GIGABUSTER

I would give this game a "mixed" option if I could, but I lean towards negative overall. This is a long review mostly pointing out some of the bad design decisions, scroll to the bottom for final thoughts. This game advertises itself as a mega man inspired game, so I will be comparing it to mega man games, most notably the X/Zero/ZX games, which are some of my favorite games of all time. I just want to quickly note that the dev has updated the game from initial release, but made the strange choice of only announcing it in the discussion section of the game and not the update history or news section. What it does well: +Controls are responsive, very fluid like Mega Man Zero/ZX +Art is really good +Good weapon/tool variety +I like how you can put different weapons on different buttons (but I would also like to have seen a weapon wheel since you run out of buttons to put everything.) +Bosses and level design is very creative and fun for a lot of levels +There is a good challenge for both platforming and enemies The meh: *As mentioned above, I wish there was a weapon wheel button. In contrast to the positive above about the weapons, the issue is that you run out of buttons to assign weapons and abilities. *I would have liked to see a pogo effect on the down attack for either the regular blade or for the spear. The problem is if your attack doesn't kill, you take damage for attempting to attack from above since there is enemy contact damage. *Rating system doesn't tell you why you got the rating you did. I recommend using the Mega Man Zero method and breaking down the score based on time, damage, enemy count, etc *When replaying a level, rather than respawning to the checkpoint you passed before you died, it always respawns you to the final checkpoint in the level. Areas to improve: -Camera jerks to a set location many times, it doesn't feel smooth and it feels a little disorientating -There is slow down in areas that get busy, which is strange since I have a decent build (3060 ti), shouldn't really happen in 2D games. My guess is that the whole/most of the level is loaded at once causing it to be unoptimized. Stages should be loaded in smaller sections at a time to prevent this from happening. I also notice projectiles from enemies don't really disappear until they fly off screen, which may also support this hypothesis. -Similar to above after first entering an area there is this weird lag when doing an attack, but it is smooth after, as if the animation was in the middle of loading the first time you enter the stage. -A lot of non-boss enemies are just too tanky/melee weapons are too weak. Many times it takes 4+ swings from your saber to kill, when it really should be 1-2 for the standard/small enemies and maybe 3-4 for the bigger enemies. It discourages you from going in to use your melee attacks because you take a lot of risk getting close when you can do the same amount of damage with your buster from a decent distance and your shots come out really fast, basically reserving the melee weapons for areas that are hard for your buster to hit. -It's hard to tell when some object are in the background or if they are in the foreground and you can interact with them or not. There was a wall I thought that was a background object until I realized I needed it to proceed. And on the other hand there were speakers that I thought were enemies but they were part of the background. Typically in mega man games you back the foreground a little brighter and the background colors more dull, or vice versa depending on the situation. -With the speakers above, there is a weird decision for them to attack with sound waves, where if you are too close you will get hit, but farther away you won't. The problem is there is no clear indication where the hitbox of you will get hit is. The first instinct is to avoid the blue sounds waves they emit, but you find out when you touch the outer waves you don't get hit, making you think it is just a background object. But then you get hit when you get close to the speakers. And the worst part is you can't attack/destroy these speakers either even though they look like they are in the foreground to interact with them. It would be better to be able to hit them, and that there would be another color animation (like red) showing clearly where the dangerous hitbox is and giving a visual cue where that attack would occur rather than hitting immediately to let the player plan out spacing. -The enemies that fire the grenades are too strong, or at least the grenades are. When the enemy shoots a grenade you can't hit it with your blade to be able to destroy it without it hurting you (even if the bat exists). The area of attack of the grenade is very large and you take damage on contact with the grenade even if it doesn't blow up. There are also areas with hazards you need to avoid which makes it sometimes impossible to dodge. In mega man zero/zx, small projectiles that are not energy/lasers can usually be destroyed. -Some enemies don't really give a hint what they're going to do next. For the first time players, I think it's important to show/hint what the enemy intent is. Like the big guys in the money level don't really indicate that they are going to rush you after their first attack, which feels unfair. This could be fixed by giving them a crouching animation making it look like they are about to run at you -The sphinx enemy flame attack is way too big where if you don't have sufficient space to jump over, you need to run away so far you can't even see the enemy that shot the projectile, and the worst part is you have to wait until the flame goes off screen otherwise you will get hit. These are supposed to mimic the dogs from wood man's stage in mega man 2, but in that game the stage is stationary and the area of the attack is much smaller, as well as you are giving a set position to attack the enemy while also being able to dodge, compared to this game where you are on moving platforms and may not always be able to dodge. -The dragons in the money stage pop out without any warning. In MM games usually there will be some dust or animation around the ground to show an enemy is about to appear -The wuste cream level by far is the worst designed. There's sludge that you get hit by without any indication of it seeming dangerous. There are some places where the sludge is safe to touch, but damages you on in the rest of the level. The wizards hit you off screen, and their attacks are almost instantaneous with little time to react and they home in on your position. The problem with that on this level is you're sitting on blocks waiting for them to move meaning you have to jump off the platform, but sometimes you don't have that option since you are waiting for a block you can ride on. The blocks you are supposed to jump onto next also don't appear when the blocks you are riding on are about to fall into a pit, forcing you to take damage. A much superior design would be MMZ's Occupy Factory level, where you can see the threat incoming and have time to reposition yourself while you have limited movement. -There are a lot of standard options missing from the graphics settings, most notably would be resolution and vsync -Sometimes the startup screen hangs on the white intro screen, especially when plugging in a controller I had a lot more design criticism but steam has a character limit on reviews. I think it was a very good attempt at a mega man game, bringing in new weapons and stages while keeping the mega man vibe. However it's clear the dev is very new to game development. I think the dev should have gotten a lot more feedback from people who are very familiar with mega man games because there's a lot of design decisions such as the ones mentioned above that don't make much sense. I encourage the dev to continue to update the game as I think it can be amazing with game design changes and performance optimizations.

