The first two worlds of this game are a 5/5, EASILY. The electric suit creates some of the most compelling action platformer combat I've ever experienced, and the utility of the fire suit makes exploring the second world an absolute joy. However, after that, the game dips hard as a result of suits either finicky, mediocre, or positively baffling.
I still do like this game, but knowing that I'll never experience the true ending due to some frustrating mid-to-late game mechanics is a bummer.
I still do like this game, but knowing that I'll never experience the true ending due to some frustrating mid-to-late game mechanics is a bummer.
Pretty solid game. The movements are smooth, the gameplay is fun, but it lacks a little on the repetitive level design
The story is about as cookie-cutter as it gets and the presentation and voice work could both use some TLC. However, these criticisms are easy to forgive when the central mechanics of Berserk Boy click together so effortlessly, providing satisfying, fast-paced, and exhilarating 2D action.
Check out my full review in March 2024's Now Playing: https://neoncloudff.wordpress.com/2024/03/31/now-playing-march-2024-edition/
Check out my full review in March 2024's Now Playing: https://neoncloudff.wordpress.com/2024/03/31/now-playing-march-2024-edition/
pretty neat, platforming traversal is fun, combat could be better
Had a blast with it all the way through despite some repetitive encounters and missions plus a lack of level variety. Must play for 2D action platformers enthusiasts
TEE LOPES MENTIONED
acho que os desenvolvedores foram muito visionários nesse debut e isso resultou em um jogo com muitas ideias muito boas que são pouco utilizadas. é meio paia não precisar usar mais do que 2 transformações pra passar das fases. achei que faltou uma criatividade ali no level design. o que é triste, pq a gameplay disso é uma DELÍCIA. todo o resto é impecável. poderia ter sido bem melhor.
acho que os desenvolvedores foram muito visionários nesse debut e isso resultou em um jogo com muitas ideias muito boas que são pouco utilizadas. é meio paia não precisar usar mais do que 2 transformações pra passar das fases. achei que faltou uma criatividade ali no level design. o que é triste, pq a gameplay disso é uma DELÍCIA. todo o resto é impecável. poderia ter sido bem melhor.
(At the time of writing this, I beat the main game and am combing through for collectibles)
While it has a lot of neat ideas and an amazing OST from Tee Lopes, the core gameplay itself is brought down by bland and predictable level design. Your character ends up acquiring a bunch of different suits with unique abilities (such as zipping around in a flash of lightning or literally becoming the drill wisp from Sonic Colors), but you'll often find yourself doing the same kinds of platforming challenges over and over. I can't tell you how many times I bounced off of enemies over spikes or used the drill while running away from spiked walls over the course of the 15 main missions.
One other thing worth mentioning is that the second-to-last upgrade you get, which is a suit that enables flight, kind of breaks the game at certain points. There are a decent number of sections following this upgrade where you're intended to use the Ice Kunai (basically a ninja) to climb across these narrow ledges while avoiding obstacles, but you can just as easily swap to the flight suit and trivialize the whole thing.
There is also a ranking system per stage, but it seems to be similar to that of Sonic Generations' ranking system. (Basically you're good to go as long as you are somewhat thorough and do not die)
Overall this is not a bad game by any means, but I do think reviewers are hyping it up a little bit too much. It's a great "wait for a sale" kind of game (or, alternatively, something to get if you had an abundance of gold coins on switch and can knock the price down that way) but not necessarily a must-play at $20.
While it has a lot of neat ideas and an amazing OST from Tee Lopes, the core gameplay itself is brought down by bland and predictable level design. Your character ends up acquiring a bunch of different suits with unique abilities (such as zipping around in a flash of lightning or literally becoming the drill wisp from Sonic Colors), but you'll often find yourself doing the same kinds of platforming challenges over and over. I can't tell you how many times I bounced off of enemies over spikes or used the drill while running away from spiked walls over the course of the 15 main missions.
One other thing worth mentioning is that the second-to-last upgrade you get, which is a suit that enables flight, kind of breaks the game at certain points. There are a decent number of sections following this upgrade where you're intended to use the Ice Kunai (basically a ninja) to climb across these narrow ledges while avoiding obstacles, but you can just as easily swap to the flight suit and trivialize the whole thing.
There is also a ranking system per stage, but it seems to be similar to that of Sonic Generations' ranking system. (Basically you're good to go as long as you are somewhat thorough and do not die)
Overall this is not a bad game by any means, but I do think reviewers are hyping it up a little bit too much. It's a great "wait for a sale" kind of game (or, alternatively, something to get if you had an abundance of gold coins on switch and can knock the price down that way) but not necessarily a must-play at $20.
Un de mes coups de coeurs du Steam Next Fest, Berserk Boy est une lettre d'amour au Action-Platformer rétro comme Mega Man/Sonic avec son action frénétique et rapidité!
