TMMN Reviews: Berserk Boy

Berserk Boy is a new Mega Man-esque game from the aptly-named Berserk Boy Games, and while we’ve had spiritual successors to Mega Man games before, I think this is the first time we’ve had a that feels so specifically like a spiritual successor to the Mega Man ZX series. And that includes games coming from the creators of those games at Inti Creates!

I don’t usually tend to talk about graphics and sound until later in the review (graphics aren’t everything, after all), but this time, I really felt compelled to lead with them.

Berserk Boy is a 2D side-scrolling platformer that utilizes pixel art — nothing new there. But the quality of the art is what really helps this title stand apart. I would say it seems very reminiscent of a strong SEGA CD — or perhaps even more appropriately, SEGA Saturn title. It just looks like it would fit in snug alongside the likes of Astal, Sonic Mania, and Freedom Planet.

In terms of sound, the music is composed by none other than the modern day legend, Tee Lopes of Sonic Mania, Streets of Rage 4, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, and so much more. If that isn’t enough to sell you on the soundtrack, then just check out the embed above and see how that suits you. Personally, I think he did a banging job here, and it just makes me want to hear what he could do for an actual Mega Man game all the more.

The soundtrack also reminds me of Freedom Planet in some ways, though I guess a lot of the game does, come to think of it. Almost like it is to Mega Man ZX what that series is to Sonic. But I digress; some of the tracks have been stuck in my head for a bit, for hours and even days after I last played it.

There’s voice acting, too. The game isn’t fully voiced, but there are bits of spoken dialogue here and there. I found these were a little difficult to hear with the initial settings, but the music and sound effect levels can be adjusted in the options menu, if you so desire.

The core gameplay of Berserk Boy is, again, very reminiscent of Mega Man ZX. Most specifically, in the MegaMerge-like “morphing” abilities you get from different Berserk Orbs, which are basically this game’s answer to BioMetals. You even have a base “normal” mode without any powers equipped at the start, though unlike ZX, I found this form almost completely needless after getting the first Orb. Still, it’s there if you want to power-down for some reason.

Dashing is the main mechanic, at least at the start. Each form performs it in a different way — assuming that it doesn’t do something else, that is. The Fire Orb, for example, changes your dash to a tornado spin, while the Earth Orb instead replaces it with more of an explosive vertical leap. Some can dash in multiple directions, others, only left or right.

In a way, the forms are almost like a compromise between what I liked most in Mega Man ZX, but didn’t like in Mega Man ZX Advent so much — all the forms’ base movements (running, jumping, climbing) feel the same, but special abilities — including attacks and how they dash — set them apart. (And if you like Model P the way I do, then you’re going to love Ice Kunai.)

In many of these cases, dashing is a primary form of attack, and in the case of the Lightning form you get near the start of the game, you can use it to “tag” enemies by ramming into them, then zapping them with a bolt of electricity. You can chain several of these “tags” together, and hit several foes at once.

While you’re limited to dashing in the air only once before touching the ground again (pending a power-up for the Lightning form that allows you to do it twice), this rule goes right out the window when you’re dashing into enemies and obstacles like the barriers that require you to ram them in order to pass. This effectively resets the count, or at least grants you one more, and there are entire sections based around dashing into one enemy or obstacle after the next to cross large chasms and spike pits and things of that sort.

It’s a very kinetic sort of feeling that reminds me of what I loved about the Luminous Avenger iX games, and perhaps even more so here.

Incidentally, I feel it’s important to highlight this for fans of Mega Man X, Mega Man Zero, and Mega Man ZX: There is no dash jump. You can jump, you can dash, and you can jump and then air-dash, but you can’t do the ol’ “press both together for a longer jump” trick here. Fortunately, you’ll rarely (if ever) need to.

I’ll also add that the default controls didn’t really do it for me, but as you can probably tell by my use of the term “default,” you can customize them in the menu. If you’re a fan of the standard Mega Man X and Mega Man ZX layout, that’s what you’re going to want to do, though Mega Man Zero fans should be right at home from the jump (though speaking of jumps, you might want to move that button off of A on the Switch controller).

Also worth noting is that, at least for the duration I played and as of this writing, the game would change the controls so that the Dpad Up function was instead mapped to the Y button. I have no idea why it does this, but since I have the Attack button mapped to Y as well, this basically made the game unplayable (at least with the Dpad) until I went to the options to fix it, and it did this every time I would exit out to the title screen and quit the game. I had to learn to remember to do it before I started playing, because unfortunately, you can’t visit the options menu during gameplay.

Where Berserk Boy really sheds its Mega Man-esque skin is in its approach to progression. Unlike most Mega Man games of a similar style to this one, progression is pretty much entirely linear. That means you’re taking the stages in a fixed order, fighting the bosses in a fixed order, and — you guessed it — acquiring your powers in a fixed order.

