Save Dr. Ray and your sisters from General Creeper that is trying to take over the world in this 2D, 16bit inspired platformer/shooter.
General Gameplay
Metalgal is a “Mega Man” style of action platformer shooter. The game is almost exactly just like any platformer shooter that is all about going through the level fighting the boss, taking their abilities and moving onto the next boss, till you get to the end boss battle. Metalgal is all about quick reflexes and be able to navigate through the levels and get to the bosses. The Game Visuals for Metalgal are created in a 16-bit era style. Everything from the game characters, enemies, backgrounds and bosses are in 16-bit graphics. This was done to give the game a retro feel and it works well for the presentation of the game. The game moves very fluid and there are no slowdowns on the screen when playing Metalgal. As the game does not support a colorblind mode, the colors are fine to see on the screen and it for those that have a red/green viewing issue should be fine to play the game. In our playtest, we did not see anything offensive to any younger gamers out there. The game is very family friendly in its presentation. Metalgal Audio is also done in a 16-bit era style of midi sounds and minimum voices. The game audio is satisfactory as it fits the game style. The background music is done well where it fits each level, and with sound effects and enemy movement and fire all match what it should sound like for a game like this. There are some voice overs for the characters but there is no language that we heard in our playtesting, so it is appropriate for all ages. The game is presented in 5.1 surround sound and it sounds well in a surround sound setting 2.0 stereo as well setting as well. The Controls for Metalgal are set up around be how a platformer/shooter should be. You control the character with the left thumb stick, or directional pad and there is a fire button, a button to use your special and a dash button to dash in the game. In our playtesting we did not see any issues with the game controls, if anything the controls fits this style of game without any problems. As the game can be played with the standard controller for the console, there is no need for a special controller for the game.
“Megalgal pays homage to the “Blue Bomber” in this retro style of gameplay, however some difficulty balances cause the game to be frustrating for some gamers.”
Family Friendly
As we loved Metalgal from its 16-bit style, to how tight the controls are and different levels style, there was one thing that all our reviewers had an issue with, the difficulty of the game. Now in the office during our playtesting, either our game testers had no issues or had a lot of issues with the gameplay. There were a lot of cheap deaths in the game in which frustrated some of our game testers, where others game testers that have played the “Mega Man” style are used to this type of brutal gameplay. Now the game does offer a “gear” system where you can use a gear to respawn right where you died in the game, however it was just a crutch for newer gamers as by the time most gamers got to the boss, there were either non prepared to fight the boss, or did not have enough resources to do this. Now I personally understand that these types of games are designed to be brutal and a lot harder for gamers, but would it have hurt to add an easier difficulty setting for newer games to be able to choose to play the game? Again, we here are not saying that Metalgal is a bad game and if you are a fan of the Mega Man series style of games, it is a must have for your digital library, however for those casual players and parents that game with their children. This may be one that you want to pass up. In our special needs game testing, some of our gamers were getting frustrated with the cheap deaths that were happening in the game and just decided not to finish the levels and play something else. Outside of this, the game graphics, audio and controls were fine for special needs gamers. Again, unless you or someone in your gaming family is a hard-core fan of the Mega Man series, best to pass this one up.
Closing
Metalgal does a lot of right things to feel unique from the “Blue Bomber” but with cheap deaths and overbearing difficulty for newer gamers, this is a game only for hard core platformer fans.
