Magnetta

It seems I have the privilege of writing the first review for this new MegaMania game, so alas, I'll make this one quick and snappy. There are alot of Mega-Man clones out there, most of them are not worthy of being in your library. However, this may be the first clone that truly delivers on what a blue-bomber inspired game should be. The gameplay in this game in based on the original Mega-Man nes games so don't expect wall-jumps and such, but there is a slide button. It's everything we wanted from Mighty No.9 but half the price. Great but simple 2D pixel graphics, a female protagonist, a cliche story about saving a prince but with interesting characters and thankfully no awful voice-acting! What this game excels at is the character designs, the enemies and their designs were meticuously created and you're not just facing robots but also mutants. It's their subtle animations and their crazy weapons that make this game stand out. Truly a marvel, you will feel like you are playing a new unique take on Megaman 2 when you play this game. Level design is creative and fun while still keeping things familiar to fans of the games that inspired it. The sounds and sights take you to a new world to discover but while doing so, tingling your nostalgic senses. We finally get to have our cake and eat it too. If there's one thing I would complain about, it's that the controls could be a bit more tighter. They are super smooth but so smooth that I found their response to be not as great as the NES classics. TLDR: The first clone to capture the true magic of the classic NES Megaman games and what made them so special. If you're looking for a Megaman fix and have tried everything else, you should give this one a go because this is the only one that's done it right so far - raising the bar and hopefully inspiring future MM clones to step up their game. It's beautiful, brilliant and the main charater still has blue. It's a love letter to all of you who have suffered and felt betrayed by Mighty No.9, this will renew your faith that classic shooter-platforming isn't dead. Let this game breathe life into your soul!

Revised Review: Before the patches, my first impressions of this game shortly after launch were not very good at all. Between the technical issues and gameplay plagued by floaty physics, it didn't take me very long to decide this MegaMan-like wasn't worth much of my time. Nonetheless, the developers patched up several of the issues I originally took. Despite some reluctance, I decided to jump back in and give the game another fighting chance. So post-launch, is the game as bad as I feared it to be? No, its definitely not. Does it do an adequate job of living up to its retro inspiration? For me personally, my original thumbs down remains. So first things first, I railed on this game earlier for its graphics. I'll go back on that partially and say the environmental/stage graphics are pretty decent. They're nice and clean and exude enough of that retro feel we like. However, I still find the character design to be very off-putting. For the most part, you've got a bunch of similar-looking humanoids with the occasional switch up of a firearm or piece of headgear. There just isn't a lot to latch onto as far as personality goes; very little pops out or catches one's attention. I think that's my general problem with the presentation from music even to the clean stage art: it feels lacking in inspiration. Cookie cutter, if you will. OK, but what about the gameplay? The floaty physics got fixed to be in line with the crisp movement we expect from a MegaMan-like. Did this allow the game's inner beauty to shine through? Well, if you want new ideas, Magnetta certainly brings some of those to the table and its actually one of the best parts about the whole experience. You have a stage focused on creative use of teleportation portals, a giant swamp monster boss instead of another humanoid... things like this help give that personality that Magnetta is otherwise missing. I applaud the developers for being willing to step out of the mold on some fronts, and the game is better for that. But despite all this, the gameplay simply didn't hold up for me. Why that is is a bit tricky: if we were to compare this to MegaMan on a "does have/doesn't have" basis, you could draw a lot of comparisons to the MegaMan series. Those similarities are definitely there. But the sum of the parts didn't hold up for me here in Magnetta. Something is just off. Again, I'll go back to the term "cookie-cutter." That's how Magnetta felt to me, like you've got the puzzle pieces of a good MegaMan game but you're actually missing a few and the ones you do have aren't snapped together properly. Perhaps the best example of this is seen in the boss fights. Whereas (most) MegaMan boss fights have well-telegraphed moves and sequences that the player can learn and take advantage of, Magnetta seems to opt for a "use moves at random intervals" approach that just doesn't give the same sense of mastery when you finally win. You might get a couple of those "aha" or "wow" moments, but I found these to be few and far between. I didn't feel like I was engaged, as if I was just moving from one bullet sponge or random jumping challenge to the next. So all in all, the MegaMan touch is present in this game but doesn't feel fully developed. Magnetta doesn't seem to control the chaos quite like MegaMan does. I would consider it an OK/good game that some will probably enjoy, and more power to them. But reviewing this from the perspective of its retro inspiration, that spark is just not there for me. Sidenote: the developer response was for my original review, which isn't seen here anymore.

Mediocore Mega Man clone. I didnt really want to put thumbs ups or down yet, but it came little closer to thumbs down... + Playability is fine +\- Controls are tolerable, when you jump, you kinda "glide" in air - Music is mediocore, nothing too catchy - Level design is somewhat boring, there isnt too much of details around - Enemies feel simple and nothing too special, pulled out of an ass - Hit recoil doesnt affect when touching spikes, that pissed me off. If you are a Mega Man fan and enjoy these kinda games, it might be worth your while. Its just seems to lack creativity and\or effort.

