Defeated enemies regularly drop power-ups that temporarily increase your firepower, immobilize all enemies on-screen, or boost your movement speed.

Unlike something like Smash TV where all the action happens inside a single-screen room, the stages of Assault Android Cactus+ provide moments of both being claustrophobically pressed into a corner and frantically running down narrow paths, around pillars, and across shifting platforms.

Each of the 25 stages lasts only a matter of minutes, and many have unique designs that constantly change the playing field. Twin-stick shooters live and die by how well they play and how fun their inherent repetition is, and fortunately Assault Android Cactus+ has a very satisfying hook to it. You unlock new androids up to a total of 9, and each has a different primary and also secondary weapon, with the latter able to deal heavy damage but unable to be spammed repeatedly. As you take down enemies, you acquire energy that improves the capability of your primary weapon, which includes machine guns, seeker shots, spread shots, and shotguns. Assault Android Cactus+ calls to mind classics like Smash TV and Robotron 2084, but here each stage features new layouts and mechanics that add variety to the basic objective of killing everything that comes at you. In true arcade fashion, the primary gameplay centers on running around compact stages obliterating the onslaught of mechanized minions hellbent on destroying you. With plenty of unlockables and a heavy focus on competing for high scores across a variety of online leaderboards, Assault Android Cactus+ makes a great first impression. Originally, it released on PC in 2015, but the Switch version features a new Campaign+ mode that remixes the stages of the base Campaign. You do in fact control an android police officer named Cactus and assault waves of machines intent on doing you harm. You’d be forgiven for thinking that the title of twin-stick shooter Assault Android Cactus+ wasn’t just randomly generated by a computer.

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