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To the unitiated, Inti Creates is a developer/publisher founded in the 1990s by former Capcom employees. After a few mediocre forays into the PS1 era, the company became known for developing high-quality Mega Man spin-offs, namely the Mega Man Zero series. After developing a lot of them, Inti decided to live on her own and make their own Mega Man-inspired titles, with some quality of life improvement possible by not being tied to the series roots. This is how Azure Striker Gunvolt was born.

For all intents and purposes, Azure Striker Gunvolt is a spiritual sequel to Mega Man Zero, but with a handful of gameplay and story elements that set it apart from Inti’s past forays. It has the same level structure as a Mega Man game, it has the same gameplay of the X and Zero series (including wall jumps). The visuals are somewhat similar, as is the music. That said, it’s much more accessible than any other Mega Man game out there, thanks to some clever design choices I’ll talk about later, as well as some really awesome weapons you got from the get-go. Originally released as a 3DS eShop exclusive in 2014, the first game in the franchise, like the sequels, is now available on Xbox. It’s finally time for me to see what the fuss was about.

One of the first enemies you will encounter in the game. Piece of cake.

The first thing you notice when starting a new save file is that: Azure Striker Gunvolt is actually quite story-heavy. Just like any other game inspired by Mega Man XThere is an introductory level, where you learn the controls and feed the general background knowledge of the world around you. You control the titular Gunvolt, an “adept”, or someone who has special powers. In his case, he is able to control electricity, unleash powerful shocks and force fields on enemies. To do this, he doesn’t actually use his gun to kill enemies, but to “tag” them so that he can unleash his full arsenal of ions and protons on everyone around him.

Basically you might be a Mega Manstylized character, but there is a focus on your abilities: electricity. That doesn’t make the game any less attractive. Quite the contrary: Gunvolt is seriously overpowered from the start, has access to some stupidly strong force fields and full-screen special attacks from the moment the game starts. You’ll still gain access to more weapons as you complete more levels, both in the form of the classic “boss weapons” (although completing the game in a specific boss order isn’t the focus) as well as editable powerups and pieces of equipment.

This looks overpowered, right? It’s overwhelmed. And it will be given to you as soon as you start a new save file.

As for the classic Mega Man formula of beating bosses in a certain order…don’t worry about this in Azure Striker Gunvolt. Sure, specific weapons work wonders against specific bosses, but the game isn’t supposed to be razor sharp. Beating the game is easy to do for anyone with a bit of platforming experience. Not only does the game have difficulty levels, but the focus is not on making levels and bosses difficult; the focus is to make you work for a high ranking at the end of each level. Inti Creates was able to satisfy both newcomers and veterans. The game itself is actually quite short, but highly replayable.

Gunvolt is clearly Electric/Ground.

There are a few things you can do in between missions, namely crafting new gear and, most importantly, talking to your waifu/idol sidekick. Not only does this allow you to witness some sweet character development, but the better your relationship with her is, the more she can help you during missions. It does this by reviving you after death, giving you extra power and improving jumping at the cost of lowering your ranking at the end of the level. If all you want to do is beat the damn game, that’s not a bad trade-off. Not at all.

If you thought the other electric field wasn’t overpowered enough…

Azure Striker Gunvolt is generally a 3DS game. For a game developed with the hardware in mind, it’s impressive. The music is great and the sprite work is solid. Unfortunately, it looks a bit too long on a big screen, given that this wasn’t developed with console gaming in mind. Furthermore, the game is fully voiced, all thanks to a patch released on other ports a few years ago (PC, Switch, etc.). Also really impressive, considering the number of characters that pop up during the game. Granted, it’s all in Japanese, but it’s still pretty good. Didn’t expect this at all.

A recognizable boss.

This was the first time I had a real . played Azure Striker Gunvolt game, and I have to say damn, I missed some good stuff. Despite the short length and annoying grind sections, I was impressed with the great presentation, slick controls, excellent gameplay feel, and the way the developers balanced the difficulty by adding rankings at the end of each level, essentially making this game became attractive to newcomers and veterans alike. Can you enjoy this best on a portable? Sure, because sometimes it looks a bit too long on a big screen, but it’s still a lot of fun on an Xbox. Time to watch the sequels I guess!

A commendable effort, as the developers tried to make a 3DS game look appealing on a big screen. It’s still a big screen 3DS though. There are times when the game looks beyond stretched.

Fast and responsive. You also feel more than overwhelmed from the start, which is something you can’t say about most Mega Manstyle games.

Really good music (by 3DS standards though) and excellent voice acting (which was added in versions other than the 3DS version).

It’s more story-heavy than your average Mega Manlike game. The gameplay is so good and the overall aesthetic is so cool, you won’t notice how short and basically simple this game is.

Final verdict: 8.0

Azure Striker Gunvolt is available now on PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, PC, Nintendo Switch and 3DS.

Rated on Xbox Series S.

A copy of Azure Striker Gunvolt was provided by the publisher.