Primeramente debo mencionar que este juego me llamó la atención por la cantidad de votos negativos que tiene, y ahora que lo compré y lo he jugado puedo comprender perfectamente por qué.... Este juego no está dirigido en lo absoluto al jugador casual si no a los plataformeros experimentados y de muy alto nivel. ¿Qué es Magnetta?, un juego de plataformas bastante difícil que tiene todo lo que detestas dentro de un juego de dicho género: -Que al pasar a otra escena caigas directamente en los pinchos. -Que el enemigo ataque sin patrón alguno y justo cuando saltas. -Que por mucho que hagas, no puedas esquivar los ataques. ¡Y mucho más! Eso es Magnetta, y la intención la deja muy clara, desde el sarcástico tutorial, hasta la burlesca difícultad "fácil" que resulta desde el principio hasta el final extremadamente difícil. Cabe mencionar que como Mega Man, es libre la elección del mundo, de todas formas da lo mismo, pues en todos morirás decenas de veces y cada uno te costará más de media hora pasarlo debido a su dificultad, ¡incluso te darán vidas extra después de los checkpoints para alargar tu sufrimiento y nunca ver el "Game Over"!. ¿Lo recomiendo? -Si, pero sólo si eres fanático de los juegos de prueba y error ultra difíciles, tienes paciencia y eres un habilidoso plataformero de corazón , de no serlo, le pondrás negativo, ya que esa es la intención del juego, trolear y desesperar al jugador en la mayor medida posibler. Este juego demanda pensar antes de actuar en todo momento y estar muy precavido esperando lo peor y lo imprevisto de tu enemigo. Así que quedan advertidos y ya saben de que va, espero que muchos lean mi opinión antes de comprarlo, porque un plataformas como cualquier otro, éste no lo es. Que lo disfruten.

Really fun game. Controls are clean, visuals are appealing, and music is grand. Pretty difficult game, don't expect to run through untouched. Hours of fun for the cost of an hours worth of work, can't really beat that value. Support good indie devs by spending your money on finished games, such as Magnetta, and stop feeding into the early access junk.

Edit: the game has been updated. This review was made before the updates but likely still at least somewhat relevant unless significant things have been changed. TL;DR: Bad level design, bad enemy design, imprecise controls = I'm refunding this game. it's not worth the 9$ I paid for it, much less the full 10$ asking price. Let's get the obvious thing out of the way first, this is VERY obviously a Mega Man clone game. and it does copy Mega Man in just about every way. 8 bosses, blue protagonist out to save the world, you gain boss' abilities, lots of platforming, insta-death pitfalls. Where it fails to copy megaman though, is in precise controls, level design, enemy design, and difficulty. Controls: Mega Man games are always hard games of skill and knowledge, requiring you to think fast and to know your enemy very well in order to succeed. To help you do this, you are given precise controls. Magnetta fails in this regard. There were times where I had Magnetta visibily standing on nothing, but was still on the ledge. Magnetta slides slightly when she comes to a stop from running. Magnetta, for some unexplained reason, is able to stay floating in air for a second if you hold in the jump button, thus allowing you to reach farther distances, but it comes at the cost of feeling very odd and taking a lot of time to get used to. Magnetta can also grab onto certain spots if a chain is hanging from a ceiling and just hang there, unless, of course, for some reason the game has decided that despite you jumping right onto it and it apparently auto locking you onto it, to not grab the chain that time (like it did to me, at least 4 times in a row. Each time causing me to die, because it was over an instant death trap.) Which leads me to my next point. Level Design: So, first off, I would like to say I am a die hard Mega Man fan. I've played virtually every Mega Man game from every series. I am no stranger to difficult platforming sections, and admittedly, I did only play two levels of Magnetta (Chemical Plant and Holographic Testing Facility (I think that was the name of the 2nd one)). The levels in Magnetta are not hard. They are poorly designed. Let me paint a picture for you. In the Holographic Testing Facility stage, there are holographic platforms that you have to shoot a button off to the side to make them real. There are multiple of them in an area and if you shoot one of the buttons, some will turn on and others will turn off. if you're on one when it turns off, you will fall through. Magnetta does a decent job of giving you a safe area first that teaches you this. Unfortunately, the very next section where you have to use this mechanic for real, it adds in a new problem. You are now over a bottomless pit, standing on a holographic platform that's on. You have to shoot to the far side, wait for it to get close to the button, and then jump so that when it turns on the platform directly above you you will land on it, instead of still being on the one below you, which has just turned off and if you are still on it you will fall to your death. Now, here comes the terribly designed part. In front of you within jumping distance (still over that bottomless pit mind you) is a 2nd holo platform that is on. A bit further on and higher up is another holo platform, this one is off and well out of your current jumping distance, and this last holo platform leads to an area you have to slide through to progress. So just jumping into it will lead to your death. You HAVE to have that last holo platform on to proceed. So, what you have to do, is there is a button directly in front of you and below the last holo platform. You have to run, shoot, and jump to the holo platform that is currently on, land on it, and then jump again BEFORE your shot hits the button, because once it hits that button, it will turn that holo platform off, and you're still over that bottomless pit. This is a very precise section that if you're off even a little bit for it, you will fall and die. It took me at least 4 (4 lives each) continues to get past it ONCE, and this section comes maybe 20 seconds into this level. There are other sections like this as well. When you take a hit, it doesnt matter if you're holding on to something like a ladder or not, you will experience knockback, and the amount of knockback is rather large. if you're anywhere near the edge of a platform and get hit, you're going off. there is no stopping it. there are also enemies positioned SPECIFICALLY so that their line of fire intersects with where you need to be on a platform. you will die to these alot. This also leads into my next point. Enemy Design: First off, the basic enemies from what I saw in Magnetta are vaguely humanoid looking people with guns or special weapons of some kind? Are they police officers? Military? I don't know. they look like they're wearing some kind of armor, but they're not visually interesting at all, which, while not a huge deal, is important. That alone would not be so bad. Unfortuantely, the enemy design and attacks they use, along with their placement sometimes leads to areas which are very confusing or impossible to get by without being damaged. For example, I encountered a spider robot with a human head in one of the levels, it was one of the more interesting designs. When I walked into that room, the spider bot spawned on a small area that had a block keeping it contained on each side. so It could not just walk in a straight line at me. It proceeded to attempt to walk in a straight line at me until it bumped into the wall and then just continued to walk into that wall block. So, I went to jump on the block and over it, and as soon as I jumped the first time, it jumped too, and hit me. I had no way to shoot this with my normal weapon, and I cannot see anyway I had to avoid it or damage it. Bad design. Now, I've already talked about bad level design. That might not be so bad, if the minibosses and bosses were interesting, right? that's a big thing in Mega Man games. Welp, one of the mini bosses was a giant cannon with a person operating it on top. you have to shoot the person and the canon will fire a very large shot at you, either high (slide under) or low (jump over). That's all it does. You can fire one shot before you need to dodge. It takes maybe 8-10 shots to kill it. very boring. The other mini-boss i fought was much the same. But what about the actual bosses you say? Well, the one boss I fought (chemical plant) was more interesting than the rest of the enemies, but was still fairly bland and boring. It was just a person who would run at me, firing a shot occasionally, and had to be jumped over and shot at. Sometimes they'd run to the end of the room and then turn, sometimes they'd turn as soon as I jumped over, getting a free hit in on me. While running, once each time, the boss will hop back, and basically sit on a platform that will raise it self up and then lower itself. While sitting on this platform, the boss will fire at you a bunch and you just have to stand back and jump maybe once to avoid all 10 or so shots. Now, maybe after doing this for 12 seconds, the boss would jump off screen and long blobs of chemical slude (which damages you) would fall from sections of the ceiling at random. they fall slowly and you might run into them on accident, but they're pretty easy to avoid. Now, back to the running. rinse and repeat. very boring. Difficulty: I have already mentioned a lot wrong with the games level design and controls, combined with enemies that are poorly placed or thought out and hard to avoid hits from, leads to levels where you die A LOT in the same spots over and over and cheap hits from enemies. Boss Fights are not hard. The levels are the problem. I'm refunding this game.

