Fun, but short
Mighty Gunvolt developed by Inti Creations, the team that also worked on Mighty No 9, is a 8-bit inspired mega man clone. These type of side-scrolling action games are almost always compared to the Mega Man series of games because they are the pinnacle of the genre. Mighty Gunvolt released in 2014 came as a free download to backers of Mighty No 9 on kickstarter, or in my case as a free download with the purchase of Azure Striker Gunvolt on the 3ds e-shop.
The game, Mighty Gunvolt, is essentially a spin-off of Mighty No 9. The game features three playable characters including Beck (Mighty No 9.), Gunvolt (Azure Striker Gunvolt), and Ekoro (Gal-Gun). Together, these three characters must rescue all of the schoolgirls who have been captured and held to prevent love from spreading. The story is a brief text scene at the start of the game and is poorly translated on purpose as a throwback to the 8-bit days!
The core gameplay in Mighty Gunvolt is similar to any game in this genre and relies heavily on pattern memorization. The player traverses through 5 short stages blasting enemies and performing basic platforming until the boss in each stage is reached. Score multiplier power-ups and extra lives/health can be collected along the way! One of the drawbacks to Mighty Gunvolt is that the difficulty is not there when compared to other games in the genre. It is very easy to blast through the game without dying much. The boss fights offer a little more difficulty than the levels, but I would have appreciated a more difficult game. I only struggled with one boss for the first time and after that the game was a piece of cake.
Variation comes in the special abilities of the three playable characters. Beck has a charge dash attack, Gunvolt has a long flamethrower esque attach, and Ekoro can trance enemies to fight along her. Unfortunately, none of the special attacks are very powerful or very useful. Ekoro does have a cool hover jump instead of a double jump!
The music and visuals of the game are spot on to replicate the feel of a NES 8-bit style side scrolling action game! The graphics do feel modern, think of it more as refined 8-bit visuals. I dig the atmosphere, visual style, and music of the game.
Overall Mighty Gunvolt is a quick fun action game to play that will pull at some nostalgia strings. However, with the lack of replayability and overall value at a price any other than free it can be hard to recommend this game as an actual purchase. The standard price tag of $4.99 on steam really is not worth the 2-3 hours of gameplay at most this game will provide. The inclusion of some unlockables, secrets, or some more gameplay would make Mighty Gunvolt a lot easier to recommend. For a free download absolutly give each character a playthorugh, but as a purchase it might not be for everyone. Still Mighty Gunvolt is a quick, fun experience!
7/10 Score