Gravity Circuit

Pretty damn good. 10/10

One of the best Megaman-likes I've ever played. A Fantastic OST by Dominic Ninmark elevates an already great game.

If you grew up with or otherwise enjoyed like, any of the Mega Man X or Zero games, especially Zero 2, you will love this. The paintjobs call back to the forms mechanic of Zero 2. The hookshot is literally just the chain rod. There are references for absolute days among the characters which I will not specify for spoiler reasons, but trust your gut, if you ever get a familiar feeling. Gods above and below, even the very sprites harken back to, of all things, the Mega Man Xtreme games on the Game Boy Color. (Late-game story spoiler) [spoiler] The Circuits themselves even feel like a reference to the biometals from ZX. Not as individual characters, but at least as an overall concept. [/spoiler] There is so much Mega Man influence in every pixel of this game that calling it "heavily inspired" by the franchise almost feels like an understatement, and yet it feels new. The gameplay feels so wonderfully familiar and yet revitalized and modernized, with quality of life changes such as a run button that you can either hold or toggle, for my fellow Zero/ZX kids who remember destroying their L buttons mashing dash to go fast, generally smoother-feeling controls (to me, at least- ymmv) or nixing that godsforsaken lives system from the old arcade days that burdened gamers for so, so long. Of course, not all the differences are QoL. Some of the differences from old-school X (or really Zero, as that feels like the primary gameplay inspiration) are new, like the combos. Well, "new", perhaps. Sure, you don't get a basic 3-hit combo like Zero's saber, but you do get a series of punches that you can take and then weave in uppercuts, kicks, dives, and various Burst moves. It's not detailed, like a fighting game, it's actually pretty bare-bones, but it is serviceable... I'd like to see it get a bit more detailed come GC2, more akin to Devil May Cry or Bayonetta, honestly. The aforementioned Burst moves are also a unique thing. Rather than getting a singular subweapon or EX skill from a boss, defeating them unlocks two new Burst moves apiece you can purchase that are reminiscent of each boss, and there's four slots to equip them in: pressing the Burst button with no directional input, Up+Burst, Left/Right+Burst, and Down+Burst. All in all, it allows for very varied movesets and playstyles, especially factoring in that you have three loadout slots (covering both Burst moves and upgrade chips) you can swap between. There's also the ability to throw enemies with the hookshot, with their deaths stunning them for a bit, which allows you to simply yeet their lifeless corpses, or continue wailing on them to Overkill them, which doesn't really do anything special unless you have a particular upgrade chip equipped, to my knowledge. Working throws into your regular moveset, however, can be very rewarding and satisfying, and while you can go the entire game without it, for reasons I will not elaborate on, I highly recommend it. Now, with the positives done... I do have a few gripes. First and biggest: The hookshot did not feel consistently and sufficiently responsive. I am wholly ready to admit that this is potentially a skill issue, as I basically went from start to finish in one sitting with 100% collectables and my hands definitely started to hurt towards the end because I'm not as used to a controller as I used to be, or even simply my controller being a well-worn, 12-13y/o dualshock 4. However, whether with a stick or a dpad, I would have so, so many moments where I would jump forward, and then roll my thumb upwards to hookshot straight up, onto the ceiling or a platform, only for it to go either at an angle, or simply dead ahead, and I'd plummet into whatever hazards waited below. I'd also have times where maybe a single pixel caught on either a moving platform, or a wind turbine, or whatever, and break the connection without any clear, immediate reason, but because it so barely happened, I wouldn't have time to process or react. When it was simple grabbing folks and swinging along, the hookshot was great. But many times, for the more challenging areas both saving lost robots and in the endgame, it was rough. Second: The invincibility frames. They're enough that like, you don't hit an enemy and immediately lose a quarter your health because you touched it for less than a tenth of a second, but do not think for a split second that you can damage boost past some spikes or whatever. You may try, but you will fail. Funnily enough, the upgrade chip that extends your i-frames actually feels like [i] extended [/i] i-frames as it should, rather than balancing out to feel like what you might expect of most Mega Man games. Finally, while, as I said, it is serviceable, the basic punching lacks some... I dunno what precisely it is, [i] oomf [/i] I suppose? Perhaps I'm simply too used to the big, arcing saber swings of Zero, but while the punches carry weight and impact in their hits, something still feels like it's missing. It honestly could just be the sheer size of it, because I did frequently find myself favoring the big, sweeping, upwards kick attack that you get from holding up when you press the button. All said and done, Gravity Circuit is... probably my favorite new (to me) game that I've picked up this year, contested only by Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. I'm hugely excited for GC2 and highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys platformers and maybe wants some nostalgia. Just... hopefully, be better at games than me lmao.