Sunk a lot of time into this game as a kid. There are pros and cons to the remaster, as others have pointed out. One thing I noticed is that to benefit from the resolution changes, you need to adjust the zoom level. By default it looks like the old game stretched, but with +/- you can get it looking rad on ultra wide screen, to the point it even letterboxes past the ultra widescreen resolution. 150deg POV or something in this game is wild. Very fun mindless classic arcade shooter.
The movement is a slog, like I'm wading through mud, but without the hard hits of series it supposedly draws from. The aesthetics focus on cringe weeb fan service vibe instead of the predominantly masculine gothic of Castlevania. It's a giant dialog crawl early on. As a huge SOTN, DS and early Castlevania, and Metroid fan, nothing about this game was fun to me. It is not a worthy entry to the genre.
Had this game as a kid and it always whooped my butt, but there are so many elements of this shooter that really stand out and were ahead of their time. I played for an hour and it was at least better than blake stone. The Immersiveness of the mouselook integration with the HUD is really cool. The death animation is cool. The mapping system is nutso. The never ending tacky techno throb is cool. It's hard and the hit detection is wonk, but overall lots to shine.
It is what it says it is. That's what I wanted it for. Reasonable enough game structure included. Looks like plenty of content so far. Retail price is a little high.
The gameplay is a solid Metal Gear adaptation, but the writing is not as funny as it pertains to be. Metal Gears are already long in the tooth regarding exposition, and when you combine that with the lack of tacking itself seriously, the dialog is mostly a slog. Still, if you have ever played a Metal Gear, you will get the intent of the humor, and there are enough interesting ideas to keep you entertained, and even some genuine laughs. There are lots of creative ideas, but they are targeted at people who laugh too easy at jokes. Anyone who tells you this is hilarious writing is setting a low bar. Gameplay and pacing wise, I'd rate it above MG and that game boy one (can't speak for 2), below MGS 1 2 or 3, and equal or better than any MGS after 3.
It could use a lot more levels (or has it really done it all, not sure), but I played it all on steam and felt the dev earned their couple bucks just for hitting the gimmick.
I really enjoyed this game. I love Metal Slug, Rogue Legacy, Comix Zones, and Devil May Cry, as well as Soldat and many scrolling shooters. This seemed right up my alley. At first, Fury Unleashed kicked my but. I was worried it was going to be too much bullet hell, which I'm just not into, because I'm not up for it beyond a certain point. Each new stage made me question whether the increase in enemy difficulty was too much, but I was happy to find that it is really more of an issue of approaching each stage with a different type of caution. I'm now at the final section of the game, and I feel that I really grew with it. Not every run has an interesting or fair setup, IMO, but the game stays under the autistic Korean twitch streamer level of difficulty and is fair to the average gamer if they stay on point. The item pool is varied enough to keep the game a little interesting, but tight enough that you don't end up with many crap runs. As a rogue-lite, a big part of the game is bringing down the difficulty with persistent upgrades. Like Rogue Legacy, this can only be accomplished by clearing the XP score for the next level, in one run. I felt this was fair, and the game was actually balanced better for this than Rogue Legacy. I also found the story interesting and entertaining, despite have zero emotional connections to the characters. In a way, my response felt like a reflection of the comic aesthetic and how it takes itself too seriously. It's a game about how comics are stupid but we love them anyway, and what that means for the people who create and use them. Very quaint and well rounded. The comic aesthetic overall is killer. The best comic game since Comix Zone. The fast pace encouraging combo system is very well rounded and encourages you to dive in and kick butt non-stop. Once you've got some persistent upgrades it opens up your play-style even more. Overall, I will never call this my favorite game, but it does so much right and is worth it.
Every iteration since Worms Armageddon / World Party has tried to reinvent the balance of the game, and the result is always more sluggish / more awkward / less fun than the early editions. The early ninja rope was so useful and created such an imbalance between skilled and unskilled players, that they worked hard to make sure the games would never have smooth character controls again. That tradition continues to this day. That and any portfolio comparison of old and new Team 17 games will show you the company has lost all it's edgy talent. I wouldn't even accept this game as a free giveaway.
