I'll admit that I was a bit interested in it simply because it's published by Yacht Club who is best known for Shovel Knight. And pleased I was...though my hands pained from the action played.
The premise..is weird. You play as Shadow who wakes up from his sleep by some robot and the robot tells him that Mekacity is in shambles because of Dr.Progen going berserk after being unable to save his daughter essence and Shadow must save her..by restoring the ninja clan...
Yeah, the story is weird and the weakest point of the game. It's basically just a fancy Super Mario plot. Like literally the game tells you to save her at all costs just like Mario(Not to mention that there are also secrets that are direct references to the Super Mario series).
The same goes for the cast as they just sit there and do nothing. Sure, they tell you what's going on and what to do but it's not like it's not obvious what going on and what to do either. So to sum up the story..a futuristic Super Mario plot that involves saving a damsel who trains you..to save her...yeah I know.
No wonder her dad hates this guy...
But ok the plot's not great but everything else is. The game is structured like those of classic NES platformers. The most notable is Ninja Gaiden just by the swinging of the sword. You make progress slicing enemies and defeating one sub-boss and the main boss in each chapter. At the end of each chapter, you get a new move that makes your life easier(more on that later).
Along the way, you earn money that you can use to refill HP and SP at a small cost though frankly, the amount you get is very less. At max, you can only get 2 for each enemy, crate, or anything you slice. But what is SP you ask? It's a special gauge that lets you use the special techniques that you can use from your main moves.
Some moves are locked with it(like the shuriken) while others can be used to make them a bit stronger like the air striking which allows you to strike enemies from the air instantly or an uppercut that shoots flame balls above. Of course, if your SP is empty, you get no additional effects from these moves thus making them weaker.
So how is the level design? Pretty good as there is a lot of variety here. You have your basic broken cities type, factory kinds, stealth kinds, a bit of nasty stuff here and there, the works. The levels represent their gimmicks enough that you know what the level's gimmick is focused on, and the levels do a good job of rewarding you for destroying cracked walls like in Castlevania where you can get items or secrets.
As for how platforming is, the controls are very tight and responsive so you shouldn't have any problems reaching platforms. While there is knockback upon getting hit, the platforms are broad enough that you won't always instantly fall down to death because of the platform's space.
Spikes are instant deaths however and they are placed most often below while some others at the sides. While bottomless pits are present, I believe they aren't very frequent and only a few levels have them.
The only issue I have with the controls is performing certain moves like running faster and parrying because they require tapping the d-pad fast. Certain platforms will be hard to reach early on, but once you get all the moves, you'll be able to reach them in no time.
Like the Airstriking ability which lets you bounce on enemies, and this allows you to do higher jumps as long as you keep using that pogo stick.
This is what I meant by nasty!
So that's the gist of the overall game. Just run, slice, and beat the bosses like your typical classic games era. So if it's that simple, then what makes it so special in the first place you may ask? Well, a couple of things.
First of is that the enemies have so much variety in them and each one has their own form of attacking you. Some are one slice kills while others can take more than a hit. You never feel like you're seeing the same enemy type constantly unlike most games like Ninja Gaiden, Mega Man, and many others who have the same enemies with few new ones.
Sure, it will mean that it has some learning curve for each level since many enemies are new but considering the game's difficulty, it makes no difference either way as you're going to keep dying on your first playthrough. The same can be said for the bosses as they have good attacks and make quite a challenge just to beat them.
Secondly, the game visuals are stunning especially its animated cutscenes. And yes, it's been done to death countless times. But it really does feel rewarding to see explosion sprites of enemies and the sword slashes. Even the backgrounds are good to look at. The only type of visuals that are not nearly immersive is those brief cyber sections that take place inside of some kind of a pod.
And thirdly the music. This is seriously some good stuff almost on par with that of Ninja Gaiden but a bit of a modern twist here and there. Most instruments are chiptune based but there are a few songs that use modern instrumentations. It's upbeat, fast, and chaotic which fits the theme of the overall game.
This part right here. You first beat blue robots, Then purple ones that give out flames that can hurt you and destroy those crates. Then after the crates are destroyed, a robot with legs springs up there! So much enemy variety!
But now it's time to talk about the cons..big time and I know it sucks but no game is ever perfect. The main one is the difficulty. The game can get brutal. For one thing, enemies come in large quantities and you're hardly given enough breathing space.
On top of this, health pickups are very scarce. Most of the time, you get less replenishment of health, and very rarely do you recover in large amounts.
You're only real chance of getting a full heal is reaching checkpoints which the game also isn't very generous as they appear after two or three sections later meaning you are often forced to do large chunks of the levels over again.
Though the drop rates for SP and money are good enough and enemies unlike Ninja Gaiden, for the most part, do not respawn off-screen after killing them until you leave areas so there is some level of fairness.
And the game has certain power-ups that can be found midway or through checkpoints that appear based on the levels. Like the Blade Extend which extends your sword's range and makes it more powerful and another one called Swag Blade that ricochets around you defeating enemies from anywhere it swings to. However, getting hit a few times deactivates the power-up, so you still need to be careful.
It also doesn't help that because of moves being locked on earlier, your beginning progress gets much harder than later ones until once you get three of them(which are called essence) which honestly, should have been with you from the beginning because even if you account that the moves you get help unlock certain areas, only five of them are broadly used while the rest serve as utilities for combat.
This one looks tough..but it's a cakewalk if you do what I did.
The other problem is the collectibles. Besides HP, SP, and money items that do their things, there are three upgrades that you can get. One upgrades your health by one, one where if you get three of them...upgrades your health by one, and the last one..upgrades your SP by one.
I mean, the collectibles themselves are decent enough, but I was hoping for something like additional abilities that reduce the damage you take or something like Mega Man X? And I'm fine with this...it's just the process of getting some of them that are tedious. At some point, warping to previous areas becomes difficult unless you progress to furthermore levels.
This makes backtracking to certain levels difficult as you manually have to travel them(which is not advised if you ask me). And some of them take a while to get as they have a do or die situations instead of just giving you the upgrades.
But wait a minute. If I said straightforward, then why am I mentioning backtracking? That's more like Platform-Adventures, right? Well not really, since the levels here are not fully interconnected for one thing and they are completely optional and don't do anything but give you a feat which is this game's list of achievements. It's like Mega Man X. You don't need the health upgrades if you don't want to but the rest of the game is still straightforward.
Anyways, the final problem is the game's length. As of this post, there isn't anything you unlock after beating it. No new difficulties(which is odd because the achievements say to beat the game on Normal), no new game plus, not much replayability. The only form of replay value is completing the feats and 100% of the game but that is just about it.
And sure, for a game lasting 5-6 hours, you should expect that much but I know a lot of games that offer more than that even DLC like Blaster Master Zero for example. It's why I think that as of now, the game is lacking in terms of content.
That is based on backtracking and some feats by the way. So don't call me a wimp!