character, and there are a handful to choose from with different stats. For example, one character may have an extra hit point to start but may have a slower speed movement. Don’t worry, though, there are plenty of weapons and power-ups you can earn to help you.
The game gives you a couple of weapon choices to begin, such as a bow and arrows (the arrows are carrots). There’s also a banana sword among other fun, food-themed weapons. Your character attacks automatically, and so does the partner you’re tethered to. However, there’s a flower that shifts between them along the vine that binds the characters together. The flower is a cooldown for the attacks. Once it reaches you, you’ll attack. It’ll then make its way to your partner, and then they can attack when the flower reaches them.
Vinebound: Tangled Together is generous with upgrades, though. Enemies drop experience points that you share with your partner and, once you level up, you’ll choose one of three upgrades at random. This can be leveling up your weapon, which may increase attack damage, increase the amount of hits at once, or increase the hit area. You can also boost your character, too, by upgrading their movement speed, adding more hit points, or increasing their defense.
Defeating mini bosses will give you a chest that upgrades two of your items at random. In other words, the longer you survive, the stronger you get. Although, that doesn’t necessarily mean the game is any easier.
First, each level has its own environmental obstacles, such as thorns in the forest, slippery ice terrain, or lava walls closing in on you. Second, you and your co-op friend need to coordinate and communicate.
I played a few rounds with my sister, and she and I struggled at first. When you get too close to each other, the vine will push you apart. Likewise, if you get too far away, the vine will snap you closer. Once the two of us got the hang of it, we could get through a couple of levels together, but not without a solid challenge.
I also played through the game solo. Your partner is an NPC that you can control with the other Joy-Con stick, essentially acting like a twin-stick shooter. The NPC doesn’t have health and can go through enemies and other hazards. So, I focused on having them collect all the experience points while I worried about dodging enemies. Believe it or not, that didn’t make the game any easier. It still took me a long time just to get through the first stage.
Vinebound: Tangled Together is a fun survival game that’s challenging whether you play solo or with a friend. The replayability is strong, too, where you can unlock more playable characters, more weapons, and try to beat your previous time record. Plus, one round doesn’t take long to play, so it’s easy to pick it up on the go. I can certainly see myself going back to this title from time to time.
