Bait and Switch
It ain't over till it's over. Or, in the case of a worm on the end of a fishing line, it ain't over as long as you've got your gun. No worm is getting swallowed in Bait and Switch, a better-than-fishing-sims shooter by Piponga. In order to survive wave after wave of aquatic predators, use your mouse to aim and shoot, and [Z], [X], and [C] for special abilities. Bait and Switch is certainly not an avoidance game – you're dropped in the middle of the screen on your little hook, and you can only aim left or right, but you can't move, and when a particularly numerous wave of hungry fish is bearing down on you, let me tell you, it's scary.
Good thing you can buy upgrades! Apart from the standard weapon and health bar upgrades, there are special powers that you can use when the going gets tough. These slow the fish down or deal damage over time and take a few seconds to recharge, so use them wisely. They can be a real life-saver when your weapon is reloading, since (unfortunately) there is no manual reload option. If you die, you don't get to keep the money you managed to earn in that level, which might be a stumbling block, but a change in the upgrades strategy usually gets you over the hump. As far as quirky shooters go, Bait and Switch is an entertaining little diversion, cute and kickass at the same time. Just remember, next time you go fishing, if your worm is carrying a tiny semi-automatic, back away slowly and buy your fish at a supermarket.
I don't know if other folks are having the same issue, but when I die, all upgrades I bought immediately before the level I died in are no longer there, and I have the exact same amount of money to spend as before the level I died in...
Very frustrating...
@ joe.alcorn
Yeah, I mentioned that in the review - when you die, you simply restart that level. It can be a little frustrating, but as I said, a change of tactics when buying upgrades usually does the trick.
Too many ad interruptions!
I agree about the ads, they come way too often. The other thing i really don't like is you can paint yourself into a corner since you can't redistribute your cash in future levels once you buy something. I got stuck on a few levels because of this.
There will come a day when I buy myself one of those fancy non-EU-keyboards with the z located nicely next to the x. Until then all the fish are going to live and I write petitions to gamedevelopers to use ASD instead of ZXC...
@ KMB
The best I can suggest is to change your computer's language. It sucks, but as someone who constantly switches between English and French keyboards, I feel your pain :).
Stopped playing after level 4 because I have to sit through 30 seconds of ad after each level (it's not even a good ad...it's a static screen that looks like a price-comparison survey about cat food). The game seems decent, but interrupting it for ads so often is excessive and user-hostile.
@KMB, add the english keyboard layout than switch with CTRL-SHIFT-2 when playing (revert with CTRL-SHIFT-1) :)
Quit because of the ads. From the other comments, I figured it wasn't really worth my time anyways.
Agreeing with everything that's been said. WAY too many ads, and I've gotten completely stuck and can't continue because:
- I took interesting looking upgrades that turned out to be useless. But I'm stuck with them.
- I went from "no damage" to "unable to survive the first 30 seconds" over the course of two levels due to a massive difficulty spike I didn't know was coming.
This is one of those games that I'd love to figure out an good upgrade pattern for, but it would require far too many restarts.
Quit because of the ads.
I'm not above giving developers their due, but I also believe that the pain should be comparable to the joy, and this game is NOT good enough to warrant 30 seconds of unskipable ads every time you complete a level or die.
If you read these comments before you play...don't play the game. I suggest a boycott. They went too far.
I had no problem with ads -- have ad-aware installed.
@argyblarg: You're right on the difficulty, if you do get a bad build.
What everyone needs to know is once you hit x level, your past gun will become useless even if you fully upgraded it.
They power ups are really useful and can be a life saver, but you do have to ignore them sometimes just to get that better weapon.
While i generally like this genre, I must say this was one of the worse examples I've tried in a very long time. There were way too many ads for me to enjoy the game and even the game mechanics themselves were lacking; the money reverting back is annoying but understandable but things like not being able to reload and how the skill mechanics worked were just plain out bad.
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