Many players aren't over the moon for Nintendo Switch's Daemon X Machina

Today Daemon X Machina, a Nintendo Switch exclusive developed by Marvelous Entertainment, released to the public. It's a sci-fi, third-person shooter, action game that has you running around in a mech suit destroying giant evil machines either on your own or with other players. So far, player reviews have been pretty bipolar leaving a 70% average rating, which is about where most critical reviews have scored as well. That's by no means a bomb for a video game, but it's obviously not the best scores either. It's still release day so we might see this average score rating change over the next few days.

The premise of the game is that the moon orbiting your planet recently exploded, with a section of it crashing onto the world below. Along with the lunar debris, a strange substance known as Femto crashed to the surface. Whatever touches this material gains strange powers, whether it be human or machine.

You play as a mercenary known as an Outer who has been exposed to Femto and has thus gained special abilities. As an Outer, you control a giant mechanical battle bot known as an Arsenal to defeat evil machines that have been corrupted by Femto. You can play on your own or in a squad of up to four players using either local or online play.

More: Daemon X Machina: Everything You Need To Know

Mech madness

I just got my hands on a copy of this game this morning and have started playing. I'm still too early in the game to give a full on review, but you can expect that from me sometime this next week.

First impressions: The art style is pleasant, but nothing ground breaking. Some of the controls feel a little odd, but that could just be me getting used to everything. Finally, the mech suit seems to fly around pretty slowly. I'm guessing you'll be able to upgrade your boosters in the future to zoom around more quickly, but for now it just feels sluggish. Something I really like is that the game starts off allowing you to customize your character with your choice of gender, hair color, hair style, skin tone, and much more. Looks like there's room to make additional changes to your main character and your Arsenal as the game continues. I'm not sure how I feel about the game yet, but I'm guessing it won't be one of my top favorites.

Player reviews

We've pulled some user scores and reviews from Metacritic. See what your fellow gamers are saying:

Well, there you have it. Mixed reviews from the mouths of fellow gamers. Now I'm off to battle giant robot Immortals in my mech suite. Maybe I'll see you online.

What are your thoughts?

What do you think about this game? Will you be picking up a copy? Tell us about it in the comments below.

Rebecca Spear
Gaming Editor

Gaming aficionado Rebecca Spear is iMore's dedicated gaming editor with a focus on Nintendo Switch and iOS gaming. You’ll never catch her without her Switch or her iPad Air handy. If you’ve got a question about Pokémon, The Legend of Zelda, or just about any other Nintendo series check out her guides to help you out. Rebecca has written thousands of articles in the last six years including hundreds of extensive gaming guides, previews, and reviews for both Switch and Apple Arcade. She also loves checking out new gaming accessories like iPhone controllers and has her ear to the ground when it comes to covering the next big trend.