Review: Maneater (Nintendo Switch)
For the full lowdown on Maneater’s story and gameplay please take a few minutes to read the Playstation 5 review by Chris, where I agree with most of the main points that he makes…although I managed not to say out loud “om nom nom nom” every time the shark munched on something, and I also think I enjoyed it more than Chris did. The repetitiveness of the missions didn’t bore me and I absolutely loved playing as a shark…something which stems from my obsession with the movie Jaws when I first saw it at the cinema way back in the ’70s.
So, how does Maneater play on the Nintendo Switch?
Well it is obviously going to be a downgrade as far as graphics are concerned from the PS5 version that Chris played, though not so much so that it didn’t impress me at times. Realtime reflections on the surface of the water and a vibrant colour palette drew me into the game world and I was never struggling to make out what was happening as I swam through the waters.
There is some noticeable pop-up when certain objects appear onscreen, but mostly your eyes are distracted by other main events that are happening for it to become too distracting.
The frame rate can become erratic when too much is happening at once, specifically when being attacked by multiple boats and you’re dodging around fast to avoid the gunfire, but seeing as this is a new Switch release I’m hoping for a patch before too long to smooth those heavy action sections out a little.
When leaping onto dry land to chomp down on some unsuspecting humans they can look a little “odd”, with the modelling of them not too detailed and the character animations sometimes displaying the occasional weird glitch in both the way that they move as well as some visual anomalies. Again, something that I hope will be patched out soon.
If you’ve read any other of my Nintendo Switch game reviews (thank you!) you’ll know that I predominantly play in handheld mode, but for this I thought I’d also have a quick look into how it fared while docked and on my 75″ screen.
The gameplay was of course just the same, but the aforementioned glitches were more noticeable and off putting. In handheld mode everything was just that little bit more crisp for me with it all being pared down onto a smaller screen. Anyway, the ability to play games wherever I am is the big strength of the Switch for me, and the fact that I can play Maneater whenever and wherever I am is a huge plus that far outweighs playing the games on a big screen.
Thanks to Chris getting me a Hori Split Pad Pro for my Birthday last year (treat yourself to one from the Amazon links on our website…hint hint) my handheld Switch gaming has been revolutionised.
Whereas I still had the same issues as Chris regarding the repetitiveness of some of the controls (specifically the “chomp chomp chomp” nature of the gameplay), the Hori Split Pad Pro at least made it that bit more comfortable.
I doubt I could have played for such long periods of time using the standard Switch joy-cons and my hands would have cramped up after eating a belly full of fish and humans.
Maneater though is a game that doesn’t require large periods of gaming time, especially when played on the Switch that can be whipped out anytime. A quick 10 minute session building up your stats and clearing a little part of another area on the map can be just as rewarding as spending a larger amount of time completing missions.
Maneater on the Switch is just the same game as it is on the other platforms apart from the expected graphical downgrade, which again might hopefully see a few tweaks incoming soon with a patch to smooth things out.
If you have the game already on another system and enjoyed it, then this is a fantastic version to carry around with you wherever you are, and if you haven’t yet played it (or don’t own any of the other systems) then this is a very enjoyable version to dip your virtual toes into.
Maneater is available to buy now on Nintendo Switch.
Review by Dave from a code kindly supplied by Tripwire Interactive.