Kind of. Because the winner is going to be Cthulhu, or at least his minions. They’re never ending, after all, and Miyamoto Musashi is just one man. Musashi vs. Cthulhu isn’t about winning, it’s about chasing your high score…which sounds like it could be a lesson directly out of Musashi’s The Book of Five Rings. I haven’t read that, but I have read David Kirk’s Child of Vengeance, and he made no mention of battle against Lovecraftian monstrosities.

That’s what Musashi vs. Cthulhu is, after all. This action game pits you, as Musashi, against an onslaught of creepy looking monsters you can’t overcome; you just have to stay alive as long as possible. That’s part and parcel for arcade action games, so it’s fair, but whether the gameplay can hold your attention for that long will depend upon your mastery of the niten’ichi kenjutsu technique.

A brief tutorial explains the controls, which are minimal. Musashi stands in the center of the screen, and he’s attacked from both sides. You move…actually, you don’t move. You jump…no, Musashi has no need for jumping. You kick…please, have some dignity. The only thing you do in the game is swing your swords. Up, left, and down on the D-pad are your high, mid, and low attacks to the left. X, A, and B are the same to the right. You simply thurst your sword in the intended direction.

Small enemies, such as giant maggots, need low swings to connect, obviously. Mutated flying insects require high swings. But what about the monsters that stand tall like Musashi? They have obviously defined weak points that must be targeted. In other words, this game is entirely about aiming and timing. Attacking to the left can leave you vulnerable to attack from the right, so you don’t want to overextend or misjudge who will get to you first.

You also don’t want to miss. That breaks your combo chain and, more drastically, allows the enemies to attack you. That will drain your health, but you do automatically shove all enemies away, allowing you time to refocus for your next move. You can also taunt to raise your shields, but taunting also leaves you temporarily vulnerable, so it needs to be well-timed.

That’s entirely it for the game’s basics, but Miyamoto Musashi didn’t become Japan’s greatest swordsman by simply mastering the basics. Each thrust of your swords shuffles you in that direction, allowing you to pull away from attacks from the opposite side. Learning your enemy’s movement speed becomes key so you’re not attacking an enemy that will fall behind another. Certain enemies also require multiple hits, so you’ll need to grow comfortable with quick strikes in order to take them down efficiently.

Yes, it’s all pretty basic, but Musashi vs. Cthulhu is helped out by a couple important items. First, the gameplay is exceptionally snappy; attacks are responsive and fluid. Second, the graphics are effectively creepy (although some setting variety would’ve been nice). Third, the audio does a solid job of accenting the action.

All of this combines to create a somewhat addictive, visceral experience that manages to entertain longer than you may expect. Still, I can’t help but feel the Switch version is missing one key feature: motion control. Holding a Joy-Con in each hand and snapping your wrist to strike could’ve been really cool, albeit tiring. It may have also made the game too easy if executed well, but I feel like motion control was a lost opportunity.

Musashi vs. Cthulhu is not the deepest game you’re going to play this week, and it doesn’t provide a purpose for those not interested in chasing high scores or leaderboard rankings. But it is fun in short bursts, and it’s instantly accessible. I think it would make more sense as a mobile game, but at only $5.00, it’s priced to serve that time-killing purpose when you have your Switch on the go.

So, let’s have a good, clean fight, and may the best man (or cosmic entity) win.

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Knight’s Retreat, therefore, is a bit more appealing to me. It takes the core moveset of chess and breaks them down to single-player puzzles. You’re a knight, and you’re retreating to your kingdom. The challenge comes from the very precise path you must take to get there.

You’re presented with 80 scenarios in which you must take specific steps to get your knight (or knights) to the ending square. You can only move like a knight on an actual chessboard, and you cannot return to a square once you’ve left it. Other chess pieces will get in your way, and you’ll need to clear them out. Again, each piece moves as it would on an actual chess board. It’s very easy to trap yourself or any of these pieces, so you’ll be restarting often.

That’s pretty much it for gameplay, and it’s engaging enough. These are the types of puzzles where you’ll think you have it, only to discover you don’t, but one more quick try will certainly get you through. And maybe after a half-dozen restarts, it will. Fans of puzzle games such as Golf Peaks will find plenty to enjoy. I imagine chess players will also enjoy the challenges within the familiar rules.

A couple design elements, however, can detract from the overall experience. Although I enjoyed the relaxing audio, the graphics are basic and flat. I like the nicely “carved” chess pieces, but the landscapes are quite stark and the animations are very abrupt. The overall vibe could certainly be friendlier.

Also, the camera controls are unwieldy. You can zoom in/out and rotate around the playing field using the Joy-Con or the touchscreen, but the awkward movement rarely results in optimum placement. Puzzles of this type don’t really need a 360 degree field of view, so I’d prefer if there was just a single preconfigured camera angle (or perhaps just four fixed options).

These are both minor complaints, of course, as neither affects the puzzles. With those, redundancy will be the only issue. Although they certainly get much more complex, they don’t really change. More squares, more pieces, more time. Knight’s Retreat doesn’t change up enough to refresh the overall experience, so how long you stick with it will depend upon how much you enjoy the challenge of the puzzles themselves. In other words, the better you are at chess, the more fun this game becomes as you move along. Novices, however, may resign before they’re halfway through.

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