When one thinks of the 2D platformer, it comes in many flavors. Legendary examples in the genre include a spiky blue hedgehog rolling through loops and a blue bomber shooting lemons at robot masters. What happens when you meld these two legends together? And maybe throw in a touch of modern-day Mega Man-likes into the mix? You get Berserk Boy Games‘ first video game, aptly titled Berserk Boy. Channeling the spirit of iconic platforming classics and adding its own electric flair to the genre, is it a lightning strike? Or is it a faulty spark? From my seven-hour adventure with Berserk Boy, the answer is quite electrifying.
Developer & Publisher // Berserk Boy Games
Platforms // Nintendo Switch, PC
MSRP & Release Date // $19.99, March 6th, 2024
Reviewed On // Nintendo Switch
Welcome to the Resistance – Berserk Boy Narrative
Opening with a short but charming animated cut scene, the adventure begins with Kai and his friend continuing their work as Resistance members. But they get separated, with Kai comes across a bird named Fiore. The bird so happens to be holding a Berserk Orb, a powerful item that has the potential to grant users untold power.
Kai bonds with the purple orb and gains access to lighting-coated purple armor, allowing him to dash like a bolt of lightning. Together with Fiore and the rest of the resistance, the duo ventures across five different zones to collect the remaining orbs and stop the evil Dr. Genos from ruling the world.
The overall premise in Berserk Boy is nothing groundbreaking but the writing has that classic-video game charm, with boss encounters having witty back-and-forth with Kai before they begin. In addition, Kai himself channels this Sonic-like energy with his various voice clips during gameplay when pulling off powerful abilities and his Goku-esc shouts during heated clashes. When the credits rolled, I felt it all paid off while still leaving the door open for more.
Greased Lightning – Game Feel/Controls
To create a successful platformer, tight controls are a necessity. Fortunately, Berserk Boy delivers, with every button press feeling instant with no input delay. In addition, the game lets players re-bind the controls to their liking in the options menu. I personally swapped the ZL and ZR buttons but the default set up solid.
Fast as Lighting – Berserk Boy Gameplay
The core gameplay in Berserk Boy focuses on going from point A to B across sizable levels, taking advantage of one of Kai’s five Berserk Forms. Starting out with the Purple Form, you dash across levels like a bat out of hell. Dashing into enemies sends you slightly higher in the air, with level design pushing you to chain dashes. In addition to the dashing, the other four Berserk Forms add new forms of movement.
From the Green Form’s fight to the Red Form’s drill ability, Kai is frequently changing up forms on a dime to progress. Almost every level in Berserk Boy is built with this design, with later game levels getting quite creative.
A particular highlight is World 3, where the player has access to three forms (Purple, Red, Blue). Dashing through chains of targets, landing near a drill-able wall, and popping out to swap to the Blue form to hang upside down off a platform. Lastly, capping it all off with a fun combat encounter that leverages all your abilities like claw strikes, electric dashing, and ninja kunai feels amazing.
A Good Kit – Berserk Boy Moveset/Combat
Fighting enemies, particularly with the default Purple form, is quite the jolt. Each form has a different way to attack, focused on a different focus. If you want to be aggressive, the Purple and Red forms are ideal, while the range-focused Yellow and Blue forms help keep distance.
Kai’s overall moveset shared across the five forms is robust. Having a great jump arc and can pull himself up ledges when close enough. In addition, he has a Mega Man X-like wall cling, being able to jump across walls or up them. Channeling the Blue Blur himself, Kai can even grind on some rails with levels sometimes having them under and above each other.
These short sequences between going from rail to rail, when combined with Berserk Orb-focused platforming sections, can be really fun moments during levels.
Going Berserk – Berserk Boy’s Boss Encounters
This setup ensures tougher threats keep players on their toes. And like any great Mega Man-like platformer, the bosses are a major element. Every level caps off with a mini-boss fight or a Berserk Orb user, each giving the player a taste of the new abilities they can earn once defeating them.
While not nearly as challenging as most Mega Man or Mega Man X adventures, they are still very enjoyable encounters. A big part of that is from the smart telegraphing of attack patterns, ensuring even if you die often, you can retry and learn from mistakes made. UI elements like ‘Danger Warning’ icons surrounding some attacks also go a long way in telling the player to dash or jump away from an attack.
But aggressive play is also rewarded, with smart use of your abilities ending fights just as quickly as they begin. The player mostly determines the pacing of encounters, making them either a fun challenge or a rush of adrenaline in seeing how fast they can go down.
A highlight was the Green Orb Berserk barrier, Soaring Wing, staying largely airborne so you had to make on-the-fly decisions on whether or not to engage during specific phases of the fight. Another enjoyable encounter was the ‘true’ final boss, having very clear telegraphing but if you were aggressive enough, the fight could end quite quickly with smart usage of dashing and punching.
