Blade Chimera

• Genre: Action Platforming (Metroidvania)
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: 12 Hours?
• Too Short/Long: About right.
• Soundtrack: Pretty standard fair, nothing that really sticks out.
• Why I played: I've played all the other games made by Team Ladybug, which are mostly the same genre.
• Did I cry: No.
• Jank: Not very janky. The only jank is maybe the slight awkwardness of the controls. It's something you get used to, but I definitely had to rebind them to even achieve that.
• Difficulty: It's mostly pretty easy. I don't recall there being a difficulty setting, but your level ups and equipment mostly outpace enemies.
• Recommend to others: Not really, not to most. While I enjoyed it, it's not really the best of it's genre. It's aesthetically pleasing and has a unique mechanic but overall I'd recommend many before it. If you've exhausted almost all other games in the genre though, it's certainly not bad.

Team Ladybug makes some pretty visually appealing games. This is their third action platforming metroidavania of the the four games they've made. The visual appeal is good at drawing you in, or me at least, but you need to have substance beyond that to make something really special and I think that's what each of their games really lacks.

The other two were both licensed so I didn't expect them to be the best things ever. They were both decent, but I think I felt like they were missing something. Especially in the level-design category. This is where Blade Chimera doesn't do better, and arguably even worse. Visually? More appeal - there is more stuff going on in the background. Functionally? Less creative, less interactivity. There are a wealth of corridors where it's just a hallway and you're meant to just fight your way through a dozen enemies. Everything is still very awkwardly angled and random to a point the design just feels like they're using a "metroidvania generator", or a "2d platformer game maker", so they can just place tiles down for each room. Very few rooms offered gimmicks or unique set pieces. They did introduce a mechanic in the level design that interacted with the main mechanics of the game, but only used it only a handful of times. It's a shame because it could have resulted in some very cool puzzle rooms, using that combination of mechanics. So the overall level design kinda stinks.

Ghostrunner

• Genre: First-Person Action Platformer
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: 
• Too Short/Long: Feels about right.
• Soundtrack: When you're stuck in an area you may have to hear a track for a long time, thankfully the loops are pretty solid and do well to not feel too repetitive. The music is pretty damn good, but it is just kind of a bunch of high energy electronic loops. 
• Why I played: I wanted to be a Cyber Ninja That Climbs The City... in 4k.
• Did I cry: No, not exactly an emotional story.
• Jank: Sometimes the footholds can be a little janky. Getting caught on weird platforms, objects jutting out, etc. Not that there are many, but other first person platformers feel a bit smoother.
• Difficulty: It is extremely difficult. This goes in the bin of most difficult games I've played.
• Recommend to others: I would recommend it very selectively. People who like a challenge and the type of games that present each area as a trial you have to play repeatedly to figure out. This one is a little different because the levels are far longer than typical speed running trial games, but it still includes leaderboards and such.

Ghostrunner is a damn tough game. It's got the bones of a trial/speed running game, but most trial/speed running games have pretty short levels. It's something like that combined with a more traditional level design. Some levels are pretty lengthy and take awhile, but checkpoints are pretty generous, so it's not arduous to retry areas.

While some of the areas are really on point with the cyberpunk aesthetic, and you have a cyberspace environment you visit from time to time, a lot of the game is just general metal+industrial areas, a lot of weird sewers and ducts and rafters and stuff like that, it kind of blends in together. One other thing that's kind of odd is the scale. It always feels like you're crouching, even though you can crouch/slide. Compared to a lot of objects in the environment, you seem really small. Though sometimes you feel too big compared directly to say, a chair. I feel like scale is very important for first person games. Not necessarily for immersion, if that's something that's important to you, but just for judgement and sense of placement, etc. Otherwise there is this just uncanny feeling as you maneuver around.

I still really liked it. It was at it's best when it presented a new challenge in a unique way or a gimmick. It did a good job at mixing it up from time to time, but I feel like they could have done a bit better. A lot of the areas were just "Enemies are set up in an annoying way, stay alive and figure out how to kill them all." Which brings me to my next point. I played like 70% of the game thinking "Damn this game would be so much more fun if you didn't instantly die anything happened. If only I could take a single hit before dying it would be so much better."

Lo and behold, assist mode offers an option to have a single-hit shield. This game is constantly telling you what a badass you are. You are playing a Ghostrunner, an elite perfect combination of genetics and engineering. Yet, everything kills you instantly. It kind of ruins the feeling of feeling like a badass. Turning on the single-hit shield changed the game for me. I still died, a lot. The game is constantly getting more difficult and it's not gradual. I usually try to play games on "normal difficult" as it's the way the game is intended to be played(via many in-game descriptions), and I do have fun with a challenge, but I think this game is objectively more fun with this option on. It didn't change any other aspect of gameplay, just gives you the ability to take a single hit(except from environmental damage) before dying.

