Azure Striker Gunvolt (PC) Review

Rare, powerful, and gifted individuals, a corrupt super-company that takes advantage of them, and a young hero who stands between the people behind it, and their plans for world domination… or something along these lines. Yes, it's cliché, but what matters is the presentation, and while far from a storytelling masterpiece, this is a fun read, as long as something more than a nice, and occasionally funny, anime-like story isn't expected.

Of course, the focus here is not on the plot. Like the run & gunners of old, this is all about going from A to B, and destroying all opposition in the process, so, the important thing is how fun the said process really is. Before everything else, though, one thing must be made perfectly clear: this had Keiji Inafune on the publisher's wheel, it uses a similar high-tech visual style with Mega Man X, but it's definitely not a Mega Man.

The platforming bits are relatively simple, the traps only a few, and the experience as a whole not that challenging. More importantly, this is first and foremost a shooter, and not a shooter-platformer like the Mega Man series, and is thus unfair to judge Azure Striker Gunvolt by comparing it with it. Furthermore, this is less about moving around slowly and methodically, and more about running and killing things as fast as possible.

You are not obliged to do so, however. It's possible to take your time and slowly kill enemy after enemy. The thing is that this was meant to played very fast, and, as a result, is more enjoyable this way - something that almost makes the speedrun mode the main one in a way; a mode with a couple of different variations, helpful for those who want to test their luck at something more challenging… or at least make things easier.

In order to be fast, and, most importantly, effective, the main hero takes advantage of his lightning-based powers. While he will be able to add more to his arsenal of weapons and skills, his main tool of the trade will be the Flashfield; an electrical shield that can damage foes, destroy most of their projectiles, and even gives Gunvolt (yes, that's his name) the ability to "glide," and thus avoid various hazards.

The most useful trick up his sleeve, however, is that his weaponry can tag enemies, something that enables damaging more than one and from a distance with the Forcefield. So, in conclusion, Azure Striker Gunvolt is a very fast, well-designed piece of software, that's not "just another shooter" - what about its longevity, though? Does it have enough content to make people coming back to it? To say the truth, it doesn't, but does that keep it from having a decent replay value?

It was previously mentioned that this isn't really a tough journey, but maybe it wasn't emphasised enough, so here it is: this is simply a walk in the park. Yes, it's that easy! Even the bosses, who may require a try or two to go down, are nothing special, not to mention that because of the existence of infinite lives and conveniently placed checkpoints, defeating them won't really be that much of a problem.

Furthermore, this is an extremely short adventure. It has a handful of stages that can last about 10 minutes if you play relatively slow. The replay value, however, increases by activating certain challenges and then retrying a level, but even these aren't something special. In reality, this is all about the speedrunning experience. People can have lots of fun without playing like so, but you have to understand that this was meant to.