Eufloria HD from QubicGames and Omni Systems Limited is a real-time strategy game that has now landed on Nintendo Switch. Learn more in our Eufloria HD review!

 

Eufloria HD from QubicGames and Omni Systems Limited is a real-time strategy game that has now landed on Nintendo Switch. It was previously released over a decade ago on PlayStation 3 way back in 2011, and it’s now getting a new chance to shine on Nintendo’s console. You’ll be exploring space as you grow your colony by conquering asteroids and using the different resources that they possess to be able to grow and nurture semi-organic plants and creatures that you’ll be able to control as you try to defeat the AI enemies.

The game can be played in Story Mode, which is the main component, offering 25 levels with many hours of content to enjoy. You’ll learn all of the basics by playing through this option. There’s also the option of dialing back the difficulty by playing in Relaxed Mode for a more chill ambient strategy experience. While locked at first, you can go into the options menu and unlock both Skirmish Arenas and Dark Matter Mode right away. Skirmish Arenas will allow you to play scenarios over and over. As for Dark Matter Mode, it increases the difficulty by boosting the overall challenge.

 

The game can be controlled either with the Nintendo Switch Joy-Con, the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, or by using the console’s touchscreen when playing in Portable or Tabletop Mode, or when playing on a Nintendo Switch Lite. When using physical controller inputs, you can pan your view with the left analog stick, zooming in and out with the ZL and ZR buttons. You can check out other asteroids with the right analog stick, but how far ahead you can see will be dictated by the size of your colony.

To make an asteroid become part of your colony, you’ll need to have a tree on said asteroid. Your seedlings can be sent to other asteroids. Select an asteroid with the A button and then pick its target with the left analog stick. To adjust the number of seedlings, use the right analog stick and then confirm with the A button. You can even be more selective and pick if you want to only send seedlings that have high health, strength, or speed – more on these stats in a bit.

To grow new seedlings, you’re going to need to have Dyson Trees. To plant a Dyson Tree, just press the X button once you have 10 seedlings to spend on it. You’ll need to plan your strategy because Dyson Trees won’t be able to shed new seedlings on an asteroid that is already populated by more than 40 seedlings. To expand your colony, you must, therefore, always be looking for new asteroids to colonize to expand your control by planting a new Dyson Tree to keep the cycle going.

 

Once you’ve explored an asteroid, you can select it with the right analog stick, and you’ll see a black line show up that is linked to the info panel at the bottom of the screen that lets you know the asteroids name, energy, strength, speed, trees, seedlings, and enemies. The aforementioned stats will determine the attributes of their seedlings. Energy will affect the health and ability of seedlings to sap the asteroid core. Strength will determine their attack power. Speed will allow seedlings to travel faster and make it easier for them to avoid enemy defenses.

To keep the cycle going, you’ll also have to plant Defense Trees on asteroids to be able to defend against the attack of seedling enemies. Defense Trees will release explosive pods that will follow enemy seedlings to damage them and make them go boom. As is the case for Dyson Trees, you’ll need to spend 10 seedlings to plant a Defense Tree by pressing the Y button. Defense Trees have a high defense, but they can still be harmed by enemy seedlings with a high enough strength stat. If a Dyson Tree produces a flower, you can pluck it and place it on a Defense Tree to have it produce laser pods that will attack enemies at a fast pace. Flowers can also be planted on a Dyson Tree to have it produce enhanced seedlings. There are also Beacon Plants that allow you to automatically send newly grown seedlings to other asteroids so that you speed things up.

 

And then, there are Terraform Trees. Terraform Trees allow you to boost one of the resources on an asteroid. Once you spend 10 seedlings to plant a Terraform Tree, you can use up to 100 seedlings to modify the resource for said asteroid. Once you select the Terraform Tree icon and plant it, you can use the attribute sliders on the info panel to allocate seedlings to an attribute. Once you’re happy with your selection, confirm it to start terraforming up to 100 seedlings in total!

Eufloria HD includes an in-game achievements system. You’ll be working on unlocking achievements for completing the game’s Story Mode in under ten hours, for beating the main game, for completing Dark Matter Mode, finding over 700 of the lost seedlings in the game, discovering an asteroid by using a flower or a mine, gather 10 flowers on an asteroid, continuously defend one of your asteroids for five minutes, record all of the Ancient Artifacts, or terraform an asteroid to maximum resources.

Eufloria HD is a solid take on the real-time strategy game that will feel welcoming to those new to genre, thanks to its Story Mode having a great tutorial segment that will teach you all the basics before the difficulty is dialed up a bit. And if you feel like that is too much, you can always go into Relaxed Mode for a more chill experience… or bump up the challenge with Dark Matter Mode. Eufloria HD is out on Nintendo Switch with a $9.99 asking price.

Disclaimer
This Eufloria HD review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by QubicGames.