It’s not like being able to aim independently of movement is some modern invention, either. It’s just that all the difficulty comes from the controls, with players prevented from doing things we’ve been accustomed to doing for twenty or thirty years in other games of the genre. With enough attempts/practice, most shooter fans will be able to reach the boss and then beat the boss after continuing. Most of Story Mode’s levels actually do have a checkpoint at the boss or slightly before, so it’s not that Reshrined is impossibly difficult. These deliberate control choices make Reshrined a genuinely tough game when it doesn’t need to be. Firing diagonally without moving is particularly difficult because the character will often turn to one of the four main directions at the last moment. This makes firing and dodging far harder than they should be. To shoot at an enemy on the right, players have to stand or walk in that direction and fire. Fine, but the problem is that this game doesn’t even have a way to strafe or to lock the character in place while aiming. Reshrined is not a twin-stick shooter, the style of aiming that works best for this type of game. Movement and aiming, however, are stuck firmly in the past. With its various moves, Reshrined has the makings of a quality top-down shooter for today’s age. Those functions would be a lot easier to use if they could be mapped to their own buttons, but they're not essential to progressing through the game. Any of these buttons can be remapped to the shoulder buttons if so desired. Rapidly tapping the ranged or melee attack buttons will perform secondary functions for each button. Character movement is controlled with the D-Pad or left stick, and four action buttons handle the rest: ranged attack, melee attack/deflect, dash, and special attack. While Reshrined’s modern/throwback visual style is one of its greatest strengths, the gameplay feels decidedly retro. The music perfectly matches the colorful and mystical setting, too. Visual effects like gusts of wind, flying leaves, embers of fire, shadows, and more all elevate Reshrined‘s look beyond simple retro visuals, not to mention the widescreen aspect ratio. Everything from the sprites of the heroes, enemies, and huge boss characters down to the lush environments looks like something that would’ve been created in the 1990s or early 2000s. Tengo Project used software tools designed to capture the look of 2D games from the 16-bit and 32-bit eras, and the results are magical. Reshrined is a real aesthetic achievement. Still, her sprites are uncensored, so the changes are mild overall. Artwork for Ame-no-Uzume, incidentally, has been censored in the English releases to achieve an “E10” rating, removing her cleavage. Each character shares the same basic controls, but the actual attacks they can use are different. Thanks to the magic of time travel, Reshrined ends up functioning as both a prequel and sequel at once.ĭepending on the Story Mode stage, the gamer will control Pocky, Rocky, or the new characters: Ame-no-Uzume (a goddess) and Ikazuchi (a humanoid weasel). Rocky works to find Pocky while she uncovers the true nature of series villain Black Mantle. From there, the remaining stages and veer into unknown territory. While the first two stages are remakes of levels from Pocky & Rocky, a dramatic event then separates Pocky, the shrine priestess, from Rocky, her raccoon companion. There’s an instance where Pocky knows a character’s real name without explanation, but it’s otherwise a well-told tale that wouldn’t be out of place in an anime movie. The narrative starts out a bit simply but ends up fairly complex and tragic as it progresses. Non-voiced cinematics play between each level. Story is a single-player journey through the game’s 8 stages. Pocky & Rocky Reshrined offers two game modes: Story and Free. Reshrined is a faithful update of the games that preceded it, though sometimes to a fault. This installment is easily the best received entry in the series, likely owing to the gorgeous visuals created by Tengo Project ( The Ninja Saviors) and solid marketing. The first Pocky & Rocky for Super Nintendo added 2-player co-op, a feature retained in the recently released Pocky & Rocky Reshrined for PlayStation and Switch. While the sequels retain the Kiki KaiKai name in Japan, they go by Pocky & Rocky in English markets. In 1993, Natsume licensed the rights to create sequels to Taito’s single-player Kiki Kaikai arcade game.
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