Heave Ho (Switch) Review

Release: August 29, 2019

Heave Ho: The game where you're allowed - and encouraged - to yeet your friends to victory!

Heave Ho tasks up to four players with a simple goal – don’t fall to your death! Players will use their own two hands and the outstretched grip of their friends to grapple across each level on their way to victory. Grab one another’s hands, climb across dangling bodies, and swing your pals to safety in a wobbly, dangly mass of limbs. Customize your character with all manner of stylish accessories and zany accouterment in a vain attempt to remember who you are and which of your hands is the only thing between you and the plummet of doom.

Summary from Nintendo 

If you're looking for a new multiplayer game to play with friends then you should pick up a copy of Heave Ho, available for Switch and PC. I played it recently on Switch with some friends for a few hours and it was a blast! The game can support up to 4 players, although I'd recommend at least 3 to get some great shenanigans.


Basically, the point of this game is to swing yourself and your friends across obstacles to reach the goal as fast as you can. Bonus points if you activate the mini game or bring the coin to the finish line.

Controls are nice and simple: R1 to grip with the right hand and L1 to grip with the left are your main buttons. Also use the analog stick to help direct which way you want to go and how much to swing. Boom, easy peasy. (right?) Beware, your fingers will hurt towards the end. 😈

In multi-player mode, you can latch onto each other to create chains to help swing across. This is where it can get fun, because you need to coordinate who's doing what to get across... and more importantly, who's connected to who! Even with assist mode on, it's surprisingly easy to loose track and devolve into chaos. One wrong move can cause your whole group to plummet towards the ground to a splatter-y death! Seeing how epic you can fail is so amusing - I laughed so hard I wheezed and cried. 😂

Whoops bye!

Bringing the coin to the finish line can add another layer of difficulty to your game since you need to coordinate how to bring it across while having enough hands to keep moving and not slam into a trap. The coins aren't required of course, and there were times we got tired of trying to carry the coin across the course with us. Although that also was a reflection of our skill 🤣

The levels have different gimmicks to make each level harder than the previous like spikes, live electricity, limited/dynamic lighting, and rotating platforms (some with spikes too) just to name a few.

Image source: Stumpt

Having trouble with a level? The candy cane rope of shame will appear, allowing you to skip all the obstacles and go straight to the finish line lol.

At some point in the level, you'll hear a magical sound as a golden rope appears. Shimmy your way towards it and pull to land all your players to one of the various available mini games. If you win, you get more coins! One example of a mini game is where everyone needs to land in the white goal before time runs out. Sounds easy right? Lmao good luck and git gud.

So what are coins even used for in this game? You start out with some basic clothing and accessories for your character, but you can glam out by buying more with the coins you find along the way. Below are examples of additional costumes you can buy for your character. 

Source: Steam

This game also has 23 achievements you can work towards. They're not super important imo since the Switch doesn't have a trophy system, but they're still fun to collect.

The soundtrack isn't the most innovative thing ever, but it's cute and sets the mood! This track was definitely stuck in my head for a while haha. My favorite are the noises the characters make, especially as they fall to their doom LMAO. Apparently they were recorded by in-house staff which is cool.

It's so simple yet so fun. It's really affordable as well, so go ahead and bring it to your next game night. 100% would recommend. 😜

(Can't believe I'm here with my first Switch review and it's not an otome!.. Although to be fair that's because I don't actually own a Switch myself LOL)

That's all for now and until next time! ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