[h2](EDITED 12/23/23)[/h2] If you've had to chance to read my review before, you've probably recalled that I wouldn't have recommended this game unless you were a fan of the Megaman Zero series due to the gameplay and game feel not hitting the mark. Thanks to the recent update, I can safely recommend this for anyone else. There's even Steam Deck/Linux support for the game now too, which is great because game like this just feels right on portable. There are still a few concerning bugs that I'll go over but I've revised my review of this game reflecting the changes after replaying it. [h2]Pros[/h2] If you're looking for a game to scratch that Megaman Zero/ZX itch, then I do recommend this game. It's a fun speed game with tight movement and combat, and the artstyle is really good for what it is. The movement feels really good, the combat is surprisingly impactful with ostentatious VFXs (which I love) and the level design around the player is done really well. The music is also AMAZING, very rarely do I ever find indie games putting out banger after banger. The story's fine, if a little generic to the cyberpunk genre (big tech corporation bad guy/robot trying to take over the city, little rebel girl takes them and their cronies down), the characters are likable, and there's humor to the game's dialogue. Best of all, this game is the first game in a long while for me to have a final boss fight FEEL like a final boss fight. The base price is justified for the amount of gameplay there is, even if the game's a little short (beat the game in less than 3 hours on my first run), so I do think I got my money's worth, but if you're lucky enough to get the game on sale then it's definitely a steal. Most of the big problems since this game's launch have since been resolved, and I'm glad the devs have reached out to this review addressing me and others of the fixes. It did take a while to get it fixed, but I'm glad the devs were able to go back to this game a year after this game was released. However as I've mentioned there are still a few concerning bugs still present in this game, which I hope the devs could take another look at. [h2]General Issues[/h2] There's still the instances when you load yourself to an area where you're supposed to have full health but you still have whatever damage you took upon reaching there. This is because you can only fully heal when you're at the hub, but some cutscenes will spawn you to another area that will leave you with whatever health you had after finishing the previous level, most notably going from the 1st wily stage to the 2nd. I also encountered some softlocks on my 2nd play through. In some levels there are some Donkey Kong Country styled launch cannons that you can enter. On rare instances though, if you manage to enter one while doing another action as you enter, you'll be stuck in the cannon with no way to get yourself out other than leaving the level. Another softlock is that also on rare instances, if you use your ultimate move and are somehow hit in the middle of it, you are locked into hitstun with infinite invincibility frames. You cannot move, attack, get hurt, or even pause, and are forced to reset the game. When this happened I was inside a large projectile and was stuck mid air. [h2]Game Feel[/h2] The movement and combat of this game feels really good now, as many of the gripes I had with the movement originally have been fixed. It really feels like I'm playing as a faster, more aggressive Zero. The movement used to be really janky in that you're either moving fast or going nowhere, notably with wallclimbing and double jumping. The walljumping feels great now and the removal of the double jump (now an upgrade) really improved the flow of the game, and I find myself enjoying moving around. However, some jumps are a little too tight to execute, which is because your hurtbox is thinner than your model, so whenever I want to dash jump off a ledge I find myself falling off more often than not. There's also no coyote jumping (the small window of time the game thinks you're still grounded after going off a ledge) to mitigate this. For gameplay balance, while the movement is great, it's a little too great. The horizontal movement, both on ground and air is really good, but because of that I'm able to ignore or brute force my way through most of the obstacles and combat, and it doesn't help that I have virtually no risk for dying since I have infinite lives and can spawn back at the last checkpoint with all my health and most of my resources replenished, not to mention that on normal mode, nothing will instakill you (not even falling in pits or spikes). Meaning that for the entire game I just straight up damage boosted my way from checkpoint to checkpoint until I reach the bosses. The game, however, does try to balance this by incentivising you to play more efficiently to get better rewards at the end of the level, and frankly if you play a little too recklessly you'll find yourself dying more often than not before you reach the next checkpoint since health drops are actually very rare. The enemies aren't anything to write home about. They're about as standard as they can get. They're not hard or annoying since you don't take recoil damage, but I do love the variety of enemies present in the game and how their positioning can be used to help lead you to secrets. It's just that they're really easy to ignore since the most you'll get from beating them is chump change, and only few do you have to concern yourself with. Like I said, health drops are very rare. The bosses used to be trivial if you knew what to abuse, but they balanced the damage output on certain attacks so you actually have to play better against them, such as Bjorn's grenades (except that shooting towards left has no cooldown so I can still spam that to chunk out a good 40%). I did have to revisit some levels just to get some of the health or weapon upgrades just so I can fight bosses with a little more cushioning. They're no longer easy, but they're not hard that it's annoying, and so the boss fights are more enjoyable now. [h2]Final Thoughts[/h2] So again, there are still a few bugs a gameplay tweaks that still need to sorted out, but a lot of the fixes and quality of life changes have greatly improved my experience on the game, and I found myself enjoying the game way more than when I played it the first time. So if you're a fan of Megaman Zero/ZX, or looking for another fun speed game, then I highly recommend you to pick up this game.

