Tesla vs Lovecraft

With a name like Tesla vs Lovecraft, you're expecting a certain tone here. This is not a serious shooter; right from the outset it aims for ‘insane’ and works from there. The nutty premise alone tells you what to expect here — Tesla vs Lovecraft is a solid, fun arcade shooter, nothing more, nothing less. The fact that it simply feels good to play on the Switch is a welcome bonus.

Being a fairly straightforward twin-stick shooter. You take control of Tesla, running around a collection of compact stages, tasked with killing everything that moves.

As you run and gun down enemies, more will quickly spawn out of various portals dotted around the horror-themed levels. You’ll need to be quick, dodging these ‘eldritch’ hordes as they come at you, wave after wave. In fact, your movement is key to success, and thankfully Tesla has one trick up his sleeve here to help: teleportation.

You’re able to pull off three quick dashes to get out of danger, before a recharge is needed. Combined with his mech, guns and limited use weapons such as static clouds of death and gigantic circular discs of doom, that alone would make Tesla a formidable threat to any danger from beyond the stars. It’s also not the only trump card he has, as Tesla is able to turn kills into skills. Alongside traditional weaponry like pistols and machine guns, there are sci-fi variants like the Tesla repeater and Gauss rifle. Special inventions are powerful abilities with finite charges, each one a piece of mad scientist tech, like energy swords and plasma bombs.

Annihilate enough of the star-spawn’s children, and you’ll quickly unlock perks which allow you to add more flavour to your weapons. Want more charges for your special weapons? There’s a perk that for that. Want to strike your enemies with divine thunderbolts every few seconds? There’s a perk for that. Want to arm your Gauss rifle with the ability to shoot off multiple projectiles that ricochet along walls and have a 50% chance of piercing the hide of Cthulu’s children? You’d better believe that there are perks available for that specific list of actions that you’re craving.

From Jydge to Crimsonlands to Time Recoil, 10tons churns out plenty of games within that genre, the majority of which are solid diversions that boast core gameplay mechanics and simple visuals. Tesla vs Lovecraft is another example of 10tons doing what they do best