RICO Critic Reviews

If you’re a fan of either the Borderlands or Payday series, this game is a must try for you.

RICO is simple, moreish fun in arcade FPS form; a literal corridor shooter that makes every gunfight a glorious exchange of bullets as you fight your way to the words ‘Room cleared’ over and over again. It’s great fun in single-player, but when you head into each randomised set of rooms in co-op, you’ll shoot your way into an interactive buddy cop movie right there in the palm of your hands. Loading times and the occasional bit of pop-in aside, this is another fine addition to the console’s growing list of first-person shooters.

RICO serves up fantastic doses of frantic action, and co-op play compensates for its limited formula.

Overall, Rico has quite a bit in terms of randomized levels and tasks to complete in its roguelike first-person shooter setting. However, the game trips over itself when random placements hinder level progression. These instances become more frustrating as level difficulty ramps up. Still, there’s a lot of potential with Rico. I wouldn’t mind revisiting the game after a patch or two. As it stands, its a nice addition to the online multiplayer shooter library on Nintendo Switch.

I like the graphics, what with the cel shading and the environments look nice. Unfortunately, after several hours with the game, I think I’ve seen every asset RICO is capable of showing me.

RICO won’t blow your mind with a gripping story, complicated characters and a questionable love triangle. What does do is provide a grab ‘n’ go title that’s fun to blast through with a friend on and offline with enough to keep you going for a decent amount of time.

A first person shooter with a roguelike structure might sound unusual but RICO manages to join the two in a fun and competent way on the Nintendo Switch, resulting in a game that works wonders in short gaming sessions. Being an accessible work, RICO is also a game that will last its players a long time, thanks to its varied content, while the local and online multiplayer will further cement its qualities as an enjoyable FPS in the Nintendo Switch catalogue.

A cooperative shooter with large doses of cooperative frantic action is Rico's initial proposal that, as we can see when playing the title, does not make it stand out in the eShop. More innovation would have been a positive point for the game.

Having "unlimited replay value" means nothing when it results in such a grind, and I can't help but think that Rico would have been so much better if it was over and done in a couple of hours, but that bombastic action really had a chance to fly thanks to carefully designed levels arranged to help boost that experience.

RICO‘s biggest strength really is just that it’s a shooter that gives players lots of opportunities to shoot things. Running through levels and gunning down baddies works well enough but that’s really all there is to the game. Even just playing for one or two hours at a time reveals the unshakable sense of repetition in everything you are doing, seeing, and hearing. The game works best in short sessions as a way to blow off steam because, let’s be honest, shooting enemies in video games is pretty fun almost regardless of everything else; the only question is if there is anything else to keep you playing after you satiate your digital blood lust. Unfortunately, RICO likely won’t give that extra motivation for most gamers.