I want to congratulate the devs on this game but there are a few concerns or just some feedback. 1,The game might need some tweaking when it comes to your different weapons. Changing from gun to bat during combat is not possible to you have to stop shooting for a while so that you use you bat at the right time to deflect projectiles. That transition should be easier. 2. The game has so many mechanics which is great but you forget most of them since they're not really needed. You can kill all the bosses with your basic gun and sword. Those mechanics should have more use during the stages or on bosses. 3.The art style is ok but I would understand if it puts off a few people 4. The infinite lives kinda takes away from a proper challenge 5.Overall I like how the game feels and hope a 2nd part can be made with a better art style and tweaking of mechanics. This game is inspired by megaman but its its own thing which is a good thing. I would recommend you give it a go

Gigabuster is a very pretty game, with a lot of imagination and thought put into its visuals, and with a decent enough story. Unfortunately, that's about where my praise for it ends. The level and enemy design all assume a level of polish and responsiveness the controls simply do not possess, rendering the entire game a frustrating exercise in being struck by attacks you saw coming and responded to properly, and being dropped into hazards you were actively avoiding when you acted fractions of a second outside the mandated window. And for the nail in the coffin, I literally cannot finish the game because of a consistent glitch that completely breaks the controls and UI in the penultimate level. This glitch persists through reinstallation, and I honestly can't bring myself to play through the game again to see if a new save file fixes it. A saddening disappointment for a clear passion project.

This game is awesome when it isn't glitching out. Can't wait!

