Pocky was enjoying a quiet cup of tea in her shrine, when Rocky the Raccoon, a Nopino goblin came running to Pocky. "Something terrible has happened. My fellow Nopino goblins have lost their minds. When I woke up, they were very agitated. When I tried to calm them, they came after me." "Why"? "I don't know, but I believe that they are under the spell of another force.... In any case, I can not handle this by myself. I need your help." Who on earth has cast the spell and are controlling the Nopino goblins? And what for? Find out as Pocky and Rocky battle the Goblins in this epic adventure from Natsume.
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tight
wow, pocky AND rocky! they are both here!
it's about 3 stages deep into P&R when I was second guessing how much I really wanted to keep playing it. I decided I'm too tough of a Gamer to consider giving it up. built differently. perhaps incorrectly.
either way, seeing P&R through to the end was pretty damn cathartic. successfully diving to safety 25% of the time, then into a hazard/wall or entirely off the stage the other 75%. forgetting to deflect while trying to shoot everything before everything kills me. accidentally picking up the wrong power-up and having my weapon reset to level 1 near the end of the stage. manically tapping the d-pad to perfectly position myself to attack before realizing the boss had already started making its move.
after coming down from the high of finishing it, I think I'd actually say it's almost equal parts fun and frustrating. love the presentation. it's cute. I'm a sucker for yokai stuff. that difficulty left me mollywhopped though. good game.
either way, seeing P&R through to the end was pretty damn cathartic. successfully diving to safety 25% of the time, then into a hazard/wall or entirely off the stage the other 75%. forgetting to deflect while trying to shoot everything before everything kills me. accidentally picking up the wrong power-up and having my weapon reset to level 1 near the end of the stage. manically tapping the d-pad to perfectly position myself to attack before realizing the boss had already started making its move.
after coming down from the high of finishing it, I think I'd actually say it's almost equal parts fun and frustrating. love the presentation. it's cute. I'm a sucker for yokai stuff. that difficulty left me mollywhopped though. good game.
me and my dog
Cute But Unforgiving
Pocky & Rocky is that typical cute run 'n gun game trap. Where the graphics, while not hugely outstanding, are nevertheless charming, with the environment designs are well crafted, there's a nice variation of enemy designs and there is nice use of colours to give it a cute feel. But beneath its seemingly dorky smile is a game that is tough.
Even normal is a big challenge and you can forget about Hard mode until you’re able to memorize the game to the point of second nature and have cat-like reflexes.
A lot of this boils down to the issues the game has. The stages have cheap gimmicks, from the the enemies, bosses and, from stage 2 onwards, environments themselves. Hitbox detection is wonky so just as you think you’ve avoided a hit, you’ve lost health (or a life). And your invincibility window when hit is so small, you might as well see it as losing a life in certain events. The fact that after taking two hits you depower, so in later stages, this is all but near-certain death and while the controls are solid and you have some nifty defence and offence options, the lack of being able to lock a direction and fire while moving does add to the difficulty.
All these add to make a challenging game become cheap at the later levels. There may only be six stages and in theory this game lasts an hour but good luck progressing far into the game for a good many hours.
It's worth giving Pocky & Rocky a go, just to see the quirky nature of the game and loose story. But one can't ignore that the difficulty creep will become too much for everyone but the really determined.
Rating: 6/10
Pocky & Rocky is that typical cute run 'n gun game trap. Where the graphics, while not hugely outstanding, are nevertheless charming, with the environment designs are well crafted, there's a nice variation of enemy designs and there is nice use of colours to give it a cute feel. But beneath its seemingly dorky smile is a game that is tough.
Even normal is a big challenge and you can forget about Hard mode until you’re able to memorize the game to the point of second nature and have cat-like reflexes.
A lot of this boils down to the issues the game has. The stages have cheap gimmicks, from the the enemies, bosses and, from stage 2 onwards, environments themselves. Hitbox detection is wonky so just as you think you’ve avoided a hit, you’ve lost health (or a life). And your invincibility window when hit is so small, you might as well see it as losing a life in certain events. The fact that after taking two hits you depower, so in later stages, this is all but near-certain death and while the controls are solid and you have some nifty defence and offence options, the lack of being able to lock a direction and fire while moving does add to the difficulty.
All these add to make a challenging game become cheap at the later levels. There may only be six stages and in theory this game lasts an hour but good luck progressing far into the game for a good many hours.
It's worth giving Pocky & Rocky a go, just to see the quirky nature of the game and loose story. But one can't ignore that the difficulty creep will become too much for everyone but the really determined.
Rating: 6/10
Luckily I realized halfway through that this game is spiking it difficulty pretty fast, because I restarted on easy after two stages and it was definitely the right decision. The game was still fairly challenging and getting to know the levels feels important to get through the higher ones. Especially since you lose your power-ups after a few hits.
The game looks amazing, the OST is very nice and it has a coop mode which I couldn't try. It doesn't have much variety in terms of power-ups and both characters play exactly the same, but the challenge makes up for it. Might go back and try to beat in on normal sometime.
The game looks amazing, the OST is very nice and it has a coop mode which I couldn't try. It doesn't have much variety in terms of power-ups and both characters play exactly the same, but the challenge makes up for it. Might go back and try to beat in on normal sometime.