Pocky & Rocky Reshrined Reviews

8/10

Unfair and not fun.

Hayaaaaaaaaah! Pewpewpew! Boooom! That's all you need for some serious fun when reverting back to a 3 year-old emotionally - Before you learned to paint things black :D

Another remake of an SNES cult classic that's got the usual Tengo qualities-- that gorgeous 16-bit animation, the artwork, the sound design, the music, the extras, etc. And no other dev team I can think of respects the source material better... except maybe Nightdive. But, fair warning: this is a tough little cookie that isn't afraid to bite back. [i]Pocky & Rocky[/i] is definitely not the kind of game an experienced gamer can just steamroll their way through; every level is a study in challenge and approach. The kind of game where you're first flabbergasted that guys on YT can no-hit-run, but then you get a hit of dopamine when your mastery of a level plays out flawlessly. You might be coming into this one expecting a twin-stick shooter, but it's not. It's an odd top-down shooter, where your default character doesn't strafe and only shoots forward, so (like [i]Dark Souls[/i]) you have to commit yourself to its deliberate limitations. It makes for some hairy difficulty, where some level sections require you to stand your ground, and others need you to push forward as quickly as possible. And you're bouncing back and forth between different characters every level, which means different weapons and abilities. In short, it's a bite-sized bit of charming retro that's nestled its way into a part of my brain and has refused to leave. So, even when I'm not hitting my stride within the confines of its limited game design, I can't deny that it's been a lot of fun to master!

One of the first shmups I played as a kid, remade for modern players! At first I thought the game was really tough, but once I realized that it's actually a matter of memorizing what strategy works for which enemies, and how to fully utilize each character's special abilities (charge melee attack / tap range attack), I was able to breeze through normal mode with all the characters! I'm still struggling with hard mode though, but it'll be satisfying once I beat it! As for the 2-player mode, it's somewhat questionable that the game forces the player to complete single-player mode before allowing two-player mode... But it's better than when the game first came out -- I think you had to collect 10,000 coins before you could unlock 2-player mode. For the record, it took me about 6 hours of repeated play to get to 10,000 coins! Thankfully, the developers heard enough complaints from players, and added a cheat code to allow instant 2-player mode. Love the game so much, if there is a sequel I would definitely buy it

The game looks great, but the gameplay feels stuck in the past and not in a good way. I played the original Pocky & Rocky back on the SNES, and even though I only spent a little time with it, I remember it never hooked me. Playing this remake now reminded me exactly why. The controls are essentially the same, you can’t reliably shoot in diagonal directions, the character doesn’t stay still when shooting, and movement feels stiff. The game demands precision but it doesn’t give you the tools to achieve. The difficulty spikes make it worse, some sections flood the screen with enemies and projectiles, and combined with the control limitations, it quickly shifts from challenging to frustrating. The same gameplay flaws that kept me from enjoying it back in the SNES days are still here, and they still keep me from enjoying it now.