Different Jolts – Berserk Boy Gameplay Mix-Ups
While Berserk Boy doesn’t do this often, three times throughout the game Kai’s friend jumps in to help out. These shoot ’em up sections limit player abilities to just shooting and either flying or jumping.
Initially, I found these parts of the game distracting. But by the time I played the final one of these, I realized why they were included. It livens up the already tight gameplay with some arcade flavor and specifically the final two are very fun.
One of them even ends a level, having you fight a gun-ship and carefully dashing to avoid laser beam shots.
Seeing the Outlet – Berserk Boy’s Progression
Every level has a clear goal, get to the end goal. Throughout the game’s 18 levels, there are five B-Metals to collect. Collecting them initially doesn’t grant the player anything. But upon completing the final level, the game seemingly ‘ends’… Until you talk to the Resistance crew.
The player can talk to an NPC at the very end of the ship, asking the player for 50 medals. By giving this NPC the 50 metals, you get access to two additional levels. One is a small platforming challenge near the ship, while the other is a Mega Man-esc boss rush that caps off with a very engaging final battle.
On the surface, progression gating like this is a problem. However, the game encourages exploration through your five Berserk Orb forms. By the time you complete the final zone, you can access hidden routes in prior levels, and replaying them with new abilities is enjoyable. And considering you only need 50 out of the 90 collectible metals, this is quite manageable.
This also offers a great challenge for those who play aggressively, if you get a B-Metal and before going to the checkpoint, it doesn’t count. It encourages players to play more skillfully, which was something I appreciated.
Earning that Buzz – Bonus Missions/Upgrades
The second mission is rescuing the lost Resistance members across the game. By saving all of them in a level, you get access to a time-trial level. There is a total of 18 of these and they are enjoyable challenges for those looking for more content.
Berserk Boy also has a limited upgrade system, where the player can buy some additional moves and health/energy meter upgrades. The game is very generous with currency, getting it through exploration and combat encounters. The upgrades themselves don’t change the game overall but are welcome inclusions.
The Blue Pixel – Berserk Boy Presentation
Going for a 16-bit Super Nintendo/SEGA Genesis-inspired look, Berserk Boy kills it with strong art direction. The sprite work on Kai and the main cast are very expressive, with small details sticking out. Specific examples are the unique poses when grinding on rails depending on the form and Kai’s various animations when pulling off actions. Everything is incredibly smooth and detailed but never takes away from the action.
The levels themselves have strong theming. Running through a futuristic city too dashing through a colorful robot-infested jungle, each local stands on it’s own. This is only further supported with the different Berserk Form elements never clashing visually. Everything comes together with a strong overall style.
My favorite of the game’s five worlds has to be the Ice Temple in World 2. The snowfall matched with the Japan-motif work well together.
Electrifying Music
One of the strongest aspects of Berserk Boy has to be the soundtrack. Composed by Tee Lopes of Sonic Mania fame, every single track not only is catchy and channels that 90’s energy his work is infamous for, but they perfectly complement every level.
The opening track channels the spirit of iconic opening levels of games like Mega Man X, melding old and new together to create a style all its own. And it gets various remixes throughout the opening world, keeping the action going with chiller and guitar-flavored mixes.
Melding a sound direction inspired by iconic work from Mega Man X and Classic Sonic, Tee Lopes creates his best score yet.
Turn Up that Mic – The Audio of Berserk Boy
The only major criticism of Berserk Boy is the voice acting. Similar to other smaller projects like the Shantae series, some lines of dialog are voiced while others aren’t. Meaning, that during story sequences part of the line is ready while the other isn’t.
In addition, the audio mixing for the voice acting isn’t nearly as good when compared to the sound effects/music. It can be too low or too loud at points. Although I personally enjoyed Kai’s performance, the rest of the voice cast provided passable performances.
Regarding sound effects, the game nails the audio. Every attack and action has an impact, with Kai’s voice delivery adding that 90’s charm when pulling off specific abilities. I never got tired of hearing ‘Lighting Justice’ after pulling off a dash chain finisher.
Going Berserk! – Berserk Boy Technical Performance
Berserk Boy runs like a dream on Switch, having a locked 60FPS with no dips whatsoever. In addition, the game looks sharp in both docked and portable mode. Loading times do take a while however but once the action starts, they don’t pop up again.
A Spark That Won’t Go Out – Final Thoughts on Berserk Boy
When I heard about Berserk Boy initially a few years ago, I instantly was curious. Strong art direction and gameplay channeling two franchises, Sonic and Mega Man, is such a strong concept. Building on X’s Dash ability and giving it that Sonic attitude, I couldn’t wait to play this.
Being given the opportunity to review this was amazing and it lived up to my lofty expectations. Minor audio issues with the voice action do very little to stop this storm. Strong core gameplay, impressive level design, striking 16-bit art direction, and an amazing score all come together to create one of 2024’s best games. I can’t wait to see how Berserk Boy Games builds on this strong foundation for their next classic in the making.
Note – A key was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
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