Anyway, I already started the second game, as part of my reason for finally playing this was because I got the second and I think they did a lot to balance and improve upon this one, but I'm a little burned out on it generally so I'll likely move on to something else before coming back to Ghostrunner 2. I liked it overall, it was just a little exhausting.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

• Genre: Action Platforming
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: 37 Hours
• Too Short/Long: This definitely could have been a good 10 hours shorter and not been any worse for it.
• Soundtrack: Nothing too special. Not bad, just kinda generic setting appropriate orchestra.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Very pleased overall. 
• Why I played: I heard it was actually a pretty good metroidvania, so I checked out the demo and picked it up sometime later.
• Did I cry: Nah, though there is some story drama, nothing really sad.
• Recommend to others: I would put it pretty high on the recommendations for metroidvanias, especially those who like both a challenging combat system based around perfectly times parries, knowing when to dodge, and when to use other abilities to out maneuver your opponent, AND precision-based platforming.

I've never really been a fan of the Prince of Persia series. Generally speaking, it's just not my style, but I like "Exploratory Action Platforming" or "Search Action" games a lot and it's been some time since I sunk my teeth into one. Maybe because a lot of them were blending together? Maybe just because I've been playing more RPGs lately. Regardless, The Lost Crown really scratched an itch. I almost want to say it's "more" than your standard metroidvania. There is just so much detail and thought put into the navigational mechanics, the level design, and the combat that it really feels like they blended together a few games that would usually independently focus on one of those points more than the other.

A lot of similar style games come down to "hit the enemy", and even if you have different ways of doing that, it doesn't really change the dance of combat - outside of maybe boss battles. Some similar games that focus too much on the combat, face the problem of just every battle becoming a grueling experience. The Lost Crown walks that line but maintains a balance to keep things mostly quick paced, while allowing you to feel the satisfaction of power scaling as well. Even to the end, it felt like I was more powerful, but I could fail if I didn't give it my all, but of course, mechanics came much more naturally as well.

Astlibra Revision

• Genre: Action Platforming RPG
• Time Played: 65 Hours
• Too Short/Long: The core game feels just right, but it's probably a little too long with it's Postscript in mind. Don't get me wrong, I WANTED to keep playing, but it has you redo areas, when you were likely already redoing areas over. It's not something I generally dig and usually feel could be integrated into the core game a bit better. Still, the revisit of old content is quick and abridged.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Extremely please, I think I've got a new favorite out of this one.
• Why I played: I'd been following it for awhile and even remember seeing stuff about the original version and it's always interested me.
• Recommend to others: This is a definitely recommend from me. In fact, I am about to shoot over the link to a few people I was talking about it with in person. 

Astlibra starts out as a game filled with jank, cobbled together stock assets, intermingled with art from several different artists of very different backgrounds, obvious Game Maker-esque tilesets, royalty free music, questionable animation, writing that is hit or miss at times and probably needed another pass through an editor, and game systems slapped one on top of another.

And it never stops being that. But it owns that, and is maybe one of the best games I've played in recent years. Astlibra is fun to play, fun to experience, has great characters, and overall a great story with pretty good writing, even if it misses the mark from time to time. It's convoluted as hell but it's a time-traveling story and what time-traveling story isn't? I think there are clearly some spots where time stuff just happened to work out, because it was written as so, but overall it works.

Bat Boy

• Genre: Action Platforming
• Time Played: ~4-5 Hours?
• Too Short/Long: Feels about right to me.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I think I expected maybe a little more out of this one.
• Why I played: Looked like it took a good amount of inspiration from Mega Man games and Shovel Knight, both which I love.
• Recommend to others: Mmmaybe if you're a dedicated fan of the particular genre and really think the theming is groovy.

Bat Boy clearly take a lot of inspiration from Shovel Knight and maybe some from it's inspirations, but I definitely think Shovel Knight in particular laid the building blocks of Bat Boy's foundation. That's certainly not a bad thing as Shovel Knight is an amazing game, but I think Bat Boy leaves a little to be desired. The polish isn't quite Shovel Knight's level and it's otherwise a little uninspired as a whole.

It's certainly not a bad game, but it's just not all that special. I am kind of reminded of  Gravity Circuit, which I described as serviceable. Which this is. It's a game to play if you wanna play the kind of game it is, but I'm not gonna go out of my way to recommend it. It was fun enough and I'm glad I got to play it.

