Are you ready to conquer a new alien planet on Nintendo Switch as you ride a giant walker mech? Then check out our BE-A Walker review!

 

In BE-A Walker from Tequilabyte Studio and SONKA, you will get to do exactly what the game is telling you you’ll do: be a walker! You’ll play as part of a colonization expedition that will take you into the alien world of Eldorado. You will ride the Biped Enhanced Assault Walker (BE-A Walker) as you take on the savages who are doing their best to defeat the invading human forces. Sure, they might only be using arrows to attack you, but they’re heavy ones that can pierce through the armor of human soldiers, as well as deal considerable damage to walkers once they found their weak spots.

 

Your adventure beings as you take on a short prologue story section that acts as the game’s tutorial, teaching you the gameplay basics so that you don’t go into the main game blind. As for the story side of the prologue, you’ll be playing as your brother, a brave warrior who gave it all, even when his walker was immobilized by the savages, up until one spear manages to enter his cockpit, killing him. After this, you will state the game proper five years in the future, as you step into your brother’s shoes to carry on with what he started.

 

You’ll walk forward with the left analog stick as you tilt your walker, lifting one leg after the other by pressing the ZL button. There’s also the option of activating an automatic mode by pressing in on the left analog stick so that you only need to tilt your walker forward or backward as needed, and I do recommend that you give this mode a go for most of your time with BE-A Walker… except for when you will need a bit more control over your legs so that you can crush any opponents foolish enough to stand on your path.

You can fire your weapons with the L, R, and ZR buttons, switching energy modes for your walkers… walking by pressing the Y button – each energy mode offers different pros and cons you’ll need to evaluate. Each of your weapons will have a cooldown period after using them, so be sure to make every shot count! You’ll be aiming your attacks with the right analog stick, as you try to defeat as many of the savages as possible. You see, the savages are bad since they’re mad about the whole invasion thing, so they‘re trying to attack the colony’s settlement, and you can’t allow that, right? Or maybe you’re not one for eradicating those that live on the alien world that is being invaded and might want to side with them and see that they defend their homeland.

 

You can’t just take your time as you walk from point A to point B in BE-A Walker, because you only have a limited amount of oxygen in your walker. The air of Eldorado is poisonous for humans, so if you run out of oxygen… well, you can probably see where this is going. You need to be careful as you explore and patrol each area because if your walker is damaged, you might end up with an oxygen leak, which will greatly reduce how long your oxygen supply is going to last. You will soon gain access to droids, which can be called upon while out on a mission to repair your walker’s damage or to provide some extra oxygen. I suggest you buy some extra single-use drones for oxygen for the first handful of missions you take on, since that extra bit of oxygen will make a huge difference!

During the tutorial, you will get to control your brother’s fully decked-out walker, but once you start the main game, you will end up controlling a stock walker, which means you’ll have to take on different sections as you try to survive for long enough to get to a station where you can replenish your oxygen supply, as well as purchase additional weapons and upgrades for your walker. Since, as I mentioned before, weapons will have a cooldown period, having a fully loaded walker with different weapons at your disposal will certainly help your odds of survival.

As you complete each mission, you’ll get to learn how long it took you to complete it, how many enemies you killed, the percentage of damage your walker received, as well as what your reward is for all of your trouble. Along with buying new weapons, you will then use the credits in your account to purchase things such as an improved armor for your walker (more hit points), better air filters (more oxygen), or to upgrade your cooling system (shorter cooldown period for your weapons). The catch is that before you can purchase new weapons or research upgrades for your walker, you will first need to spend the required credits for repairing it.

 

I was pleasantly surprised by BE-A-Walker on Nintendo Switch. It offers fun gameplay mechanics and an addictive gameplay loop that will have you playing for longer sessions as you try to take on “just one more mission” before you go. While the game could nowadays be summed up as a 2D walking simulator but with a mech, the game is more than that, since you’ll need to plan for a mission, balancing the upgrades you get for your walker with how many credits you leave in your account for repairs and drone purchases, so that you can survive not only the next mission you’ll take on but also the one after it. BE-A Walker is out on Nintendo Switch for $9.99.

Disclaimer
This BE-A Walker review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by SONKA.