About the Game
From the crew at Inti Creates comes Mighty Gunvolt for the 3DS, a true trip back to the 8 bit era. It can be purchased for $3.99 in the Nintendo E-shop, or it comes free with a purchase as Azure Striker Gunvolt, also on the 3DS, for $14.99. The bundle offer lasts until November 28th of 2014.
Game Play
True to its roots, the main game play elements are all here; shooting bad guys, jumping, and climbing ladders. A side scrolling shooter in the style of the original Mega-Man games on the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). There are three playable characters; Gunvolt, Ekoro (from Gal*Gun), and Beck (from Mighty No. 9). Each has their own unique play style so playing through the game with each one is a bit different. The controls are solid and the action moves along at a brisk pace. Each level offers something different and each of the bosses requires their own strategy to defeat.
Story
You get some words at the beginning telling you some people are fighting over stuff and something about love. Then there are some words at the end that say you “saved the day”. I can’t really tell you about the story cause that would spoil both paragraphs of it. Like its predecessors, this game is about the game play anyway.
Graphics
For an 8-bit game, things are crude just like they should be. They are, however, well done and smoothed out a quite a bit. Many times with simpler games such as this, the background and action would not becontrasted enough causing extremely frustrating sections. This is all avoided here and the simplicity plays well in its favor.
Sound
The sound effects are all blips and pew pews. Each level has its own analog soundtrack, bringing back memories of the days where Chiptune was king. None of the songs are repetitive or annoying, which was another trope of many older games.
Fun
It is excellent fun, for a couple of hours. Because that’s about how long it will take you to beat it all five levels with three characters. Some people will say that is too short and too easy. Which it may be a little on the short side, and a couple of difficulty settings would not have gone amiss, for the price you shouldn’t expect a 40 hour epic adventure. The lack of options and character upgradability would wear thin after much longer. Games from the NES era had a tendency to be brutally difficult with little reward and that does not translate well to modern standards.
Overall
Mighty Gunvolt is well worth the $3.99 if you are into the genre. The rating of this game takes into account the cost, so remember this is not Skyrim. It’s a wonderfully short distraction that let’s you relive the old days or just to see how it used to be. If you aren’t into retro games however then walk on by.