Olija

• Genre: Action Platforming
• Time Played: ~5 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It was fine, I wouldn't have minded a bigger game that explored the mechanics a bit more.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Pleased, it was pretty fun.
• Why I played: I had started it awhile ago and only just decided to pick it up to finish it, not exactly sure what got me started but maybe because it invoked Another World to me.
• Recommend to others: Yeah, it's worth playing.

Olija is a pretty cool game that despite being more action oriented I think has some pretty obvious inspiration from Another World, though only Prince of Persia is cited as a source of inspiration, though I can see that too.

It's pretty solid, the main mechanic is you have a harpoon you can throw and then teleport to if it sticks into stuff/enemies. It just doesn't stick into plain walls and the ground. Later you get a sword that sticks into the ground you can teleport to, and while they do a small handful of puzzles with these, I would have loved to have seen that explored further. They could have done some pretty cool stuff with it, like an auto scrolling sequence, or some more involved platforming challenges. That said, it's pretty tight as is and maybe going into all kinds of other stuff would have been dragging it out. I had fun with it.

Laika: Aged Through Blood

• Genre: Exploratory Action Platformer (Metroidvania)
• Time Played: 30 Hours
• Too Short/Long: A little too long, just because of the kind of game play it is, you end up redoing a lot of the areas over and over, and it's a bit more arduous than just passing through in a more standard metroidvania, and things never really get easier, you can never tank more hits to make early areas a breeze. In fact, they scale up with your progression.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Extremely pleased. I loved this game.
• Why I played: Mean coyote lady rides a motorcycle through a desert wasteland. This game was practically made for me specifically.
• Recommend to others: I definitely would... IF you like games like Trials. I am pretty sure there are others that have that kind of gameplay, I am just not thinking of them at the moment. But it's basically QWOP for motorcycles. You have to keep them balanced or else you fall over and die. But yeah, if 20+ hours of Motorcycle QWOP platforming gunfighting sounds like a good time to you, I definitely recommend it.

Laika: Aged Through Blood is a game that makes you go "Hell Yeah" when you launch your motorcycle off a ramp into a pit surrounded by enemies, pick off the first couple mid-air, then pull off a backflip to deflect incoming fire and reload, mid-air sideswipe to deflect a shot coming in from behind right back into the enemy, and fire off one more shot to clear your landing. At it's best it can be an exhilarating rush that puts you in the center of some of the best choreographed gunplay on a motorcycle.

At it's worst, it can be a bit frustrating because the controls are not always cooperative and you have to redo this entire section over and over. Or redo this entire boss fight which has several sequences that there is no way to hurry along. Or you have to return to this one area for the sixth time because of a side-quest. There aren't a ton of side-quests, so it feels important to do them, especially some more than others. But the rewards are minimal, just some materials you may already have a ton of or easier ways to farm. The currency, which is literally the blood of your enemies, could be a little easier to come by. I never "lost" any money past the first area of the game, and still had trouble affording everything I wanted by the end of the game. I had to play a lot of blackjack.

Overall the complaints are minor though. I had a hell of a time with Laika. The general gameplay is awesome, the music was amazing, and though each were very brief, the little animated scenes were a nice touch. The writing could have been a little better. It's pretty story heavy for the type of game. Some of the choices made and the subject matter in which they relate that to with the main story seems a little sloppy/clumsy, maybe in poor taste? But it's not terrible. It's just kind of "we get it" after they say something so many times. Kinda feels like they're trying to make a statement or prove something. That said, the game also made me cry several times, so the writing did well enough, but the atmosphere helps and they nailed that.

Rabi-Ribi

• Genre: Exploratory Action Platformer (Metroidvania)
• Time Played: 17 Hours
• Too Short/Long: Too long. It should have ended at the "fake out ending" which is definitely not the real ending because nothing is resolved, it literally tells you there is more to play, and you don't get any of the "post game" content until after the second, "true ending".
• Pleased/Disappointed: Kinda disappointed.
• Why I played: I thought the sprite art was cute and this gets a lot of praise from people who like metroidvanias, and it sits at Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam with over 9000 reviews. 
• Recommend to others: Not really. There is better of... everything this is trying to do. Even, very specifically what it's trying to do/be; there are better kawaii shmup metroidvanias.

