ION Shift is the latest Nintendo Switch release from the ever-prolific indie publisher Flynn’s Arcade, on whose announcement we previously reported.
Developed by Electro Soul Games, ION Shift was originally released on Steam last year, where it has garnered a smattering of “very positive” reviews, and now, thanks to Flynn’s Arcade, the game will be shifting over to Nintendo Switch next week, on Thursday 31st July 2025, and we’ve managed to stealthily secure a copy in advance of its release, to bring you this review,
ION Shift is something of a departure from other Flynn’s Arcade games we’ve reviewed recently, such as Flora & Fang and Freddy Farmer, both of which drew their inspiration from the single-screen arcade platform games of the 1980s.
ION Shift is a very different proposition altogether, being a stealth-based 2D platformer that feels like it could’ve come from the tail end of the 16-bit era, or, perhaps more likely, the early 32-bit era.
One thing that ION Shift accomplishes masterfully is creating an atmosphere of tension and dread. It achieves this in part thanks to its graphics, which depict claustrophobic ducts on a spaceship that are bursting with peril, thanks to imposing soldiers that are all looking to put an end to you and your unwelcome exploration.
In ION Shift, you assume the role of a sleek and slippery alien who’s invaded a spaceship, and your sole aim is to explore the ship and not get killed while doing so. Sounds easy, right? It really, really isn’t! With ever-alert soldiers, Super Meat Boy-esque spiked wheels and even ceiling mounted gun turrets all looking to put a (permanent) stop to your exploation, it’s all too easy to get killed in ION Shift, and when you are killed, you’re greeted with the eerily blunt message “you are dead.” The game also keeps track of how many kills you’ve made, and how many times you’ve been killed. ION Shift isn’t an easy game, and great precision is required to survive, with one wrong move resulting in your death, which means that it’s very likely that the latter figure will be higher than the former, but this is part of what makes ION Shift so addictive, as you keep playing to try to survive that bit longer and get that bit further along in the spaceship, hopefully disposing of a few more soldiers along the way. Publisher Flynn’s Arcade describes ION Shift as a “hardcore 2D platformer,” and they’re not wrong, this one is neither for newcomers to the genre nor for the faint of heart!
Each screen in ION Shift plays like a fiendishly designed puzzle of its own, as you figure out how to advance to the next section without getting killed. The controls in ION Shift are slightly unusual too, the left stick controls your alien, as you might expect, climbing the walls and scuttling across ceilings, but to aim the direction of travel of your alien you use the right stick, using ZL to launch yourself, or to propel yourself through shafts, and ZR is the dash and attack button, again, after using the right stick to aim yourself at your prey or target location. The kills in ION Shift are pleasingly grisly, with a spurt of crimson red blood, and a satisfyingly unpleasant squelching sound. The squeamish can switch the blood off if necessary. That said, if your are squeamish, then maybe ION Shift isn’t the game for you, with its pervasive sense of dread and claustrophobia, ION Shift really isn’t a game for the faint of heart, whether or not there’s a bit of blood splattering about the place.
All in all, ION Shift is a hard as nails, incredibly atmospheric, slightly quirky sci-fi platformer that seems to draw inspiration from the Alien franchise and from the Metroid series of games, resulting in an addictive, unusual 2D action platforming experience. If the idea of a sci-fi and stealth-based platform game appeals to you, then ION Shift really is a must-buy. It’ll certainly keep you occupied for a good while, offering scarily good value for its bargain price, as we’ve come to expect from the carefully curated indie retro picks of Flynn’s Arcade! ION Shift will stealthily scuttle onto the Nintendo Store from July 31st, 2025, for the bargain price of just $5.99 (or local equivalent).
