Have you ever had a game that within the first 10 seconds of playing you know you were going to love it? Well that's exactly how I felt playing 20XX the game developed by batterystaple games and fire hose games. Which is now available to play on Xbox One, PS4, Switch and on Steam. The controls are reminiscent of Mega Man X on the Super Nintendo, so as soon as you start playing it all feels very familiar I knew exactly what to do, right off the bat you have your weapon charge power and your dash power and that's an awesome thing.
When the game opens you have a scene that is just like the
introduction to Mega Man 2 if you have played it before. Only at the
top of the building you meet our heroine Nina and her friend/partner Ace. These
characters are just like X and Zero in the Mega Man X series, Nina uses a
blaster and Ace has a laser blade type thing. The city behind the
tower is full of explosions and destruction, and of course behind it all is a
mad scientist/inventor but 2 that resemble Dr. Wily and Dr. Light to make it
crazier! They don't seem outright evil more like bumbling screw ups so far. This
leads you into the crazy platforming, roguelike action!
There are 3 difficulty levels to choose from, but keep in mind if
you choose the easiest setting you won't be earning achievements in the game.
So if you want to brag to your friends with your accomplishments then you need
to play on Normal difficulty or higher. When you get to the HQ you can
choose your character, unlock items, get permanent upgrades and choose items
for your next run.
Instead of the usual format of the Mega Man games where
you pick a boss and fight through his stage memorizing as you go, you have a
randomly chosen stage that changes as soon as you get a game over so you will
be doing runs. So it's definitely going to be a lot harder to rely on muscle
memory to get through the stages! Throughout the level there are
stations where you can exchange your bolts for HP there's usually one in the
corridor right before the boss so you can get powered up. Instead of
just trying to defeat each of the individual stages you are now doing runs,
trying to see how many stages and bosses you can get through until you die. There
are also Glory Rooms where you have to beat all the enemies in the room in a
certain amount of time, if you are able to clear the room you will get power
ups like health or armor upgrades. When you finally get
through a stage and beat the boss then you have a choice of taking the enemies
weapon, bolts so you can buy your own upgrade from the HQ or an Aug that is
like an armor upgrade like a belt that makes you move faster, these are almost
like the capsule upgrades in Mega Man X. Once you have chosen your
item you have a choice from 3 stages where you are going to go next.
If you happen to die during your play through, you will get a
death report. These reports tell you some really interesting stats
from your run, like how many enemies you destroyed, how many times you shot,
the length of your run, how you died then comments from the Bureau
of Encouragement or the Bureau of Failure. The comments are so
entertaining and I always look forward to reading the next one.
One of the ways 20XX differs from the Mega Man series is you have
the choice to play with a friend, local or online multiplayer. I
love that the choice for local multiplayer is there, there's nothing like
playing game together in the same room! It's definitely not something that is
very common in later games, it's usually online only. You can be Nina and
Ace or if you both want to be the same character that's okay too, you will just
be different colors. This is really a cool option, so you can share
the challenge with a friend, fight over power ups and set high score and time
records together.
There is so much here to keep you busy for a long time! Though
at the same time it also doesn't require a huge time commitment, at least not
from the very beginning if you are like me.
A lot of my runs only last for around 15 minutes before I get a game
over. Besides the main game there is a
daily challenge for score and time, a weekly challenge for both, hardcore
versions of all, a mode called Rush Job that is a speed play through of
involving the bosses, Seed Racer where you set the parameters for a challenge
mode like Marathon to make the levels longer, no upgrades, Lightning where the
game runs at 150% speed which makes it crazy challenging. I'm sure I
will come across more as I get more time to play but this game definitely gives
you your moneys worth!
After playing you can always check the leaderboards section you
can see how you place against your friends or all the players online. If you
love sidescrolling action games that pose a challenge this is a must download
game, especially if you are a competitive person this game definitely has
something for you. It makes the Mega Man fan in me so happy. Just
so you know how much I love my Mega Man I have a tattoo of him... So if you
love action, platforming games, especially that are roguelike this is a must
buy. It's definitely Mega Man with a twist!
Check out half an hour of gameplay that I recorded from my first
playthrough. I'll be putting up footage from multiplayer next!
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