Indeed, for as fun as Azure Striker Gunvolt is to play, it definitely suffers from its fair share of questionable design choices. With only three skill points to use at a time, and with those points regenerating slowly, some of the more powerful skills wipe out your meter completely that’s a real head-scratcher of a design decision that made me gun shy about trying them at all. It's cool that there are skills to exploit, but levels need to be designed to prompt me to try new things by making some skills advantageous or disadventagous in certain circumstances, or they’re pointless. In fact, I used one skill pretty much continuously throughout the game - a curative move that slightly healed me when activated with 3DS’ touch screen - and never felt the need to switch. But unlike classic platformers like Mega Man, Metroid, and Castlevania, the unlockable skills don’t interact with the levels in any interesting or necessary ways. Access to special skills - like an enormous lightning burst or a gigantic energy sword - is also given, but things aren’t quite Mega Man-esque, as a leveling system dictates which skills you learn (while also giving Gunvolt more and more hit points). Dialogue doesn't read stilted or awkwardly, even if it does obstruct progress, so if you want to jump into the lore, you can do so with a higher level of polish than many games coming out of Japan. Still, I have to give it up for Azure Striker Gunvolt's rock-solid translation. I like Gunvolt and his friends from a design perspective, with their ‘90s sci-fi aesthetic and interesting personalities, but I would have liked to hear less from them, especially as dialogue - while skippable - gets in the way of gameplay more often than not.
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It's confusing, frankly, and full of tropes, not all that unlike the 16-bit era games that inspired it. Unfortunately, Gunvolt's story doesn’t do it any favors. I especially dug fighting the Sumeragi agent Elise, who splits into two like Gemini Man in Mega Man 3, and Daytona, who seals his lair with fire, lessening the space you have to maneuver. Each Sumeragi agent employs his or her own unique set of skills and battle styles, skills and styles that, along with their respective stages, have an industrial design reminiscent of many early-to-mid-'90s platformers, though some designs do blur together in a sort of sameness. You can visit most stages in any order you'd like, fighting a member of a cast of well-designed bosses at the end of each. Not surprisingly, level structure takes a page or two out of the book of design from - you guessed it - Mega Man X. I’ve seen more enemy diversity in early NES games.
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The lack of diversity between the robotic fodder Gunvolt is expected to obliterate is actually staggering, with only small groupings of land-based and aerial foes to deal with. Unfortunately, while marking and destroying robots is incredibly satisfying, the disappointingly small roster of enemies diminished that satisfaction as I advanced. Gunvolt nails a comfortable space right in the middle. It's not nearly as fast as Sonic, nor is it as deliberate as Castlevania. Thankfully, this different approach to killing things doesn't harm the speed and fluidity of Azure Striker Gunvolt, which constantly goads you to keep on moving. This novel style of play is decidedly more complex than Mega Man X's.
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Once an enemy is tagged, Gunvolt is able to unleash his true power, shocking robotic thugs with electrical pulses called Flashfields that automatically gravitate towards those who are marked.
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What these pistols will do is "tag" enemies when fired. Regardless of which gun he's equipped with - there are several - they simply won't do much damage. Gunvolt's titular protagonist is armed with a pistol, but you won't be using it in typical fashion. The most unique aspect of Azure Striker Gunvolt is its combat. While it's in no way, shape, or form as good as X, it's certainly fun in its own right, and like Mega Man 9 and 10 before it, it provides a nostalgic trip for anyone who still finds value in games from an era gone by. Its latest, Azure Striker Gunvolt, is an original game that represents a natural evolution of that appreciation of retro gaming, done in the style of Mega Man X. Several years ago, Japanese developer Inti Creates captured the essence of the late-'80s with its spot-on entries in the classic Mega Man series, Mega Man 9 and 10.