Steampunk turn-based strategy game Ironcast will be coming to the Nintendo Switch in the summer of 2017.
Ironcast is set in an alternate 19th century Victorian timeline, where an extended war between the forces of Britain and France has led to the creation of seven-foot tall steampunk warmachines known as Ironcast. Your role, as a Commander of the Consortium of Merit is to use your Ironcast to defend against the invading French warmachines and cast them back across the channel.
Combat is undertaken through a match-three style system reminiscent of the Puzzle Quest series, with the elimination of colour-based "resource nodes" driving the strengths of your Ironcast. Within the game, the choice of these nodes can be defensive or offensive, and players will be expected to choose carefully, to account for incoming fire or take advantage of an opponent's weakness. Successful missions will grant players the chance to repair their Ironcast mech, and provide new upgrades to improve their performance.
With strong rogue-like elements, developer Dreadbit promise that no two games will ever be the same - thanks to a series of randomly generated missions. and while the death of your Ironcast is permanent, rewards gained during each campaign are persistent, and will ensure a constant stream of improvement over the course of gameplay.
Ironcast is a previous Kickstarter success, with £10,183 being successfully raised in October of 2014. It has been previously released on Valve's Steam platform for PC, Linux, and Mac OS X, on the Ps4, and on the Xbox One. This will be the first time that Ironcast has come to a portable device. A Twitch stream is available of the announcement, and can be found here.
Quick Take
Games such as Ironcast will most likely be a success on the Switch, with a quasi-casual style of gameplay paired with persistent rewards and lengthy game lifespan. Various critics have been crying out for a portable box that allows them to play indie games on the move - and it seems the Switch may be shaping up to be that platform.
