Postal Redux (Nintendo Switch)

Postal has finally made its console debut, on a Nintendo console. The big N famous for strict censorship has opened the gates to the dark and wicked world of Postal. Let’s see if it was worth the wait shall we?

Postal Redux is an adult only game, one that quite ironically would have been banned from Nintendo systems years ago, the fact it’s now dropped on the Switch is an amazing and puzzling feat, not one we will be questioning but it’s good to get that out there. 

The premise of Postal Redux is you control “The Postal Dude” he’s naffed off at the world and much as the name implies “goes Postal”. He works his way round the state, introducing everyone to the business end of his many weapons. These range from SMGs to Shotguns, grenades and even Rocket Launchers. 

The game contains the original campaign and the expansion pack (remember those!) Totalling the full game at 23 levels, you can play the campaigns separate or as a complete experience, there is also a rampage option which is a remix option and score based keeping your kill streak up and the like.

Postal Redux is an isometric (sometimes top down) twin stick shooter, your goal for each level is to eliminate a certain amount of hostiles. Naturally when bullets start to fly, so do innocent civilians, what is important to note is at no point does the game ever tell you to kill them, you can complete the game without ever harming a civilian, this is before the “its a mass murder sim” team come to town.

Once you reach the allotted kill count you then follow an arrow to lead you to your next arena. Where this differs from Postal 1 is that you had to press a key to end the level, here the stage order and transitions make alot more sense as the Postal Dude makes his way around the state making his mark. 

Graphically the game is decent, it runs on the unreal engine and has a degree of cel shading on the character models. When you pass along side a building that would obstruct your view you get a silhouette to show where you are. The stage beginning art is just as dark and haunting as ever coupled with the unsettling sounds and music that plays.

The game performance is fine with no framerate dips even when explosive barrels are flying as frequently as your bullets. 

There are many graphic filters to flick through to style the game how you would like, including one from another game which is very similar and also coming to the Switch soon. 

The full campaign is a good 2 to 3 hours to completion and will see you even more should you decide to ramp that difficulty up, plenty of deaths await from Normal upwards. 

One aspect of the game I should point out is on everything under Hard, you’re greeted with ominous phrases before a stage. Once you hit Hard you get diary entries from The Postal Dude at the start of the stage which paints a better picture of why he’s doing what he is doing. 

Full disclosure I am a huge fan of the Postal franchise and was happy to see it finally arrive on a console, while it’s not my personal favourite of Postal 2 it is still a brilliantly fun title, especially for fans of twin stick shooters. For me I feel Redux and by extension Postal 1 slightly lacks the charm of 2 and 4 which are more outlandish and comedic in their approach, Redux is a dark and edgy experience even by today’s standards. 

I am told that pending sales there is a future for the series on consoles, currently co-op and physical releases are in the pipe line and we can only hope the recently announced Postal: Brain Damaged could come to Nintendo Switch which the other “boomer shooters” finding their way over.