Rabi-Ribi didn't impress me much. A lot of people really like it, but I just found it to be kind of a mess. The controls are messy, the maps are messy, the enemies are just kind of chaotic and go at you, the dialog/writing is... poor at best. It tries to employ a kind of coy titillation that I feel it's not even appropriate to say is only for "teenage boys" but rather, a certain kind of person who just really likes when things are surrounded with obvious innuendo but it's okay because there isn't any REAL sexual content? I dunno exactly how to put it, but it's the kind of stuff that makes the Neptunia games look like a form of high art. It just an excuse to have several girls run around calling each other "master" and do dumb anime trope stuff.

And there are games that do it better, at that. If that's what you're into it. It would be more forgivable if the game was genuinely good outside of that, but like I said, it's a mess. It's the kind of game you say "This was clearly made by one person" (derogatory), not "I can't believe this was made by one person!" (non-derogatory). That said I'm not even sure it's made "by one person" it just feels like it. It feels like someone's little pet project they worked on to practice game design. Everything is just so sloppy, and having fully played through it now, I just can't believe how much praise this game gets. I know my tastes are not always the same as the greater voice - I don't think Hollow Knight is that great, but I wouldn't call it a bad game and can definitely see why people are taken with it. This I just don't get.

I do REALLY like the sprite work, and if I am being completely honest it wasn't a completely terrible game. It was just messy, sloppy, and felt amateur in many ways and my expectations were higher. It also was unnecessarily long and has you go through quite a few grueling gauntlets. Which I may not have minding as much if the game was more polished, had tighter controls, and more direction with how it's enemies deal damage and how you avoid damage. You get a moment in each boss battle where it reminds you where your hitbox is, like a bullet-hell shmup where you only have a little diamond hitbox. But many of those you can press a button to always see your hitbox, or there is a clever indicator in it's design like the blue window on a red ship design, or a necklace's pendant on a character sprite. But none of that in this. That wouldn't have been enough though. It needed a lot.

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon

• Genre: Action Platforming
• Time Played: ~5-10 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's a nice quick romp with some replayability.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm pleased with it.
• Why I played: I like Castlevania games, but I guess more importantly I thought Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night was amazing. I also wanted to finally get around to playing Curse of the Moon 2, and thought it was finally time to finish this.
• Recommend to others: I would definitely recommend it to anyone who like old-old school Castlevania. Not exploratory-action-platformers.

Curse of the Moon succeeds at what it's trying to do as an ode to classic Castlevania. It's strongest inspiration coming from Castlevania 3. It's a good game and can be knocked out in around an hour - give or take. I played through til I got most of the endings, as far as I am aware of, but I also split that between... years? Not sure. I know I have gotten a bad end, or maybe just not the "true end" so I'm not sure if I recorded this on here because of that. Usually I'll "qualify" a game as beaten on a credit roll unless it's a fake credit roll like Nier, or something.

This game requires multiple playthroughs to see everything and at least a few strategic uses of the "Curse of the Moon" feature. Which takes you back in time in the game but with stuff you have acquired. So some things can be a little repetitive and that might be why I took a bit of a break before finally fully finishing the game.

But it's fun. Having multiple characters, each with their own abilities and quickly swapping between them is fun. Having some modern quality of life features make it less stressful than some old Castlevania games can be. It's also a little quicker paced in general, which is a good thing.

I just wish the mechanical side of the game took some more modern approaches. Controls and whatnot. It would be nice to be a little less limited - per character, and not be locked in to your jump trajectory. Some of the platforming can feel pretty clunky/unfair because of it. Especially when knockback is involved. I say definitely play the game in Casual mode unless you love getting knocked into pits and restarting. I don't, and thought the game was way less fun until I tried casual mode, but then I had a blast.

Salt and Sacrifice

• Genre: Action Platformer
• Time Played: 35 Hours
• Too Short/Long: Could be tightened up a bit for me personally, but it's probably right for the intent, which is for you to grind and beat bosses over and over again, which is maybe more fun to do for multiplayer, but I don't like grinding or playing multiplayer games online all that much.
• Pleased/Disappointed: It was fun, but I think I left Salt and Sanctuary with a much higher opinion, even if this game did have some improvements over the last.
• Why I played: I liked Salt and Sanctuary a ton and was hoping for more of that experience.
• Recommend to others: If you liked Sanctuary, I probably would. I would recommend Sanctuary first if you never played either.

Salt and Sacrifice was not exactly the sequel I personally had hoped for. There were some ups and some downs. The ups are the grappling hook and other tools you get for the platforming aspect of the game. In fact, there are a couple little optional areas that really make good use of those tools and I honestly could have gone in for more of those, but like many of these games, those are just thrown in as an extra. I appreciate it being there though.

