This is a game I was invited to try thanks to Lurkit, and is the first ever streamed game from my Switch (a nice mile stone to remember). You can see my first play here.

So what is WARSHEMALLOWS? (trust me once you have heard the catchy 90’s/action/metal way they say the name of the game it gets stuck in your head and you hear it every time you read it!).

WARSHEMALLOWS is chaos!

As someone who doesn’t have a lot of experience with Switch games or Nintendo games (I was a Sega kid, deal with it) this basically feels like Super Smash bros, except with guns, marshmallows and birds that inexplicable lay HUGE eggs when its down to sudden death.

As part of writing this review I looked into why this is ‘the new era’ when WARSHEMALLOWS has been out on PC since May 2019. I think the new era is genuinely just down to the fact is has been released on the Switch, Epic & Steam and given crossplay with some new maps/guns etc.

Apparently you are in a war over the championship of the universe and… golden donuts. This is never really explained. Like Smash Bros you know its just Nintendo characters beating the shit out of each other – no plot needed. But why…. Marshmallows? Why?

You get thrown in fairly rapidly and I did initially accidentally skip the tutorial as I was getting reacquainted with the little Switch controllers (yes I play with with a Joy-Con in each hand, I do not recommend that approach). Once I completed the tutorial I felt a bit more prepared to enter the wild, but was still (for the most part) hugely out played and lost very quickly in the first few rounds.

As winners were announced in rapid succession I finally won my first round by being last man standing, which I think was sheer luck more than skill. In al the all V all 4 player combat with the first to 5 as the winner it did seriously drag out, especially when in my first ever match I manage to get 3 wins – which dragged my first match to 15 round before a winner was declared.

I say dragged, because when the first of two ‘match point’ rounds were announced I was ready to have a break. I was done because it got kinda old kinda fast. Myself (and the stream) just felt like it went on way too long for a single match. It seemed winning was more luck than skill and the zoom in special bullet time things just served to slow down the game even more in a really intrusive way.

I think I would enjoy this more as a local game but in order to do that you still need to be able to take it online to play (yes, really) so the week free trial I got for Switch online to review this game means I had a very finite window to replay it before having to make the decision to take my Switch online.

Now I appreciate this is a minor gripe but I have had my Switch 3+ years and we have managed fine having it as local console and not needed to take it online for games. So I have to ask myself, is this game worth paying the online sub for Nintendo? No, it isn’t – and that instantly renders it unplayable which is a massive shame (as I initially tried to play it without an online sub can you can’t get past the first splash screen).

I got some fun out of it, but not enough to pick it up and go back for more in order to unlock any of the other maps/guns etc.

Shiney rating
2 paws out of 5
It has an unusual spin on an established game type but it doesn’t mean that is it done well. Its just okay.
If you already have a Switch sub then get this game on sale if you like things like Mario Bros (or pick it up on Steam/Epic). I think its main fun is to be found with local co-op which shouldn’t require an online sub for the Switch but sadly this game does and it doesn’t justify or deserve the extra paywall. Matches last too long and the bullet time is intrusive and slows gameplay which is more luck based than skill.