The Nintendo Web Framework is about a year old now, and we’re starting to see some more games built on it. Developed by a one-man team, Shapes of Gray is the newest project to come from the Framework. It’s a unique entry in a genre that’s underrepresented but is held back by wonky collision detection and some odd creative decisions.

As opposed to a twin-stick shooter, Shapes of Gray would be a twin-stick slasher. You move the nameless character with the left stick and change his angle of aiming with the right, while using any of the shoulder buttons to swing a short sword. A later level gives you the option to use a gun, but it doesn’t last very long. You’re under limits for both time and health, as three hits throws you back to either the beginning or at a checkpoint unlocked by beating a boss. It’s a fun concept, and the time and health limits make it frantic, especially in the later levels.

While there is a quick, arcade-style pace to the game, it’s often halted by issues with the combat. There’s one powerup that comes in with about ten levels out of fifty left, but other than that you just have the sword, and its collision detection was off a fair bit. It was especially noticeable when trying to deflect shots, but I even died a few times because of a sword swipe missing when it shouldn’t have. It takes a long time to adjust, and getting slammed back to level 50, 35 or 20 because of a miss was extremely frustrating, even if it wasn’t a huge loss of time. The random placement of the enemies also caused some issues, as it was impossible to plan a strategy in the later levels when you can’t count on enemy starting locations or gaps.

The art style is very minimalist – various shades of gray on a stark black background – while your character and the enemies are just basic shapes with very small flourishes to make then stand out on the gray battle circle. There’s neat particle effects whenever an enemy is slashed or slams into the wall at a high enough speed, but it also seemed to cause a weird jumping effect for the screen. The redundant and somewhat bland art design made replaying levels after unfair deaths all the more frustrating. Meanwhile, the music doesn’t distract from the game, but the abrupt stops at a game over were a bit grating.

Shapes of Gray is a decent first effort from the developer Secret Tunnel, but the unreliable combat and lack of aesthetic personality ultimately hold it back. As such, it’s hard to recommend a one-trick game when it doesn’t do that one trick very well.