Instead of one giant metroidvania map, it's broken up into a handful of smaller(but still large) maps with a hub world. Your main goal is to hunt mages, which are just like really tall guys that summon minions and have a gimmick of their own. The way you hunt these mages and with how they structure their multiple levels and hub world, along with the weapon crafting that utilized the parts of the mages makes me believe they took more than a little bit of inspiration from Monster Hunter. 

I think I saw a lot of reception that mentioned multiplayer was the way to go with this one, and maybe that's what I'm missing out on because while I did like it, it was too grindy for the type of punishing game it is. I can see how, like in Monster Hunter, trading the bosses aggro would really change the dynamic of the game, making it a bit less dangerous and a little more about the dance of those mechanics. If there was a single-player only version where your HP was buffed just a tad and crafting/upgrading armor/weapons/items had half the requirements, I think this would have been an A+ experience for me. It was still pretty good though, I just can't help but see where it could have been better.

Blasphemous 2

• Genre: Exploratory Action Platforming(Metroidvania)
• Time Played: 15+ Hours
• Too Short/Long: A little longer than it needed to be, granted, I did 100% it, if I would have just played through more casually maybe it wouldn't have felt too long.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Pretty pleased. I thought it was overall an improvement on the first, which I thought was fine anyway, if not a bit flawed and overrated at the time.
• Why I played: I liked the first well enough to want to play this one.
• Recommend to others: I'd recommend it over the first and some other well known Metroidvania titles.

Blasphemous 2 is a pretty solid improvement over the first. I remember the first being a bit frustrating in the platforming aspect and a bit too easy in the combat past the early stages of the game. The second is a bit better balanced and your special movement is no longer tied to button/directional inputs that make it easy to accidently execute a different command in their place.

While I found it to be an overall better experiencing from a mechanical perspective, I feel like the flavor wasn't as strong in this one. Don't get me wrong, it's still filled with allegories for the high level biblical mythology, but as someone who doesn't really know too much about that stuff outside of video games, it's honestly kinda over my head. While I don't entirely follow, I still appreciate the theming. I just feel like that theming isn't as strong as it was in the first one. The art and overall direction of the game is just a little bit more standardized, and a little less original.

Don't get me wrong, it's still great in this game, and maybe part of it is only because now it's been done, so it just had less impact than the previous for me. While gameplay was generally better, I do feel some of the quests are a little obtuse and some regular enemies are a little too spongy. 

I liked how it handled your starting weapons and what the means for how you approach the early stages of the game, and how they each had progression based abilities tied to them. It's a bit of a shame the best progression mechanic was tied to what I feel was the worst weapon, and the best weapon had the worst progression mechanic. I would have liked to have seen more puzzles and challenges that explored the mirror jumping mechanic. If the other two weapons had cooler abilities like that, it would have really left an impact. 

Otherwise, it doesn't really do much from a gameplay standpoint to really set itself apart. It just does what it does pretty well. 

Super Alloy Ranger

• Genre: Action Platforming
• Time Played: 4 Hours
• Too Short/Long: I could have swore I played far longer than 4 hours. Probably means it was too long.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Ehhh, mostly disappointed. I liked the character art.
• Why I played: On a Mega Man-like Roll.
• Recommend to others: Not really, even if you're hard pressed for games that kinda play like Mega Man, you can probably do better.

Super Alloy Ranger is a very okay game. It's playable, it's not the worst, but the best thing about it is generally the art. The detailed pixel art cut scenes, character portraits, and even character sprites are all great.

Otherwise? It's a little rough. It's not a very difficult game, in fact, it rarely offers much of a challenge, but the character controls don't feel as precise as they should. Levels are a bit long, and kinda repetitive feeling? There isn't much in the way of gimmicks, even if there are some unique(from other levels) platforming challenges.

Music is a mixed bag. Some amazing tracks, but some are just way too loud/fast. It's like they turned up the volume and played them at 2x speed. It's a bit much. Other tunes are catchy or fitting.

I do really like the character designs, and it's probably mainly why I bought the game. I also really hoped there was gonna be a shmup or other kind of vehicle section because it's teased in the base area with big detailed sprites of a vehicle for each of the main characters and it never happened.

The localization is abysmal. Probably the worst I've ever seen on a game with an official English release. I feel like it was either DIRECT google translate or just like one person who has maybe got like a 1 year Duolingo streak in English and took like a 101 class in grade school. Maybe a combination thereof.

That doesn't make it unplayable, but when the thing I am kinda enjoying the most, the characters, are just speaking nonsense half the time, I can barely even enjoy that. I do feel like this was a passion project that someone put a lot of effort into, it just, could have been more. The ending strongly hinted at a Super Alloy Rangers 2, and despite everything I said, I would give it a shot.

