Introducing Gunvolt the new Megaman

                With Megaman’s creator Keiji Inafuna no longer with capcom things were not looking well for the Megaman fans. With Megaman Legends 3 canceled, and no news of any new Megaman games it’s easy for people to lose hope for the blue bomber; however, Inafuna still plans on producing new games and not just Mighty No. 9. Inafune is working with Japanese developer Inti Creates on a new game and even though he does not have the rights to Megaman he still has a style on his own and it clearly shows in his newest creation Azure Striker Gunvolt.

With Azure meaning blue that alone is a clear indicator that this will have a Megaman feel to it one way or another.  Looking at the game’s trailer you see a lot of Megaman elements such as the graphics, dashing, double jumping,  the same high tech level designs, a gun as a main weapon; however, there’s a lot more to this game than that.

The game has an interesting story with a new psychic power being discovered an organization called the Sumeragi Group started collecting these psychics claiming to bring order to the world. However instead they trapped them in facilities and performed experiments on them.  Rebel forces have developed in order to stop Sumeragi, but not much after that is known.

Let’s look into the new character Gunvolt.  Gunvolt is the nickname of the protagonist of the game, and he has the ability to control lighting using Azure Striker.  He starts off in a mysterious rebel organization, but leaves after refusing to kill his target Lumen.  Gunvolt uses his Conductor Gun which is a lot like Megaman’s mega buster. The gun is a rapid fire weapon that doesn’t do much damage but can come in handy. Gunvolt also has lighting powers that can generate a lighting field damaging any enemies nearby. Using the lighting Gunvolt can also float in the air which can make it easier to avoid those instant death spikes that every Megaman fan curses at from time to time; however, this power seems to have a gauge to it so use it carefully.  As the game progresses he gains new powers, but all we know of right now is Voltic Chain. When triggered it sends several chains around the screen and then Gunvolt sends an electric charge through them damaging all enemies nearby.

We also get a brief look at some of the bosses.  Melac’s ability is familiar to all portal fans with the ability to create wormholes he can send attacks into and they reappear randomly as a second wormhole appears. This makes his attacks difficult to predict and hard to counter. The other boss, Daytona, has fire powers and he can shoot a fury of fiery spheres and with the walls covered in flames you can’t jump to avoid them you have to get out of their path or get hit. Just the first two bosses and already it’s looking like this game will get tricky.

So that’s a brief look into Gunvolt. It’s not Megman but it clearly has the elements of your typical Megaman game. It’s only scheduled for a Japan release right now, but it’s highly likely that it will have a Western release as well. So what are your thoughts? A cheap imitation of Megaman, or the only way we can get our cherished Megaman gameplay back?

Jacob Carpenter is the writer for TSCN.TV and also a blogger under the name JSnakeC on IGN