FIRST IMPRESSIONS

It starts out with a prologue cutscene playing out and admitting it right of the bat : this game will be heavily inspired from the Mega Man series, to a point that could come across as a copy. In about 5 minutes, we learn about the antagonist, who makes use of robots for military and world domination purposes, the “gals”, who basically are the heroin’s sisters and soon to become stage bosses in robot suit versions, and the creator of the gals, who is a good natured scientist working for peace but happens to create the most powerful combat robots in his free time out in the wilds… Can’t help but think of dr Wily and dr Light right? That’s probably what they were going for. Then Mega M… I mean Metagal comes back from picking up mushrooms in the forest and discovers everybody is gone but thankfully a Hologram of dr Li… um Dr Ray explains the situation to her and releases her abilities through some device so she can come and rescue everyone. Well, time to shoot some robots for peace and justice !

SIMPLE AND FUN

Now to the heart of the game : gameplay. I have to say i’m always a bit worried about that part when it comes to retro looking games, as some do it right and some just miss the mark. And this game was a really pleasant surprise : the gameplay is nice and smooth, pretty simple (much more than a classic Mega Man game) and quick to get used to. Again, it’s pretty much the same as a Mega Man game as you have a button to shoot, one to jump, and one to dash. Dashing can also be done by tapping a direction twice quickly, which i tend to prefer, and can be used to perform long jumps to get across some gaps. You can also cycle through acquired powers to use them quickly. Speaking of powers, these are much easier to use here as the power energy bar recovers over time unlike classic Mega Man games where you need to pick up recharge items to recover them. All of this makes gameplay fairly simple and quick to master so you can focus on playing the game instantly, which is always one of the appealing features of such games to me, as you don’t have to go through long tutorials just to know how to move around. While i enjoy much more complicated games, it’s always a welcome change of pace to play games like these where you just pick it up and play.

Not Difficult, But…

This game is clearly not very difficult, especially since the gear mechanic is there. Those allow you to use the “rebirth” feature when you die and start from the beginning of the area you died in, instead of going all the way back to the last checkpoint. Those gears are pretty easy to find and collect (they are even dropped randomly from enemies), and you can even recollect them when you die, giving you an almost infinite supply of retries. They can also be used to recover life, giving you the edge you need to finish a boss or reach a checkpoint for instance.

That being said, there are quite a few die and retry sections in the game that will get you killed the first time if you don’t pay enough attention, and reaching some of the bonus items and areas can get a bit dangerous, bringing enough difficulty to the table to keep you on your toes, but nothing rage inducing.

My favorite bits in this game

Since I bought this game because of its Mega Man feel, it shouldn’t be surprising that most of my favorite bits are closely related. For instance, I loved the passage where you have to quickly run through tight corridors before beams instantly kill you if you’re too slow. I also liked those moody platforms that open up regularly and reminded me of the vanishing blocks. The boss fights were nice too with patterns to learn and powers to use for effectiveness. Stealing powers from your enemies is also something you don’t see that much anymore outside Mega Man classics and games such as Soul Reaver or more recently Malicious. I like that kind of boss progression where you learn new abilities from the foes you defeat along the way. All that with pretty easy to handle and dynamic gameplay.