Mighty No. 9

• Genre: Action Platforming
• Time Played: 17 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's pretty much the perfect length, my playtime is a bit long because I played through as both Beck and Ray, did some challenges, redid levels, and after a long hiatus had to get my bearings again.
• Pleased/Disappointed: More pleased than anyone else in the world, I think.
• Why I played: Had to keep the Mega Man's coming. I kickstarted Mighty No. 9 way back when. I also played it as soon as it came out. I also took a huge hiatus probably because those last levels are very difficult.
• Recommend to others: I would definitely recommend Mighty No. 9, especially over most other Mega Man-likes and even over many Mega Man games.

Mighty No. 9 gets an completely unjustified bad rap. I think because it was one of the earlier kickstarter's that blew up and failed to immediately deliver a triple-a product. Mighty No. 9 is not without it's flaws, but they're hardly in the game play. But honestly, so what that the mouths don't move during cutscenes, do you know how many games I've played where mouths don't move during cutscenes? It's not that weird.

Sure it got a lot of money, nearly 4 mil in the kickstarter, but it's only, and only ever was meant to be a 20 dollar game. It's definitely a 20 dollar game, if not more. I already went on a bit of a tangent when I finished Mighty Gunvolt Burst, but I do really wish people wouldn't give this game so much flak. I feel it's gotta be either from people who didn't bother playing it, or are just so hard-up with their bias of kickstarter controversy, which I feel like is barely a controversy. Missed launch dates and delays? Oh my word, I've never seen that in a video game.

It doesn't play EXACTLY like a Mega Man title? I'm glad it doesn't. It's fun. Not that Mega Man isn't, but while Mega Man 9 was a GREAT throwback at the time that really leaned into it, making it unique as a classic mega man in a more modern era. Mega Man 10 felt lacking as just more of the same. 11, which I just recently finished does have some decent level gimmicks and does try something with the Double Gear system, still felt like it was missing something.

Mighty No. 9 generally speaking, plays like a Mega Man game, has a bunch of variety in level gimmicks, has a lot going for it presentation wise, more story throughout the game, more character interaction, more fleshed out bosses and even it's own unique gimmicks that keep it feeling fresh, faced paced and fun to play. Damn, what a disappointment.

If you like Mega Man games or any of the other platformers Inti Creates makes, give it a shot if you haven't, and if you had and only had negative things to say about it, maybe take off your 2013 kickstarter green tinted glasses and try to enjoy it for what it is a stand alone product. Honestly I think this is one of the best Inti Creates games, and wish they would followed up with more of these, rather than Gunvolt and spin offs.

Mega Man 11

• Genre: Action Platforming
• Time Played: 5+ Hours
• Too Short/Long: I played it probably somewhere between 5-10 hours, but my save where I actually saved/finished is under 5 hours. It's not that long, but I kinda wish there was more.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Pleased, at first I had a rough time, and put the game off for awhile, but eventually it clicked and I am happy with it, I just wish there was more to it.
• Why I played: All the Mega Man-esque games I've been playing lately and there was still one Mega Man game I haven't finished.
• Recommend to others: As much as I'd recommend any other Mega Man game. I would just make sure to emphasize what I wish was made a point to me. Items are very important in this game. I've gone most Mega Man games without every using Beat and Eddie or spike negation or really anything other than e-tanks and lives. It's not as easy to make it through this game without them.

I kind of just said above one of my reasons for putting this game off so long. When it came out, I tried a few different levels to start and was just getting wrecked. I even tried picking it up a week or so ago in the middle of other Mega Man-like games. It was all I could do to get through one level.

Turns out I had been approaching the game wrong. Items and upgrades just seem absolutely essential to this one. Once I realized that, abused the items as much as possible, the game was cake. Or at least, more like I expected it to be. It was still an appropriate Mega Man level challenge, generally.

There are some aspect that are just frustrating. I hate Bounce Man's level and there are a couple other sequences which just feel annoying. What I do appreciate, is how much many of the different powers in this game actually help you progress through the level, and in more than the fact they just attack different areas. Some robot master powers just feel essential at certain points outside bosses.

While there was a little bit of story, a little bit of fanservice for Mega Man history, I feel like it could have been way more. There could have been more story sequences, they could have fleshed out the robot masters a bit more. Where are Proto Man and Bass? Where is my Rush Armor? It just could have done more to feel like a modernized Mega Man, rather than just a modern graphic Mega Man.

