Review: METAGAL (Switch)

by Michael Brandse

Mega Woman.  

METAGAL is basically Mega Man, but with female androids instead of male ones. Apart from that, it follows the structure of Mega Man to a T.

 

The game starts off with introducing the big bad, things go wrong and it’s up to you, Meta, to save the day. From a screen you get to select the android you want to beat and then you go beat her to receive her power. The main difference with METAGAL is that special weapons recover over time, meaning that unlike Mega Man, you never really run out of special weapons. 

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Of course, the trade-off is that instead of a big bar of weapon energy, you get a very small one. 1 or 2 shots of your special weapon, and a recharge is necessary. I personally found this particular addition not all that fun, as it took away an integral part that Mega Man games have; having to plan your way through a stage so you don’t run out of weapons. It also made special weapons rather useless during boss fights. After all, if you constantly have to recharge anyway, you may as well just hit them hard and quick, which basically limits you to your standard guns.  

Another annoying part of METAGAL is that there is no way to change the button layout. The current button layout has the dash button mapped to the X button, with jump being mapped to B. This combination makes taking a long jump more tedious than it should be, especially in a platformer like this. Sure, there is the double tap on the directional pad, but I have never been a fan of that kind of control input. Besides, it’s not like the Switch has a lack of buttons, so this feels a bit rushed or at least not entirely thought out.  

Apart from those annoyances, METAGAL is a competent game. The art in the stages looks great, the music is serviceable and the game has a sufficient level of challenge that will keep fans of the genre busy for at least a little while. It's quirks keep it from being a great game, but if you like these kind of games and are starved for a new one, you may as well try it out.

Final Score 6.5

Review code provided by the publisher