Clone Drone in the Danger Zone Switch Review

Clone Drone in the Danger Zone is one of those indie darlings that popped up out of nowhere and created a large cult following on the PC scene. Since then, the title has made its way to the Nintendo Switch, and along with it, lots of bizarre, clunky, and addictive action.

So does this indie brawler belong on your Switch console? Or does this one need to stay over on Steam Early Access? Let’s find out!

There are multiple games modes in Clone Drone in the Danger Zone, but I am going to start off with the Story Mode, as it is genuinely good fun and has some roguelike elements about it. You spawn as a random human inside a robot, and you serve as entertainment for the other sentient robots who are basically making a mockery of human beings. You are tasked with fighting through waves of enemies until you fight a boss, and then it just continues going from there.

The commentary is excellent and genuinely hilarious. There are a lot of lines that show favoritism towards certain human minds implanted in robots than others, and it is funny listening to the difference in feelings towards your different spawns.

Oh, the roguelike element. Right. So death restarts the rounds, and you will respawn as a new human in a new robot and try again from Round 1. This may come off as a bit annoying initially, but like I said, the commentary and different directions on the skill tree mix things up pretty well and help to make each single player game to feel fresh and new. Basically, they put together a really fun and unique idea to make sense of the respawning without interrupting the story, and it is quite interesting, especially when trying to make sense of the robots controlling everything. It it a simple story but very effective, and it is a riot listening to the robotic voices give their opinions on things.

In regards to game modes, there are three single player modes: Story Mode, Endless Mode, and Challenges. Overall, this is a difficult game that takes a lot of time to develop skills. For me, learning how to dash/jump/jetpack to give me advantage over certain enemy types took a lot of getting used to. Since the combat is pretty stiff, too, perfecting your movement and lining up your attacks is key to successful gameplay.

As for multiplayer, there are four modes: Endless Co-op, Co-op Challenges, Last Bot Standing, and Private Duels. As much fun as the single player options are, the game really shines in its online multiplayer. The cooperative modes are significantly more difficult than the single player, and it is a ton of fun working together with other people to tackle the waves of enemy robots. The battle modes, though, are genuinely fantastic! Last Bot Standing and Private Duels will test your skills to the max, and they will most likely expose your weaknesses that you may need to go back to Single Player and work on.

The nice thing about it all is that there is no clear disadvantage. Whatever skill branches you decide to go down will give you certain advantages, but each branch gives you strong abilities that will be beneficial in the arenas. At the end of the day, your success in battling ultimately comes down to the amount of practice you put into the game and how much you perfect the skills of certain branch lines.

Clone Drone in the Danger Zone looks great as well. The art design is simple yet effective, and the fact that the whole world is robotic makes things look even more natural, despite the blocky graphics. The designs of certain enemies, particularly the bigger ones like spiders and hammer robots, are awesome and give a real sense of danger upon first view. I also like the small touch ups on your human robot’s design, as it slightly changes with each passing human.

The voice acting from the commentators is one of the highlights of the game for me. There is some high quality banter and hilarious lines that are executed wonderfully, and this is one of the first times I have played a game where the commentary did not annoy me after a few rounds of play. Quite the contrary, I enjoyed pretty much every moment.

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The soundtrack is also a lot of fun, as the EDM and rock-fused songs really drive an intensity to the arena as you swing your sword or hammer around trying to take out enemy robots. The music really does compliment the look and feel of the game really well, and I can only say that I wish the soundtrack was a bit more varying, as you do hear the same songs quite regularly.

Clone Drone in the Danger Zone is an excellent experience overall. The only flaws I can really point out are the occasional long load times, the stiffness of the combat, and the difficulty curve, but other than those, this is a solid experience that most anybody can jump into and enjoy. Sure, your hardcore crowd will benefit most from his type of game, as has been the case since its inception, but this is a wonderful addition to anyone’s Switch library for both its single player and multiplayer options.

As someone who normally gravitates towards the single player experience, I have to say that Clone Drone in the Danger Zone is some of the best multiplayer fun I have had in years. So man up, human, and take down the robots who think they are better than us.

Clone Drone in the Danger Zone Review provided by Nintendo Link
Publisher: Doborog Games
Developer: Doborog Games
Release Date: July 27, 2021
Price: $19.99, £19.99, €19,99
Game Size: 881MB