WayForward's Austin Ivansmith is a pretty awesome guy

I hope he won't mind me calling him out like this, but I just have to extend a digital/virtual high-five to Austin Ivansmith, a director at WayForward Technologies.

A few days ago, I wandered onto deviantart.com in the hopes of finding a few pieces of gorgeous game-related art that could be discussed and/or drooled over here.

Before I had a chance to search for said images, though, I noticed that a heretofore-unread note was sitting in my deviantart mailbox. The note, of course, had been sent by Ivansmith and included a download code for WayForward's Mighty Flip Champs DX.



I'm guessing he saw the whiny post ("Why didn't somebody tell me Mighty Flip Champs received a PSP port?") I published about said PSP title a few weeks ago, but I can't say that with any certainty since the content of Ivansmith's rather succinct note was limited to the afore- mentioned download code and a cheery reminder to keep an eye out for the company's upcoming 3DS release, Mighty Switch Force (which he promised will "rock your socks off").

Since I've only played through the first few stages of Mighty Flip Champs DX thus far, I can't say much about it at the moment. I'll do my best to spend a bit more time with it this weekend, though, so I can share some impressions with all of you next week.

Metroid + Mega Man + Mischief Makers = Mighty Switch Force?

I may not own a 3DS, but that doesn't mean I'm ignoring the system until I obtain one.

For instance, I've had my eye on the downloadable title, Mighty Switch Force, since it was announced a few months ago.

Although the folks at WayForward--makers of, among other games, Contra 4 and the upcoming Aliens: Infestation--promised from the get-go that Mighty Switch Force would feature "Metroid-like gameplay," I was a bit skeptical of that until I saw the following, recently released trailer:



I don't know about you, but I think the gameplay featured in the teaser above was inspired by more than just Metroid. It also seems to have been inspired by Capcom's Mega Man titles and Treasure's Mischief Makers (aka Yuke Yuke!! Trouble Makers).

Here's hoping that Mighty Switch Force proves to be even half as appealing and enjoyable as the above-mentioned classics when it finally makes its way onto the Nintendo eShop.