Magnetta is an action platform game that draws heavy inspiration from the classics of the NES era. While the Megaman similarities can be seen in screenshots this game is very much it's own beast. It combines a lot of the asthetics and sound design of a NES game (it uses the NES color pallette and the sound and music are done through emulation of the NES sound chip) with a ton of modern ammenities. Many of which I have not seen in many indie retro throwbacks. It features multiple layers of paralax scrolling, particle effects and controller vibration. The story is interesting and is told through awesome sprite art cutscenes with charming dialogue. The attention to detail in the animations of enemies and characters is awesome for anyone who enjoys great old school sprites. It has tons of game modes, options, unlockables and achievements. Magnetta is a very enjoyable and difficult game that any fan of titles like Ninja Gaiden, Castlevania and Megaman are sure to love. Put on your big boy and big girl pants because in order to succeed you are going to need to learn the level layouts, enemy patterns and boss order. The small team at Heliocentric did an excellent job with the game and I will be spending a lot more time with this one. Looking forward to further games from the team.

If you are feeling at all nostalgic about old school NES platform shooters this game might just be for you. This delightful Mega Man clone has a fun story, adorable sprites, and challenging game play. As a huge Mega Man fan this game is a clear winner for me, I simply adore the heroine Magnetta and look forward to making her fight her way to victory!

Alot of fun and a more than fair challenge. As far as the game as a whole, the developer seems to be famiiar with their strengths and weakness, and knew their limits. Leaving us with a game that feels like it is exactly as it's meant to be, which is fun, challenging and with elements that motivate you to replay. I hope more people give this game a chance !

Ehhh.... I bought this game, and it's good, but not that great.... "It's pretty much a spin-off of Super Metroid," was my first thought. And I LOVE Super Metroid. (Except the first or second one, never played it.) But when I played the first level, I was confused by the controls, then DIED because of the confusing controls. Twice. Also, as far as I can see, there are no checkpoints. I got pretty far, then died, expecting a nearby checkpoint. IT PUT ME AT THE START. If you hate doing repetive stuff, do not buy this game. If you're a proffesional gamer that likes Super Metroid, play it.