Gotta Protectors: Cart of Darkness

Gotta Protectors is a sleeper hit that offers a delightful mix of retro aesthetics and action/strategy gameplay unlike anything else.

Impressive efforts with a few noticeable problems holding them back. Won't astound everyone, but is worth your time and cash.

The blend of all-out action, deep strategy, and Ancient's irreverent humour is as enjoyable as ever here, and smashing a huge castle-tank into evil things never stops being fun. Gotta Protectors: Cart of Darkness plays its story for laughs but the game itself is an expertly crafted challenge with lots to do and plenty more to keep coming back for.

It’s a refreshingly light-hearted experience, but one with plenty of depth to enjoy over the long term — particularly if you can either bring some friends along to play it in local multiplayer, or can recruit some buddies to play online. It absolutely deserves to be in everyone’s Switch library — so if you’re yet to enjoy it for yourself, pick it up this weekend and have a chaotic fun time defending the righteous princess from the totally bodacious dudes who seek to cause havoc in the kingdom.

Thankfully, with online and local options, those with friends and the game should be able to get that done with little hassle, and if you don’t mind lengthy stage gauntlets without the option to pause and pick it back up later, then this is a super fun tower defense that’ll keep you busy for a long while. Unfortunately for me, I found myself preferring the 3DS one just a bit more, as that felt far better for pick up and play purposes and seemed to be made with solo play in mind, unlike Cart of Darkness.

Gotta Protectors: Cart of Darkness is a pleasant surprise and one of the best games released for the Switch this year. Its unique combination of tower defense and frantic action is nothing short of addicting and the great amount of content here present makes it a title to play over many weeks, months and even years. Adding online multiplayer and a heftier campaign are only the cherry on top of a cake that offers the right amount of nostalgia and novelty. Recommended.

In so many ways, Gotta Protectors: Cart of Darkness is a frenetic, baffling, exhausting, draining experience. But, somehow, that’s not a criticism? You’ll come away feeling like you got hit by a train, but in a really positive, memorable way.

Gotta Protectors: Cart of Darkness is an enjoyable and original concept, with an absurdly lavish localisation that perfectly translates the game’s goofy sense of humour. It’s righteous and riotous fun.

undefined.Gotta Protectors: Cart of Darkness is a delightfully unique twist on old-school retro brawlers that does enough to keep repetitive gameplay fresh enough, especially if you have friends to play with locally or online. It has a ton of content and a wild number of endearing collectables that should supply you (and hopefully your friends) with enough retro love letter magic to carry you right back in time to the 1980s and 1990s styles it evokes so wonderfully.

Your mileage will likely vary when it comes to Cart of Darkness. It comes up short in being addicting and is a bit too shallow to truly shine as a great experience. But if you’re willing to turn off your brain and want to just bash legions of baddies, there’s a good deal of entertainment to be had.