PixlBit

Megabyte Punch – an up and coming self-described “Super Smash Bros. meets Mega Man meets Custom Robo” trifecta, is looking to be an absolute killer. The first thing I took notice of is the absolutely gorgeous art style. Megabyte Punch uses the Unity3D engine, and while it has been known for a while now that it’s a pretty powerful engine, I haven’t seen anything as impressive as what the team at Reptile Games have done with it. A unique spin on a classic visual style, an old school soundtrack made for the modern day, and a smart control scheme make Megabyte Punch worthy of your attention. The worlds look like someone took the stages from Knuckles’ Chaotix, extruded them into the third dimension, and dumped a comically sized vat of beauty on it. They’re a rigid, robotic cousin of the worlds of Sonic, and that’s not a bad thing at all - the levels all have multiple paths to the end, with different enemies, obstacles, and more along the way.

The soundtrack is incredibly fitting, with tracks that fit together stylistically, but are also varied enough to keep it interesting and not get repetitive. The music is the work of Oscar van der Burgh, and what an incredible job he’s done. The soundtrack is upbeat and has a techno feel to coincide with the robotic theme of the game, but it has a certain level of character that sets it apart from similar music in the genre. The composition is clearly inspired by and intended purely for Megabyte Punch. I was happily surprised at how much of an impact it had on the entire experience, it’s not invasive or abrasive, but it seamlessly blends the action with the scenery and paints a picture beyond the visuals.

The combat is incredibly smooth and responsive, especially if you use a controller, and is extremely satisfying. Bashing an enemy into a wall and upper cutting them when they bounce back at you is hilarious and incredibly fun. Reptile Games have taken the best aspects of the limp Super Smash Brothers “Story Mode” and turned it into a fully fleshed out and customizable single player campaign.

You control a robot called a “Megac” and who has been summoned by the “Heartcore.” You must protect your fellow Megac and your village from the Khotep, an Egyptian style faction of Megac, and the Empire, your archetypal “evil empire.” Destroying enemies – called Lost Megac, who are wild, untamed versions of your own kind will reward you with “Bits” that act as currency and if you collect 64 of them you get an extra life. These Lost Megac also drop parts on occasion that can give you different abilities, such as uppercuts (you should most definitely uppercut at least one enemy), teleportation, flight, firing balls of energy, and tons more. With a total of 150 different parts, the combinations are abundant, and the level of customization is a wonderful feature.

Fighting is simple – you have your basic attack (your kicks and punches) and then you have your special attack. The parts you equip will give you certain abilities and you can map these to Over+Special, Up+Special, Down+Special, and None+Special (meaning you simply have to press the button you have bound for “Special.”) This works just like the smash attacks in Smash Bros., and melds extremely well into Megabyte Punch. You can also attack in many directions; making back attacks, downward spikes, upward flurries, and of course flying fists of fury -- all easily accessible, and granting the player a comfortable, satisfying, glorious robotic battle.

Each level consists of a few stages followed by a boss fight. The stages have various paths, often times leading you to fights with mini-boss groups or hidden treasure chests with bonus bits and rare parts. This exploration aspect takes the linearity one would come to expect in a side scrolling fighting/beat-em-up and throws it right into the atmosphere without batting an eyelash. Combining the fluid combat with open level design grants the player free range to go where they please, and rewards the player for doing so.

One of the Megac in town tells you “When in doubt, go right!” This is true for the most part, on occasion there will be areas where you will have to climb vertically or drop lower to continue, but the levels are very cleverly designed so that the alternate paths culminate at important points to direct the player where they have to go without an obnoxious, blunt prompt. This kind of thoughtful game design is a throwback to the games of yesteryear, as well as an ideal I can only hope other developers begin to adopt.

The boss fights will be familiar to anyone who has played Super Smash Bros., as they have a similar format – the boss has a certain amount of lives, or “stock,” and both the boss and player have a counter that increases as they incur damage. As your damage accrues, you’ll launch farther and higher when you get hit with special attacks, until you eventually fly off of the stage. You’ll have to succeed at the same sequence of whittling down the boss’s energy and nailing him with special attacks to eliminate his lives. With each of his lives you eliminate, you’re usually rewarded with a new part for your Megac.

The bosses can be pretty cheap in their tactics – specifically, one boss uses a machine gun that fires eight bullets in a spray, and when I didn’t get my shield up in time, I proceeded to eat a ton of damage without a chance to jump, block, or get an attack in to interrupt his onslaught. I did end up destroying him once I figured out his pattern, but the next boss also gave me quite a bit of trouble, so it could just be a steep difficulty curve. This stresses the fact that you’ll need to collect those bits to make sure you have the extra lives when you take on the bosses.

There are currently no plans on having online multiplayer, but there is local multiplayer for up to four players, as well as Tournament Mode, which is a single player challenge in which you fight your way through eight increasingly difficult battles with a chance to win rare parts. It’s a very interesting game mode and idea, though I only made it to round four before being obliterated.

Megabyte Punch is bringing an old school perspective – the 2.5D side scroller – into the modern world with clean, bright visuals, well thought out, cleverly mapped controls, and a fulfilling sense of exploration. This hodgepodge blend of inspirations has culminated in a surprisingly successful robotic combat extravaganza which you should definitely plan to get.