Berserk Boy PC review – Copen hard

Lots of games try to fill the Mega Man-sized gap in the hearts of fans. Berserk Boy is the only one I’ve seen that looks further into the related franchises by digging into Mega Man ZX and Gunvolt. The game has terrific controls and visuals that, early on, had me convinced of its greatness. However, some major design and curve missteps take it out of the running after a while. Despite that, there is enjoyment to be had from this game, even if the design, abilities, and some of its more annoying padding lead it to trip over its own feet in ways that make the overall package more underwhelming than I had hoped.

Berserk Boy sees our titular protagonist collecting orbs that are much like the models in Mega Man ZX, where they allow him to change into a new form with its own abilities. The starting, and most useful orb makes him play much like Copen in Gunvolt 2 and his first spin-off. You mainly dash into foes which basically plants a tracer in them and then you detonate it. But there’s another form that grants melee attacks, as well as projectile-based forms that are clearly modelled after Mega Man abilities. One orb grants kunai projectiles and the ability to hang from bars, just like Phantom.

The game is broken into 16 stages, but one of those is barely a stage, really. The others are broken into five units of three stages, the first four of which correspond to unlocking the other four orbs. Stages are varied and built out of attractive pixel art. In addition to just reaching the end, you’ll also be able to rescue people and collect medals, whose purpose doesn’t become clear until later. Rescuing all the people will reward you with a short EX time trial stage for these 15 stages, but there doesn’t appear to be any incentive to do these.

Faster than a bullet

One of the most impressive things about Berserk Boy is simply how fast it is. The protagonist’s general movement speed is quite nimble by default, but the game is mostly built around using a button to rapidly dash forward, making the gameplay even quicker. The sense of speed here is relentless as you hurtle through levels and slam yourself into enemies. It’s really something. Doing so just has a lot of heft to it and the combat is simply satisfying to pull off. The game is undoubtedly just fun to play in and of itself.

Most of the levels end in a boss of some sort. The three levels per area is similar to Acts in Sonic games. You do three and the last has a boss fight against a major foe. The first two have mini bosses usually, but these are palette swaps in the first couple of levels, which I found more akin to padding than anything else. The game shines in the first few acts, as the level design is better when it’s on the simpler side. In fact, I enjoyed the game the most during the first three levels when I only had a single set of abilities at my disposal.

However, problems start to crop up as soon as you beat the first boss and unlock another orb. This is the fire orb that grants the aforementioned useful melee attack. It also lets you spin on certain drill platforms and, much to my continued annoyance, sees you drilling into dirt much like the Drill Wisp in Sonic Colours. From this point on, the drill sections become a constant presence. There are simply too many of them and I would groan whenever I was enjoying the level flow, before having to drill through dirt yet again. Activating abilities uses up a negligible bit of energy too, but this is rarely a problem, as there are energy dots all over to collect.

Shoot the matching emblem

Granted, the drill stuff is fine. There’s just too much of it. But Berserk Boy continually adds more mechanics that tend to slow the pace, which is weird considering the speed of the game. Three of the orbs have obstacles set up that exist just for you to hit them. After a while, the game becomes a constant barrage of switching out abilities, often just to shoot another arbitrary obstacle. It really damages the level pacing. It’s far from bad, but it just feels like needless bloat to me that only serves to dilute the game’s strong suit instead of emphasising it. It’s kind of baffling.

It gets really confusing when the orb that lets you straight-up fly are introduced. Once you get this, the kunai and mine orb sets become practically useless, which is weird because you get it before the mine orb set. The kunai set often has you jumping while clinging to bars, but you simply don’t need to even usually bother with it once you get the flying set. But Berserk Boy continually has these sections after you can fly. I typically just flew past them. Afterward, the mine set wants you to scan platforms to be able to jump on them and has a double jump you’re meant to use on them. I just flew past most of these too. It’s as if the developer just wanted to pretend the flying set didn’t exist.

At this point, it often felt like unnecessary obstacles were added to keep players using the less useful abilities. The mine set on its own is just mostly useless to begin with, so it showing up makes the game worse. Speaking of which, there’s a needless amount of padding here. After major levels, you’re taken back to base where you need to eliminate any attacking enemies spread across the area to proceed. These are easy and feel like a waste of time, solely meant to make the game longer. And, of course, there are problems with the combat too.

Is that the best you can do?

To put it bluntly, the combat in Berserk Boy never changes. You fight similarly weak enemies from the beginning of the game to the end. With the fire skill set, you can just mash the melee button and all basic enemies die quickly. There’s no challenge to it. Bosses are also easy. Every boss in the game can be beaten on your first try with minimal effort. Yes, even the last boss. The platforming can be decently challenging, but the combat is a cakewalk. The game also has no difficulty curve to speak of. Honestly, though, there is one aspect of the game that can seem challenging. I say “seem” because it’s not challenging, it’s just another wonky design choice.

Despite the low level of challenge the game offers, falling into a pit counts as a death. I simply don’t understand why this choice was made, as it greatly conflicts with multiple aspects of the game’s design. Gravity Circuit understood this, but that was a much better game. This combines with the game’s padding in an unfortunate way toward the end too. Once you beat the 15th stage, the game requires you to pick up 50 of the collectible medals to progress. This means hunting for them in the levels. But if you fall into a pit after grabbing a medal, you lose it, so you have to go get it again and reach a checkpoint. Considering how easy it is to fall into pits, I found this infuriating.

Once you get 50 medals, you then have to go on a fetch quest for a MacGuffin where you have to walk all the way into an area and back the way you came. I warped once I entered the base and I lost the MacGuffin, requiring me to go back and do the padded ordeal a second time, which I was thoroughly unhappy about. Once you do this, your reward is the final stage, which is solely a boss rush followed by an easy, underwhelming final boss. I felt cheated by this, as a single subpar boss fight wasn’t worth all the effort. I wish I’d just turned the game off after beating stage 15.

Berserk Boy starts out so strong that it really is a shame that it, ironically, can’t keep up the momentum. It’s a solid game, let down by an overstuffed, misguided design ethos and too much unnecessary padding despite its short 5-6 hour runtime. The borrowed Copen gameplay is quite fun and the presentation is terrific, but I couldn’t help but be disappointed by the game overall. The devs did an excellent job aping various aspects of the Inti Creates feel, but the overall game design misses the mark too much for it to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with its inspiration.