Game news This action video game is inspired by the best titles of the 90s, it's already a gem not to be missed!
Publié le 05/03/2024 à 05:00
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For several years, so-called neo-retro games have been fashionable. Overall, it is about bringing past experiences up to date, but with current means. The title that interests us today and one of the last representatives of this trend of which it ticks all the boxes.
Long announced in 2019, Berserk Boy is a game that smells of neo-retro. As soon as we lay eyes on your main artwork, we instantly understand that the title is intended to be a barely disguised homage to Mega Man, the first spin-off series from the Mega Man franchise created by Capcom. And yet, this is far from being the only influence of BerserkBoy Games, the team behind the project. While I wasn't that excited about the experience at first, I was quickly hooked by its gameplay once it revealed its full potential.
A neo-retro experience with latent potential
In the great tradition of “old-fashioned” games, our adventure begins peacefully, with Kei, our hero, resting in a meadow, accompanied by Dizzie, his scientist friend. After a while, the latter gets carried away as she discovers the energy of a berserk orb. Once there, our protagonists face the terrible Dr. Genos who wants to get his hands on these artifacts for his dark designs. While Dizzie is missing, Kei meets Fiore, a talking bird who helps him and allows him to control a berserk orb. Thanks to this, Kei can transform and use new powers. Throughout his adventure, our hero will rescue the members of the Resistance, while confronting the henchmen of Dr. Geros by recovering their berserk orb.
At first glance, I must admit that I was not convinced by Berserk Boy. Visually the style didn't speak to me with its very large sprites, its overall aesthetic and above all its overly simple gameplay, even if its excellent soundtrack won me over from the start. But in fact, the more time passes, the more the title reveals its true potential. Quickly, we recover the first berserk orb with its first powers which allow you to dash on your enemies, a bit like Sonic's homing attack, but also to electrocute them. A fairly simple mechanic, but which looks really good thanks to the overall dynamism of the action and especially its detailed and successful animations. And after a while, it was mainly through its level design that the game took me.
An adventure for beginners and veterans alike
Over time, I realized that the title was not only inspired by Mega Man X, but also by Sonic and not just any, namely Sonic Advance and Sonic Rush, the episodes for the DS and the GBA. In the levels, we find rails on which to slide, sort of cannons to project us in different directions and all this means that we can go through the courses at full speed. Enough to create a fairly effective feeling of satisfaction. In reality, I would even dare to say that the game takes more from Sonic Rush than from Mega Man. In a Mega Man, you can normally choose in which order to do the levels to recover boss powers effective against other bosses. Here, we are more entitled to a succession of levels with at the end a minion of Dr. Genos who gives us a new outfit.
After a few hours, it must be recognized that the structure proves itself, with more emphasis on levels than boss fights. Regarding the difficulty, the latter is quite accessible thanks to the possibility of choosing between modern and retro mode. Overall, this determines the number of lives available to the player, the first being unlimited unlike the second. However, the BerserkBoy Games title allows those who want to play at a high level thanks to certain featureslike the wall-jump that you can do infinitely or the possibility of changing powers on the fly. Enough to cross the levels at high speed and what makes you want to see speedruns of the game in the years to come.
Berserk Boy is the kind of neo-retro experience ideal for nostalgic Mega Man Supported by a great soundtrack, the BerserkBoy Games title shines with its ingenious level design which allows you to traverse these levels at full speed like Sonic Rush. Ultimately, it is more because of its aesthetics and especially its mistakes in the French translation that the experience may displease some.
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