Q-YO Blaster

Q-YO Blaster is a great little tribute to Parodius, filled with inventive enemies and brilliantly designed boss battles. Its gameplay is solid and addictive with a beautiful art-style reminiscent in places of the mighty Cuphead. It's short and sweet for sure, but it's got lots of replayability and is perfect for whipping out for a quick blast on quick journeys and, all in all, is yet another cracking addition to the Switch's ever-growing roster of top quality shmups.

Q-YO Blaster is a very fun little shmup that I’ve put a lot more time into than I thought I would. It’s addictive and pretty, even if it’s clearly copied a bit too much from Cuphead. The “story” is a little baffling in its execution but in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t matter as I doubt you’ll be playing it for a deep and enthralling narrative. The gameplay was tight and enjoyable, with some nice little nuances which are all that matters in this genre really. Also, I was impressed with the fact there’s a lot of characters, powers and replayability, all for the low price of £8.99 on the Nintendo eShop – you can’t fault it for the amount of entertainment you get.

For those who must own every shoot 'em up on Switch, Q-YO Blaster is worth downloading even with its middle-of-the-road gameplay.

Let's face it, there are simply a ton of shmups on the Switch and they come in all shapes and sizes...

Q-YO Blaster has got its heart in the right place, but it doesn't quite have the follow-through to stand out amongst the greats. It's art style is both its greatest strength and biggest weakness, and it's short length means it doesn't really have much staying power.