La fin, par contre, est vraiment décevante...
La fin, par contre, est vraiment décevante...
I liked it decently enough until the game locked getting an actual ending behind getting collectibles or some shit.
A pretty darn decent Mega man-like. Or Gunvolt-like. Doesn't really matter, I think all action platformer fans will get a kick out of this one.
Gameplay carries hard, which is a silly thing to point out but bear with me. Your forms are mostly very fun to use and switch around on the fly. The combat is satisfying and speeding through the levels becomes second nature as you progress. And having Tee Lopes as the composer guarantees an excellent soundtrack, and the story does it's job with a satisfying enough ending.
So it's fun, and that's important, but the level design is sometimes very dry and samey. The individual acts don't really have memorable distinctions from one another. Also it might be just a me thing, but the collectable medals would be way more fun if you didn't have to bank them in the teleporters.
The one thing I absolutely hate is the little scenarios where the bad guys attack your ship. It happens 3 times, has no relevancy for the plot and every encounter feels tedious. With how closely the game resembles the Mega Man Zero/ZX series, you'd think they would borrow the blueprints for a good attack scenario... Speaking of Zero/ZX, the model HX equivalent got hit way too hard in the act of balancing all of your forms out. I appreciate that one doesn't outweigh the others, but the lack of a directional airdash and the terrible attack options make Soaring Wind the worst form to play as for no real reason. You have a multi-direction dash while flying anyway, so why not cut the middleman and make me able to do that while grounded? It's stupid.
Nevertheless, I aprreciated the time I had with Berserk Boy but it doesn't quite live up to it's full potential. It gets pretty close though
Gameplay carries hard, which is a silly thing to point out but bear with me. Your forms are mostly very fun to use and switch around on the fly. The combat is satisfying and speeding through the levels becomes second nature as you progress. And having Tee Lopes as the composer guarantees an excellent soundtrack, and the story does it's job with a satisfying enough ending.
So it's fun, and that's important, but the level design is sometimes very dry and samey. The individual acts don't really have memorable distinctions from one another. Also it might be just a me thing, but the collectable medals would be way more fun if you didn't have to bank them in the teleporters.
The one thing I absolutely hate is the little scenarios where the bad guys attack your ship. It happens 3 times, has no relevancy for the plot and every encounter feels tedious. With how closely the game resembles the Mega Man Zero/ZX series, you'd think they would borrow the blueprints for a good attack scenario... Speaking of Zero/ZX, the model HX equivalent got hit way too hard in the act of balancing all of your forms out. I appreciate that one doesn't outweigh the others, but the lack of a directional airdash and the terrible attack options make Soaring Wind the worst form to play as for no real reason. You have a multi-direction dash while flying anyway, so why not cut the middleman and make me able to do that while grounded? It's stupid.
Nevertheless, I aprreciated the time I had with Berserk Boy but it doesn't quite live up to it's full potential. It gets pretty close though
Mu bueno divertido musica loca los menus algo raros nada mas arrancar sale un disclaimer " en los tutoriales no se cambian las teclas automaticamente a las que tengas asignadas" tio que cojones de cartel es ese cuando arranco el juego
Expected an average score of 4.5/5 here...sigh. Why even bothering with this website.
This is pure awesomeness obviously inspired by the Megaman X series, but with the exaggerated awesomeness of the animations and gameplay this is already something I'm looking forward to return.
This is pure awesomeness obviously inspired by the Megaman X series, but with the exaggerated awesomeness of the animations and gameplay this is already something I'm looking forward to return.
Muy buen Megaman-Zero, con excelente musica, stages dificiles desde el comienzo. Las habilidades estan bien hechas y los combos que podes hacer estan excelentes. No le pongo 5 por un par de bugs y quizas la historia pudo haber estado mas prolija y no apurada.
Fluid and fast-paced gameplay, and a pretty good soundtrack is juxtposed against a severe lack of identity and a lack of interesting level design to tie it all together. The inspirations drawn from Mega Man Zero & ZX are all centered around how cool and actiony it was, while neglecting that the reason why Mega Man Zero's setting worked at all, is because of its cinematic, darker mood that was built up from its more lighthearted predecessors. By comparison, Berserk Boy has its first game and is already trying to eat its cake. Crafting a dialogue-heavy story around its world, while at the same time having little to offer but a set of legally distinct elemental Guardian characters, and some fire puns. Mega Man's initial simplicity allowed it to establish a personality. Berserk Boy's comparative complexity, due to its desire to take as much from Mega Man as possible, instead gives it an identity crisis.
