Bot Gaiden Review

Bot Gaiden tells the story of ninjabots Robyu and Bytron as they hunt down the golden skulls and retrieve them from the evil grasp of Giorqio and his armies of hench-bots. Run, jump and slide your way through the game’s 7 levels.

Bot Gaiden is a throwback to classic 2D action games from the golden NES and Super NES/Famicom era of gaming. The protagonists can jump and attack their way through each level and reach a big boss ready to smash you to pieces. Akin to classic Ninja Gaiden games, you can pick up power-ups such as double jumps, shuriken, and super speed; among others. You can also dodge, but you can’t move while dodging, and holding it for too long with cause the hero to explode.

The best way to describe this game is to imagine that Mega Man had a baby with Ninja Gaiden with a sparkle of Contra. You can choose in which order you can go through the levels and be rewarded with extra perks at the end of each level. Slightly different than the Mega Man series, if you beat the time of each level, you are rewarded with things like extra lives, or earning the top time will reward players with upgraded skills such as the triple jump.

The game does have a few nuisances. Some of the level’s design doesn’t seem to be done to be difficult, but to purposefully piss you off. One of the levels of vertical design where you can just move up, you can accidentally put yourself in certain situations where you can’t reach the higher platform thus having to commit suicide to restart the checkpoint. There’s also something odd about the control hard to pinpoint. It controls fine but feels a bit loose. Also if you’re mid-jump and get hit, it’s as if you’re hitting a wall and if there’s a pit underneath you, you’re dead. Additionally, a dash/dodge mechanic would’ve been more useful/beneficial than the dodge the game provides.

The game looks great as a whole; each level is uniquely designed with its own theme (and theme match boss fight). Each area is also very colorful and one of the level’s design is highly reminiscent of Ninja Gaiden’s Area 6. It is also very colorful but sometimes it can be easy to miss incoming mid-air enemies and projectiles, not only because of the brightness but sometimes there are just so many enemies on-screen, it can lead to cheap deaths.

Being able to play what feels like a lovechild between Mega Man, Contra (Probotector for our European gamers) and Ninja Gaiden is like a surreal dream and homage to classic action games from the 8 and 16-bit era. While it’s not perfect due to questionable level design and a pretty useless dodge, Bot Gaiden is a surprising little gem coming in late in 2022. If you enjoy classic gaming or action-packed games, this game is definitely worth your time and money.