This game was originally covered as part of our Nindie Round Up series that sought to give coverage to a wider breadth of Switch eShop games beyond our standard reviews. In an effort to make our impressions easier to find, we're presenting the original text below in our mini-review format.

Solstice Chronicles: MIA is a twin-stick shooter RPG with ambitious visuals and plot, and gameplay that can be a tiny bit shallow. The premise takes a few cues from popular AAA shooters of the past few decades, such as its Mars-based setting straight out of DOOM and its robot companion, Saffron, reminiscent of AI helpers in both the Halo and Destiny series. The plot is pretty standard, with a huge invasion of mutant creatures overtaking the planet, leaving our lone hero as the only survivor. The marine’s dialogue is a tad clunky and his line delivery generally below average, but our AI friend Saffron has a healthy infusion of sass and a better delivery that lets the dialogue scenes breathe more naturally.

Solstice Chronicles: MIA gives you the option of four classes before stripping you of your equipment at the beginning, Samus Aran-style. The four classes – Assault, Demolition, Hellfire, and Terminator – introduce the RPG elements, allowing you to upgrade your gear between levels. The first two are a little dull, but the flamethrower-wielding Hellfire and the self-destructing Terminator provide some really unique ways to play.

Saffron also plays a big part in gameplay, with options for her to use a bomb, taunt enemies to distract, block their attacks, and scout ahead to scope out the oncoming wave. The level of progression isn’t quite as extensive as we would’ve liked, which is a shame; the classes seem promising, but the skill trees are a tad limited. Enemies will appear according to your threat meter at the top of the screen, which will indicate how many are en route.

The main issue is that making it to scripted events being the main goal somewhat nullifies the incentive to fight most enemies, in addition to ammo being so generously distributed. Thus, the game becomes a race to the finish and doesn’t encourage a huge amount of exploring. The control is fine, but kills don’t always feel super satisfying, even with the melee attack, with both gunfire and hard hits lacking the ‘oomph’ to make them cathartically pleasing.

Solstice Chronicles: MIA opts for a pretty ambitious, AAA-style of storytelling, with fully-rendered 3D cutscenes and voice acting to recount its exposition. This doesn’t always hit the mark; the aforementioned scenes are fine, but more reminiscent of last-generation graphics, rather than pushing the Switch to its limit. The top-down perspective for the main gameplay segments works well, but again, a slightly more zoomed-in approach might’ve been more welcome.

In review, Solstice Chronicles: MIA is a mixed bag. The dialogue is actually well-written and both the aesthetic and gameplay are more than passable, but there is a feeling that with a little bit more attention, it could be even better. Still, we can only review games based on what they are, not what they could be. Solstice Chronicles can still provide a good time for anyone looking for some two-stick shooting RPG chaos; it has some admirable intentions but doesn’t always stick the landing.