After over a hundred hours in 30xx I was excited for another non-capcom megaman game. As excited as I was it falls short with sluggish controls, enemies shooting before the screen fades in from black, and tedious enemies. Wanted to like it but didn't.

Been playing this game again now that it works on steam deck and the game feel is amazing! Super fluid and satisfying core gameplay loop.

[h2]An excellent execution that suffers from lack of polish[/h2] Did I enjoy the game? [b]Yes!!!![/b] Yet Steam asks me would I *recommend* this game to others: [b]No!!!![/b] Throughout my play I often put myself behind the hypothetical shoulder of he or she who would pick up the controller for this one and I steel myself to give advice that which would dodge the game's many setbacks and idiosyncrasies "Yeah, you need to sort of press UP separately from movement" "Relax when you're on the wall and think about unsticking manually" "... Yeah it's a pretty stupid mechanic; just rush through" (bonus: "Yes, those have a hitbox.") It's hard to follow in the steps of knee-high clunky 'n blue boots with a Rockman-like when the inspirational predecessor just set the bar so, so high. I preferred X over Metroid because Metroid felt too clunky to control. It made it unfun! I was spoiled on the smoothest platformer-shooter on the market, and now I look for it everywhere. Giga Buster (Hard Mode) got fun when I had collected enough HP UP's to tank each level's most annoying obstacles or else charge toward mobs with much less fear and coming out with far less damage than if I allowed the mob to exist for more than a few seconds. It was fun to spam my skills. [strike]Partially because it made the game lag a little bit (Blizzard I'm looking at you)[/strike] Until then, I was struggling to preserve my HP just to make it to the next checkpoint and considering myself blessed that there was no punishment for dying except lost time [h1]My biggest gripe: Overanimation obscures feedback[/h1] Huh? What I liked about it??? Oh. Yeah. Anti-corporatism has been done to death but I think Gigabuster's take on the genre is quirky 'n fresh. Characters drive the story instead of themselves into the ground. Happiness is best bot. I was in awe at [spoiler]Black Rabbit[/spoiler]'s stage. It was so PRETTY and had the very cool portals that were ACTUALLY not buggy (like the cannons in Wurst's factory xd) It's cool to see an Ameri-core aesthetic pulled off so boldly the same way it's cool to see taiko drums play over Japanese architecture. And yet: nobody does it!!! However, themeing it this "obnoxiously" is what made it work. Oh yes I definitely died to [i]the dollar dragons[/i] a few times My main reason for buying this game was the sale--but also when I found out that it was updated recently this year (only a few months ago!) despite there being little to no feedback from players. It seemed like no one played it!!!! There are ZERO youtube videos of it!!!!!! but clearly the devs still believe in their vision so I wanted to see what the big deal was. The big deal is it is deserving of SOME love, that is for sure. I had been playing some pretty terribly-written games this year and I was relieved to find that no one in Gigabuster needed to copypaste tired dialogue to carry a scene. [i]This game will live in my memory.[/i]

A Fun lil game with a surprisingly decent story. reminds me of old school mega man with a fun aesthetic and fluid animations and combat. on top of that, I like the themes the story seems to be getting across. and if story isnt your thing, it has a mode that removes all cutscenes. great for speed runners! at its price, I definitely recommend it.

Fun and stylish action platformer that lets you zoom through levels at top speed blasting foes like Mega Man X. Clearly a labor of love that is full of beautiful art and creatively themed levels. Bosses can be a bit easy if you make full use of IC tanks, but I opted not to and got exactly the right amount of challenge out of it. There are plenty of fun upgrades to play with, even if you don't scour every level. Controls very smoothly, though the player's hurtbox feels a little large. I got hit by some things I feel I shouldn't have - but again, the challenge level felt just right, so I can't complain too much. There are a few minor glitches, generally with the UI requiring extra button presses to behave properly. (For example, some cutscenes end with a black screen - and stay there until you press the A button, despite there being no prompt.) But these don't really get in the way of the fun. The outstanding visuals can be double edged sword when you are wailing on smaller enemies with more subtle attack tells. The flashy hitsparks can completely obscure what that enemy is doing. Sound effects are sometimes lacking in punch, but the music is solid. Overall, recommended for Mega Man X fans looking for a quick playthrough in the same style.