This isn’t as bad as it sounds on the surface, as each stage is basically designed in such a way that they know what base powers and abilities you’re going to have the first time through, and build around that. In that regard, it feels pretty polished, and the complexity increases as you gain more powers and abilities. Plus: No map issues!

That isn’t to say that there aren’t spots for powers you don’t have yet. That’s basically where the “Metroidvania” aspect of the game comes in. There are medals to collect and Resistance members to rescue throughout each stage, and you’re not getting them all on your first pass. When you’ve gained the ability to fly, burrow through the ground, hang from ledges, or blow the doors off their hinges, that’s when you’ll be able to return and find the rest.

I should add that the stages are pretty dang long, or at least feel that way. In a good way, I might add. There are six worlds, each with three stages, plus bonus time trial stages to unlock. I found the main stages often took me around half an hour each to finish (though part of that is probably just down to me being thorough on a first pass).

Still, it made each boss’s domain feel substantial. There’s always been a question with Mega Man games of how to make them feel more substantial for today’s market, and the folks at Berserk Boy Games might just be on to something here. Maybe Capcom should take some notes?

As far as the backtracking goes, checkpoints double as teleportation portals, so each time you visit a stage, you can activate them and zip around back and forth at your leisure. Same for the main base, which fills out with more occupants as you rescue people and finish stages. You’ll also have to defend it from invading forces after completing a set of stages, though this is also a good opportunity to get a feel for your new powers before heading into the next mission.

For those worried about the difficulty? Don’t. There are options to make the game easier, such as going with unlimited lives and even full-on invincibility, if you choose. I took the former, but not the latter except to test how it worked (didn’t even finish a stage with it).

As a Mega Man veteran, I found the challenge level to be appealing. I died quite a few times in some places, less in others. Some of it came from just learning the game; I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to go the distance at first, but the more I played, the better I got. By the end, I felt like a pro. Plus, when you beef up your offense and improve your health and other things in the shop, zipping around and taking out enemies in quick succession while swapping from one form to the next makes you feel like a real badass.

I was able to finish the main game in the time I had with it, but there’s post-game content, too. You’ll need the 50 medals that are scattered throughout the stages to get to that, and by the time I finished the (pretty dang cool) final boss, I had gotten 30 on my first pass through the stages, and a few more from revisiting with my new powers.

Put simply, the game is very, very good… but not perfect. To be honest, a lot of it feels like niggling and nitpicking, and like the control mapping issue and no option menu access in-game mentioned above, are probably easily dealt with, and don’t really detract from the overall experience very much (heck, some you might not even notice).

My biggest pet peeve is probably how when the screen does a hard scroll from one section of a stage to the next, it’s like the previous section remains frozen in time. That basically means that if you decide to backtrack and scroll back, everything is just how you left it — including that missile that hit the ground and didn’t blow up yet. They only take a few seconds to go off normally, but you could leave the game running while you take a trip around the world, and it’ll still blow up once you return and scroll back. Again, irksome, but I doubt anyone is going to quit the game over it.

The economy is a bit of a grind. By the end of the game, I didn’t even have everything, but on the other hand, I didn’t really need everything, either. So I guess it’s more of a completionist thing (no, I don’t mean charity fraud) that can further incentivize those return playthroughs to find everything and everyone.

Early on, some enemies and challenges felt a little cheap or “gotcha-y”, but I felt this less and less as I progressed through the game and became better at it. I guess it’s a bit of a “git gud” and memorization thing.

Finally, this didn’t really affect my enjoyment of the game, and I don’t think I ever really needed it, but there’s a Super Jump they show you how to do with your first Orb early on, but I don’t think I ever successfully pulled it off. And I mean, the moves in this game all have pretty basic execution. Mastering how to use them is another thing, but just performing them isn’t usually a problem, so I don’t know what’s going on there.

So, is Berserk Boy worth your time?

If you’re a fan of Mega Man-esque games, and especially of the Mega Man ZX games, then I say “abso-freaking-lutely.”

It’s a game that feels more satisfying the more you play it and learn its ins and outs, and it definitely has the heart and vibe of Inti Creates’ Nintendo DS classics. And if you’ve never played those before, I still think you should give this a shot. Who knows, it might even encourage you to seek those games out! (ProTip: You can find them pretty dang easily here.)

At the same time, while a lot of that Mega Man DNA is here, it still feels like its own beast separate from those, like a different take on the concepts used in those titles. Sort of like how Mario, Sonic, and Donkey Kong all feel similar, yet distinct from one-another. Kind of like how Freedom Planet differs from Sonic, too.

Berserk Boy is available March 6th, 2024 on the Nintendo Switch (version reviewed) and Steam on PC for a price of $20.00 USD. A review code was provided by the publisher.

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