Impressions based on the Japanese Switch version, played for about two hours with two runs through story mode, both up to stage 4.
Kiki Kaikai Kuro Manto No Nazo, or Pocky & Rocky Reshrined in the west, is a remake of the first original game, but not in the same way as Cotton Reboot or Wild Guns Reloaded: Reshrined shakes up things considerably, and basically it's a brand new game.
You still have the titular Pocky and Rocky as playable characters, with a ranged attack, a bomb, a roll, and a close-range attack that deflects bullets. Characters can be hit five times before losing a life, and you have three bombs per continue, those aren't refilled when you die. Getting hit also drops your power down, and if you are quick enough you can get it immediately back by collecting the dropped power-up. I strongly suggest doing so because being left with a level 1 attack is miserable even during the first stage.
Stages scroll all over the place, and you can fire in eight directions; I've found diagonals a bit hard to execute with a d-pad, maybe it's better with a stick. There's no way to lock direction or use a dual analog scheme, Reshrined is limited to the control scheme of the original.
And just like the original, Reshrined is a hard game even in normal mode; there are a ton of enemies on screen and almost every single one fires at you, and later stages have very narrow pathways to limit you movement, and there are numerous environmental traps to deal with. Luckily there are unlimited continues from the start, but you begin at a checkpoint, not directly where you left off. I think stages have two/three checkpoints: start, after the mid boss (if present), before the boss. You can also restart from the beginning of a level if you decide to quit, but restarting from scratch will erase this "bookmark".
Brute-forcing your way through story mode is possible to a degree, you'll have to put some effort to complete this game...but luckily you can always count on friends for local multiplayer.
Or maybe not. Story-mode is strictly one-player only, and easy mode is unlocked once you collect enough in-game coins. There is a two-player mode, called free mode, but that again is locked behind an in-game coin requirement. Each run I had netted around 500 coins, easy difficulty is 3000 and free mode is 10000. I don't particularly care for easy difficulty but locking away free mode (and not having a 2P story mode) is a very bad decision, considering that story mode and free mode are the only ways to play the game.
Unfortunately Reshrined doesn't include any of the past titles, but makes up for lack of game modes in characters and new mechanics.
You start story mode as Pocky, and you switch to Rocky in the second stage. The third is back to Pocky, and the fourth is with a new character. All of them have the same basic controls, movement speed, and close-range attack, but have completely different fires, bombs, and alternate fire modes.
Alternate fire modes are unlocked in stage three and you lose them if you restart from the beginning. Press repeadetly the attack button (instead of holding down) and characters will deploy options that will aim to the nearest enemy, greatly improving firepower. Hold down the close-range attack button for two/three seconds and you'll deploy a time-limited barrier to deflect bulllets and do some damage to enemies...and some enemies can only be damaged by said barrier.
The barrier is a welcome addition, but I'm not entirely sold on the attack options; you need to stop and think for a movement how to deploy them, and in stage four they are basically required to progress, greatly reducing game rhythm and removing a lot of the fast-paced action of previous stages and games: deploy options, destroy on-screen enemies, progress until new enemies spawn, deploy options, repeat. Options are great if you are at power level 1 but often are a double edged sword as they limit your mobility during and after deployment, as you need to hit the options for them to fire. Probably things will get better with more practice, but I would have preferred something either associated with another button, or something that keeps your mobility.
At first boot, the game starts with a stretched playable area to fill a 16:9 screen. A quick trip to the options will solve that, and you can choose between 9 levels of scanline intensity. The game moves without hitches at all times, with big, colourful, and sharp sprites throughout the game. Overall the screen remains readable at all times, but you will take hits for misjudging distances, impassable walls, or bullet heigth, just like the original.
There is no voice acting, and I was too busy with the action to pay attention to the music.
Kiki Kaikai Kuro Manto No Nazo, or Pocky & Rocky Reshrined in the west, is a remake of the first original game, but not in the same way as Cotton Reboot or Wild Guns Reloaded: Reshrined shakes up things considerably, and basically it's a brand new game.
You still have the titular Pocky and Rocky as playable characters, with a ranged attack, a bomb, a roll, and a close-range attack that deflects bullets. Characters can be hit five times before losing a life, and you have three bombs per continue, those aren't refilled when you die. Getting hit also drops your power down, and if you are quick enough you can get it immediately back by collecting the dropped power-up. I strongly suggest doing so because being left with a level 1 attack is miserable even during the first stage.
Stages scroll all over the place, and you can fire in eight directions; I've found diagonals a bit hard to execute with a d-pad, maybe it's better with a stick. There's no way to lock direction or use a dual analog scheme, Reshrined is limited to the control scheme of the original.
And just like the original, Reshrined is a hard game even in normal mode; there are a ton of enemies on screen and almost every single one fires at you, and later stages have very narrow pathways to limit you movement, and there are numerous environmental traps to deal with. Luckily there are unlimited continues from the start, but you begin at a checkpoint, not directly where you left off. I think stages have two/three checkpoints: start, after the mid boss (if present), before the boss. You can also restart from the beginning of a level if you decide to quit, but restarting from scratch will erase this "bookmark".
Brute-forcing your way through story mode is possible to a degree, you'll have to put some effort to complete this game...but luckily you can always count on friends for local multiplayer.
Or maybe not. Story-mode is strictly one-player only, and easy mode is unlocked once you collect enough in-game coins. There is a two-player mode, called free mode, but that again is locked behind an in-game coin requirement. Each run I had netted around 500 coins, easy difficulty is 3000 and free mode is 10000. I don't particularly care for easy difficulty but locking away free mode (and not having a 2P story mode) is a very bad decision, considering that story mode and free mode are the only ways to play the game.
Unfortunately Reshrined doesn't include any of the past titles, but makes up for lack of game modes in characters and new mechanics.
You start story mode as Pocky, and you switch to Rocky in the second stage. The third is back to Pocky, and the fourth is with a new character. All of them have the same basic controls, movement speed, and close-range attack, but have completely different fires, bombs, and alternate fire modes.
Alternate fire modes are unlocked in stage three and you lose them if you restart from the beginning. Press repeadetly the attack button (instead of holding down) and characters will deploy options that will aim to the nearest enemy, greatly improving firepower. Hold down the close-range attack button for two/three seconds and you'll deploy a time-limited barrier to deflect bulllets and do some damage to enemies...and some enemies can only be damaged by said barrier.
The barrier is a welcome addition, but I'm not entirely sold on the attack options; you need to stop and think for a movement how to deploy them, and in stage four they are basically required to progress, greatly reducing game rhythm and removing a lot of the fast-paced action of previous stages and games: deploy options, destroy on-screen enemies, progress until new enemies spawn, deploy options, repeat. Options are great if you are at power level 1 but often are a double edged sword as they limit your mobility during and after deployment, as you need to hit the options for them to fire. Probably things will get better with more practice, but I would have preferred something either associated with another button, or something that keeps your mobility.
At first boot, the game starts with a stretched playable area to fill a 16:9 screen. A quick trip to the options will solve that, and you can choose between 9 levels of scanline intensity. The game moves without hitches at all times, with big, colourful, and sharp sprites throughout the game. Overall the screen remains readable at all times, but you will take hits for misjudging distances, impassable walls, or bullet heigth, just like the original.
There is no voice acting, and I was too busy with the action to pay attention to the music.
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