Meanwhile, it has been over seven years since Capcom released a new Mega Man game. The ever-iconic franchise of the Japanese gaming company seems to have been written dead and is only taken out of the closet for ports and a single cameo at the time. But not annoyed: who is willing to squeeze a little, finds in Azure Striker Gunvolt a worthy successor to the blue bombardier. One of which the first two games now on the Switch are bundled into an HD remaster.
In the Azure Striker Gunvolt Striker Pack you will find Gunvolt 1 and 2, two games released first for the Nintendo 3DS. Both ports have a higher resolution and are played in 60 frames per second. In addition, all the bonuses from a previous PC port have been taken to the Switch version, such as the Japanese voters who talk to each other.
The base of both games will be familiar to Mega Man fans: After playing an intro level, you have the choice of multiple levels with the end of the game to beat. If you have taken down all bosses, you will be counted to a series of final levels in which you will have to beat all bosses one after another, before you get an eye on an extremely difficult ending curd.
Inti Creates
That resemblance to Mega Man is no coincidence. Developer Inti Creates has been closely linked to Capcom's mascot since the beginning of the 21st century when the company developed the spin-off Mega Man Zero. They picked up a Mega Man X series side personality and built a new game series around with the same ankeiler we used to be of Mega Man: troublesome levels, challenging boss fights and an intense control. There would be three more follow-ups and two spin-offs.
Capcom has become more or less finished with Mega Man, but Inti Creates is clearly not yet available. You will not only see the similarities in the gameplay, but also the story in the game. Where it was in Mega Man Zero about the conflict between man and robot, Gunvolt is talking about the conflict between man and adept. These people are able to use special powers, just like the Mega Man robots have special skills. It may be clear: Gunvolt is an excuse for Inti Creates to continue to develop the same type of games, with another world to avoid fighting with Capcom.
However, that does not mean that the two Gunvolt games are completely identical to Mega Man. The powers of the main character (also called Gunvolt) prove that like no other. His gun does not serve to inflict damage to enemies, but to mark them for a special power attack. Mark three enemies with your gun and hold down the trigger, and you will be injured at the same time.
The power field that Gunvolt can activate is deployed in a variety of creative ways. You do not just kill enemies, but use him to float, activate lifts and block projectiles coming from you. Is your flow meter full enough? Then by enemies even through you at the expense of a piece of the beam. That's all getting used to, but Gunvolt plays great once you master the systems. This is a game that requires quick thinking and even faster reflexes, but rewards you with the feeling that you are supremacy.
High-scores
The difficulty of Azure Striker Gunvolt 1 and 2 is relatively high, but is not comparable to previous Zero games. In default mode, you will not die at once when you get into a frying pan and do not have a limited amount of life left for your game. You can always restart from a checkpoint. The game is only difficult if you want to go to a highscore, because you can only hit three points between checkpoints if you want to keep a high score.
I sometimes had the idea that the game made me feel too easy. This is especially true of the sparing moments when an angel comes to you "save" at a time when you die, so you can instantly infinite electricity. Failure in Gunvolt rarely occurs unless you are willing to feel bad about a low score.
Only by the end of both games is the level of difficulty suddenly rising. If you want to see the real ends, you must defeat the last boss with a specific handicap. A definite job that certainly took us one hour at the end boss - but what made for a lot of satisfaction.
In the second game you can play alongside Gunvolt with Copen - a rival who can copy the forces of enemies with his weapon. This makes this person suspiciously thinking of Mega Man, although the similarities are happily happening. Copen is characterized by a fighter style, in which you must especially float through the air and fight opponents, which requires a different play style than Gunvolt. I found Copen just a bit more fun and varied. If you're a bit of a walk with the character, you feel like you never have to hit the ground.
Conclusion
Azure Striker Gunvolt 1 and 2 actually do everything that the latest Mega Man games did. As a result, these are not only worthy spiritual successors for the blue bombardier, but the games are also fine on their own as a new action platformer series.
Azure Striker Gunvolt Striker Pack is now available for Nintendo Switch.
➕ Great feeling if you play effectively, nice highscore system
➖ Feels sometimes a bit too easy if you do not care about highscores
Thanks for reading.
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