I consider myself to be a pretty big fan of the Mega Man and Mega Man X series, so when I found out this game was a permadeath roguelike, I was pretty disappointed. Still, it went free on Epic, so I figured I’d give it a chance.

Procedurally-generated platformer. Left/right move, A jumps, X shoots, and RB dashes. The game plays just like the Mega Man X games, so when you let go of forward, you stop moving forward, even if you’re mid-dash-jump. Heck, if you hold the dash button and jump without holding forward, you stop moving forward as soon as you stop touching the ground. It’s perfect…except for one issue I had: one of the power-ups lets you dash in mid-air, and sometimes when I’d try to air-dash, it would cut off almost immediately after I pushed the button. This only ever happened when I tried air-dashing (never when I tried regular-dashing), so I’m pretty sure it isn’t my controller messing up.

The tutorial level is designed pretty well, having the button icons show you what does what, as well as using level design to teach things more subtly, like how you can continually wall-jump up walls. The tileset it uses sucks, though: two different colored blocks for solid tiles, and then slightly darker versions of those same two blocks are background tiles. I thought there was a secret behind me, but it was just a differently-colored background tile and I nearly fell into lava. This tileset is even reused for one of the main levels, where it still sucks.

And then, of course, the main game has no consistent level design, being procedurally generated and all. This means new enemies won’t always be introduced safely (something the Mega Man series is known for), which can lead to some cheap hits. The walk-on-ceiling tiles are the worst example: they barely stand out from ordinary ceiling tiles (being a same-color oval right below them), and they’re always introduced over hazard pits, so you’re gonna come across what looks like a dead end and have no idea what to do (discovering how to progress by pure accident, if at all). Plus, they’re only used in three of the game’s ten levels, so you’re gonna forget about them by the time they show up again.

When you beat a level, you can choose either the boss’s power or a stat upgrade. All the powers use the same weapon-energy bar, making it difficult to test which boss is weak to which power. I wasn’t even sure they had weaknesses until I saw a loading screen tip saying as much…after I beat the game (I played on normal mode).

After you’ve made that choice, you’re given a choice of which of three levels to play next until you’ve beaten the first eight, at which point you go to the ninth level, then the tenth level. Thing is, no matter which order you play the first eight stages in, the game still makes sure to get harder by giving enemies more health, speed, and even attacks in some cases. Fine in theory, but this leads to more cheap hits in practice, like how the red flying enemies suddenly gain a dodge and dash attack of their own, or when the purple ones suddenly generate a massive shockwave upon crash-landing. Plus, the HP increase just makes things more tedious; I always got as many attack upgrades as I could, but still found even basic enemies taking longer and longer to kill.

Bosses also get the speed/HP boost, and I’m pretty sure certain bosses become impossible to dodge if left too long (made all the more frustrating by being limited to 3 stage choices each time). For example, one of the dragon’s attacks is to send walls of projectiles from one side of the screen to the other, and there isn’t enough space to get through the gaps if you’re wall-jumping. Turns out, what you have to do is stand on the platforms near the center of the arena, but this was the seventh boss on my first run, and the projectiles came too quickly for me to get back to the center. Meanwhile, the level 9 boss has a similar attack, but with larger gaps in the projectile walls, letting you easily jump through them. On my second run, the wall-bird (EDIT: I meant the wall-mask, “Vile Visage”) was the eighth boss, and it kept spawning crowds of enemies (including self-detonating ones), making it hard to see anything through all the explosions.

Oh yeah, enemy explosions obscure everything, including other enemy shots, so there’s some more cheap hits for you.

The ninth level has a lot of jumping across moving platforms, and with all the enemies and hazards, you’d really want to know where those platforms stop and turn around. It is indicated by a black background object, but the level’s background is also very black, making it hard to see them. The last level has lots of vertical shafts where you have to move quickly to avoid being hit by icicle shooters, but then if you move too quickly, you’ll run into the enemies at the top of the shaft/lava at the bottom. Then, at the end of the level, it flattens out and just has enemies…or at least that’s how my final level was generated. Still, kinda weak finisher. The final boss is actually mostly more level segments: you jump through a bit of platforming with a few enemies, then you climb up some more platforms (avoiding more icicle shooters) and shoot the boss, who just stands there. After a bit, all the platforms explode (which I don’t think damages you) and the boss runs away, generating some more platforming segments. It’s not bad, but it can take a while, and you’ll start to see the same segments show up multiple times (even on the same run).

Overall, this game is okay. It does a lot of things right, but the procedurally-generated levels and workaround-difficulty-curve result in some subpar levels and unfair bosses. If you like platformer-roguelikes, you’ll like this game, but if you’re like me and you’re just a Mega Man X fan with a history of not liking roguelikes, wait for a good sale.