Genre: Game Creation System
Developer: FUZE Technologies
Publisher: FUZE Technologies

Fuze consists of a syntax-highlighting text editor, a media browser, a sprite editor, and a handful of other utilities, all connected via a main menu with big, selectable icons. The color scheme can be tweaked via several selectable themes. It may sound funny, but the editor has gobs of personality with its clean-yet-rolling font, and tactile-looking virtual keyboard. Similar compliments can be shared with the sprite and map editors, which have plenty of charm in the way their various interface components are drawn. All-in-all, Fuze is a pleasant, inviting, and modern work environment which also playfully reflects its "creation system" underpinnings, versus more sterile professional tools like "Visual Studio" or "IntelliJ IDEA".

The various "plings" which play when interface elements are selected work well enough, while the virtual keyboard plays recorded mechanical keyboard sounds as it's typed on via finger or stylus! From a capabilities standpoint, full-on digital audio can be used for both music and sound effects-- but only when chosen from the product's built-in assets, as Nintendo prohibits the import of data from external sources on Switch, across-the-board. This might sound like a pity, but Fuze has another parlor trick up its sleeve: full synth support! Like programming a Famicom, PC Engine, or Mega Drive, the programmer can play totally-modifiable waveforms or whitenoise across a full fifteen channels!

While the editor doesn't have auto-complete functionality, the virtual keyboard has a "Help" key, which opens the documentation straight to whichever function the cursor is on. The editor almost unbelievably has full USB keyboard support, something this reviewer would never have imagined on a Nintendo Switch. The sprite editor supports creation of tile sets, which can be imported directly into the integrated map editor-- maps are then loaded into the game via a single command, and viola: working collision detection and stage rendering! The product's 3d functionality is a bit more limited as there is no modelling software available at the time of this writing-- but even there, primitive geometry can be rendered via code, then combined to construct scenes.

This reviewer called "STOS" a "top five or ten" piece of software, of all time-- and while the current version of Fuze doesn't have quite as many utilities yet as the STOS "accessories" library, absolutely any 2d game imaginable is fully possible via the product, even in this early-doors January 2020 form, making this a true and fantastic spiritual successor to those Francois Lionet greats. Even the language-- a delightful cross between "Basic" and "Python"-- is a joy to use. Fuze is also routinely being patched and enhanced, while the integrated help system and active forum community make learning a cinch. Finally, credit to Nintendo for stepping outside of their comfort zone in allowing such a product in their ecosystem!