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.

Hive Jump is a 2D shooting platformer that brilliantly captures an arcade style, while still remaining exciting and varied for a modern audience. Previously released on Wii U (in a less-than-perfect state), the story really isn’t the focus here, so we’ll keep it quick; you play as amusingly named marines called Hive Jumpers, tasked with eliminating an alien threat by destroying the source: the aforementioned hives. There is some attempt at giving personality to the various commanders who spout exposition at you, but this really isn’t the game’s focus.

The focus instead lies on the brilliant arcade-style action. You’ll tear through hordes of well-designed alien creatures using only a basic starting gun and jetpack at first, but on collection of gooey currency, you’ll be able to choose what you want at the end of the level. Hive Jump doesn’t tease you with ‘higher level’ weapons behind an elusive red rope as some games might. You’re instead able to choose your style and buy any weapon off the cuff for around the same price, which allows you to find your style and create parties that employ various roles.

Multiplayer really is the way this game was meant to be played, as exploring with multiple jumpers is much more rewarding and avoids things getting stale. The only slightly dull element of Hive Jump’s gameplay comes from a board game-style mini-screen before each level. It essentially feels like a game of Risk. If you ask us, skip these and dive straight into the madness.

The aesthetics of Hive Jump are also impressive, taking the 16-bit style and pushing it to its limit, with detailed backgrounds, bright colours and satisfyingly bombastic enemy death animations that give a real sense of weight to each shot.

Overall, Hive Jump is a great time, with well-thought-out level and enemy design, smooth gameplay, and a brilliant upgrade system. It’s certainly better placed as a party game with several mates playing local on the sofa, but it’s good fun regardless.