Anyway, once I got the hang of it, abused items, really used the shit out of the gear system, it finally synced and ended up being a pretty good game. Also this was created for the 30th anniversary of Mega Man, and it's the 30th game I finished this year, and I finished it on the 30th day of the month. How about that.

Mighty Gunvolt Burst

• Genre: Action Platforming
• Time Played: 10+ Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's right for what it is, I only wish you didn't have to replay every level in order to collect everything, but I guess when levels only take 5 minutes it's not too bad.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Pleased.
• Why I played: Mega Man styled game, and guess I wanted to squeeze in another Inti Creates game.
• Recommend to others: Sure, if you're looking for a Mega Man styled game. The fanservice is mostly directed at people who like the other Inti Creates games, but it can be enjoyed on it's own, it's pretty quick paced and not too difficult.

Mighty Gunvolt Burst is everything that everyone who is still mad about Mighty Number 9 really wanted. I personally can't get over the fact that 7 years later I still hear people piss and moan about Mighty Number 9. It's not even a bad game, I'd even argue it's pretty good. BUT it made 3 million on it's kickstarter... so... people wanted it to be... better? Bigger? It was never intended to be. I feel like somehow people thought 3 million on Kickstarter meant it's going to be a AAA title. But it did take a few years to come out, hit a couple delays and Inti Creates made some other games to kinda supplement it. 

Honestly, I still do not see why or agree with any reasons I've seen people still in fumes about Mighty Number 9. In my eyes, the people mad about it just wanted... this. A game that hits all the nostalgia points and full of fanservice. Mighty Number 9 was new and too different, took too long, etc etc. And it was the early days of Kickstarter, 10 years ago, so I think they just expected too much. It's honestly a shame though, because while the Azure Striker games are alright - I think Mighty Number 9 would have made a way better series to have seen 5 games from at this point (Not counting this and sans Burst).

Mighty Gunvolt Burst is a cute and more fleshed out follow up to Mighty Gunvolt(both which have alternate titles for playstation under Gal Gunvolt, for some reason). Overall it has simplified mechanics, and a customizable weapon system that can easily make you OP. It's a fun and quick paced romp, since the levels are only like 10 minutes max, it's easy to pick up and play in a short... burst.

I've played a bunch, a little bit as each character at least, the game definitely doesn't take 10 hours to beat, maybe a couple tops, but I finally actually finished it on my Ray playthrough. I love Ray. She's basically mean Zero of Mighty Number 9.

Blaster Master Zero 2

• Genre: Action Platforming
• Time Played: 12 Hours
• Too Short/Long: About right, probably could have cut out the last bit to save an hour or two and felt a bit better. It was one of those games that you think it's over and it's not. Sometimes they put in really cool things after doing that, sometimes not so much. This was somewhere in the middle.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Pleased.
• Why I played: I like most Blaster Master games, and I guess I'm just on a roll with Inti-Creates games right now.
• Recommend to others: I would recommend the first Blaster Master Zero, and if you liked that, I would definitely say pick this one up too.

I don't think I have as much to say about this one. It was pretty good, and it's been far too long since I played the first Blaster Master Zero to really compare them by any means. I wanna say the art is better in this one, especially when compared to the on foot-sections, and the action of the on foot sections is more fun, but I think there may have been more variety in the previous? Either way, the game already offers plenty of variety in having the top-down sections and the side scrolling, and challenges for on-foot in the side-scrolling, and toward the end there is some stuff that mixes it up even more. Though I'm not sure the section played out was the most fun, it was kind of fun to revisit stuff in a different way.

One thing I really hope the next game has is some kind of a run on foot or turbo boost in the vehicle. Sometimes I just wanna go fast and this jumping tank just crawls along... like a tank. It jumps and flies and sticks to walls, it can have a boost button!

Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger iX 2

• Genre: Action Platforming
• Time Played: 4 Hours
• Too Short/Long: Too short, I was digging it, I would have been happier with a couple more levels, but I guess it's mostly the standard for the formula so I can't complain much.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Exceptionally pleased.
• Why I played: I wanted more after the previous one.
• Recommend to others: Keeping in line with the last two, it's hard to recommend without any prior interest in the series, but I do think this one is the most recommendable, especially since the story or mechanics barely requires and prior Gunvolt series knowledge.

Luminous Avenger iX 2 is just a better and more fun game than the last. My single gripe when compared to the previous is that I wish it let me do more than one dash into enemies when not in overdrive or anthem mode. Even just a double dash would have greatly improved the flow of gameplay. The combo system in the last game wasn't a bad idea, but it got very repetitive, so they more or less dropped the bullit system all together. I would have enjoyed it being in here as long as it wasn't the main reliance. If they come out with a third. I hope it finds that balance somewhere between the first and second game.