What could've been just one level, is always drawn out into three seperate ones, each relying on the same gimmick rather than introducing a new one per stage. As another review here pointed out, this does very much lead into repetition, and occasional instances of a level going on for far too long. After a while, every decision I've made in the game was a backseat to my mind wandering to other places. Berserk Boy was still fun to play, but it was the sort of mindless popcorny fun that I'd play for 10 minutes on a lunch break, while thinking up what I'd do with the rest of my day. That very idea, that I was playing a Mega Man-like without any desire to commit to beating it over one or two nights - indicated to me that there's something very off here.
Masahiro Sakurai recently posted a video that conveniently pertains to Berserk Boy's dilemma. It's fine to take influences and inspirations from your favorite titles, and try to make your own game with it. That's how evolution happens. Shovel Knight took influences from many NES titles, but ultimately, that game spun things well enough that what people see in Shovel Knight, is Shovel Knight. I don't see Berserk Boy in Berserk Boy. I see a riff on everything I've already played before, with no special element of its own.
What could've been just one level, is always drawn out into three seperate ones, each relying on the same gimmick rather than introducing a new one per stage. As another review here pointed out, this does very much lead into repetition, and occasional instances of a level going on for far too long. After a while, every decision I've made in the game was a backseat to my mind wandering to other places. Berserk Boy was still fun to play, but it was the sort of mindless popcorny fun that I'd play for 10 minutes on a lunch break, while thinking up what I'd do with the rest of my day. That very idea, that I was playing a Mega Man-like without any desire to commit to beating it over one or two nights - indicated to me that there's something very off here.
Masahiro Sakurai recently posted a video that conveniently pertains to Berserk Boy's dilemma. It's fine to take influences and inspirations from your favorite titles, and try to make your own game with it. That's how evolution happens. Shovel Knight took influences from many NES titles, but ultimately, that game spun things well enough that what people see in Shovel Knight, is Shovel Knight. I don't see Berserk Boy in Berserk Boy. I see a riff on everything I've already played before, with no special element of its own.
I think there are some cool ideas, and the Mega Man influence is lovingly unsubtle, but it just didn't click with me.
I understand what they were going for with the combat, but it's just a little too oversimplified for me. It definitely makes you feel like you're blazing through levels at a breakneck pace, but it isn't necessarily in a fully satisfying way. Hits don't feel that meaty and having to stop to send out the kill shock to most enemies kind of destroys any combat flow the game tries to set up. There were glimpses of this in rooms with back-to-back enemies that lead you to the end of the room, but I ultimately wanted more of that, and the game didn't supply.
Also, I'm not a huge fan of the art style, but that's entirely a personal thing.
I understand what they were going for with the combat, but it's just a little too oversimplified for me. It definitely makes you feel like you're blazing through levels at a breakneck pace, but it isn't necessarily in a fully satisfying way. Hits don't feel that meaty and having to stop to send out the kill shock to most enemies kind of destroys any combat flow the game tries to set up. There were glimpses of this in rooms with back-to-back enemies that lead you to the end of the room, but I ultimately wanted more of that, and the game didn't supply.
Also, I'm not a huge fan of the art style, but that's entirely a personal thing.
GO BERSERK!!
Berserk Boy has this amazing ability to successfully pull together things I love like the high-speed allure of Sonic, the boss battles, progression and style of the Mega Man Z/X series, and even precision platforming reminiscent of Celeste. The best part of this fusion of inspirations is that goes beyond just homages to make some that feels totally new and different. Keeping true to a retro aesthetics but with welcome modern sensibilities. The journey is filled with gorgeous pixel art and matched with a RIPPING soundtrack. There's a lot to love here and you can just feel the passion throughout. Just when I thought I'd had my fill with the main campaign things like the EX Missions started to really give me a test and flex the design. There's enough here to be worth it but it stays tight at the core because it cuts bloat. I know I'll be revisiting this one over again when I've got a classic itch! Big Recommend.
((ALSO MY FRIEND MADE THIS GAME I AM FULLY BIASED I DON'T CARE I AM PROUD OF HIM))
Berserk Boy has this amazing ability to successfully pull together things I love like the high-speed allure of Sonic, the boss battles, progression and style of the Mega Man Z/X series, and even precision platforming reminiscent of Celeste. The best part of this fusion of inspirations is that goes beyond just homages to make some that feels totally new and different. Keeping true to a retro aesthetics but with welcome modern sensibilities. The journey is filled with gorgeous pixel art and matched with a RIPPING soundtrack. There's a lot to love here and you can just feel the passion throughout. Just when I thought I'd had my fill with the main campaign things like the EX Missions started to really give me a test and flex the design. There's enough here to be worth it but it stays tight at the core because it cuts bloat. I know I'll be revisiting this one over again when I've got a classic itch! Big Recommend.
((ALSO MY FRIEND MADE THIS GAME I AM FULLY BIASED I DON'T CARE I AM PROUD OF HIM))