Otherwise it was better than the last in almost every way. Level design was more interesting and varied, as were bosses. Powers were more interesting/unique and did more than just be a strength against some of the main bosses, but sub-bosses, certain enemies, and certain environmental hazards. It didn't go all out, they could have utilized these effects even more, but it was a notable improvement.

Because of all of those improvements, gameplay was just generally more fun moment-to-moment. Story is "got sucked into alternate dimension" so Gunvolty weirdness in story and terms is not really there, and and some of the Gunvolty systems and mechanics are simplified, so it's overall just a more accessible game.

Gunvolt Chronicles Luminous Avenger iX

• Genre: Action Platforming
• Time Played: 5 Hours
• Too Short/Long: Just right.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Pleased the normal amount.
• Why I played: I was left wanting after Azure Striker Gunvolt 3.
• Recommend to others: Maybe, if someone specifically said "I played Gunvolt, is Luminous Avenger iX any good?" I would say, yeah, if you liked Gunvolt, you should play Luminous Avenger iX.

Luminous Avenger iX is a more or less abridged Gunvolt game. There is less story chatter, less character interactions, and more just right into the game stuff. It's a little easier to follow story wise even though there is much less there, but that's also not saying much considering the convoluted basis. I don't know if I would say it's a better game than Gunvolt 3, but it is a game I appreciated more for what it was. The level design was more built around the mechanics. Maybe not as varied as Gunvolt 3, but somehow seemed more fitting.

 
The combat is also less chaotic even though it still kinda flips what you know about Mega Man style games on their head. You're literally supposed to bounce off enemies to lock onto them so you can spam your homing attack and special movies and spend as much of the game hovering and airdashing as possible. I also want to mention that the power ups/upgrades are much better than Gunvolt 3, going for that more traditional special move based off each boss you can cycle through and each boss having a weakness to one of them(also, a resistance), and while these have energy bars, they auto refill pretty quickly so you can pretty much use them as much as you want without worrying about if you'll lose access to it when you need it. Something I don't entirely love about other similar games.

Overall it felt much better while also being more of a challenge and made for a mostly short and sweet romp.

Azure Striker Gunvolt 3

• Genre: Action Platforming
• Time Played: 6.5 Hours
• Too Short/Long: Maybe about right? Maybe a bit short, but I feel like I must have left the game on for a bit, because it felt much shorter.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Neutralish.
• Why I played: I have played through the previous two Gunvolt games and a bit of Luminous Avenger.
• Recommend to others: Not particularly. I wouldn't recommend this one first, and even so the Gunvolt series is a bit weird in several aspects.

Azure Striker Gunvolt 3 is the first in the... specifically mainline series where you don't play as Gunvolt - entirely. You're mainly playing as Kirin, a new character in the distant future of the other Gunvolt games. Gunvolt is there, because story reasons, but he's mostly a dog except sometimes when you need an easy mode to get through obstacles or beat a boss. 

Gravity Circuit

• Genre: Action Platforming
• Time Played: 5 Hours, 25 Minutes
• Too Short/Long: Some levels feel too long and drag, other than that, it's just about right.
• Pleased/Disappointed: A little disappointed only because it looked cooler than it was and I thought it was gonna have a bit more to it.
• Why I played: It looked like a very cool Mega Man-like game.
• Recommend to others: Not as a first pick. If someone has exhausted many other Mega Man-like games and wanted a list of decent ones, I might put it on there.

Gravity Circuit was perfectly serviceable, but nothing really stood out. I pretty sure I play most at least half-way decent Mega Man clones and it's not really the first I'd recommend. It keeps that nice and classic look, it's more or less, pretty polished, maybe even more polished than some games I'd recommend over it, but it just doesn't have that special something to stand out. Everything is just like, pretty good, sure.

One of the main mechanics is a grappling hook which isn't always utilized to it's fullest and doesn't always function as it seems it should. You get some powers that use a fairly limited stock of energy, but honestly for the most part you can kinda just stick with what you get at the beginning as they all perform some kind of "it does damage that is a little better than regular attacks". You also get some upgrades you can buy but you can only equip a few and they're all about the same price and equally available after the first couple levels. So most of the progression and rewards just don't really feel very rewarding and Kai(Gravity Circuit) pretty much feels the same in the last level as he does most the game.

It feels really cool at first, but then it's exactly the same for the rest of the game. That's the main thing preventing it from really standing out.