Berserk Boy (2024) [PC] review

“Go Berserk!”
-Kei

When anyone plays a game for the first time, it’s hard to resist drawing comparisons between what we play and what we have played in the past. Once we start noticing similarities between two things, we start looking at how the new one may have changed or used their inspiration to meet new standards, and BerserkBoy Games’ latest title Berserk Boy is no exception. As stated, Berserk Boy is a run-and-gun action platformer that’s very reminiscent of the Nintendo Gameboy Advance and DS-era Megaman titles like Megaman Zero and Megaman ZX: the player can take multiple forms, each with their tools and abilities to help with the games focus on optimizing traversal. But this game learns a lot from the games it’s inspired by, modernizing the fast-paced experience. The game does this by utilizing multiple game modes and options on how to switch forms to strike a balance between its run-and-gun and Metroidvania elements.

Here we’re following the story of Kei, who is significantly less angry than would likely be expected for someone who shouts “Go Berserk!” to transform – not that I think we would want him screaming angrily the whole game anyway, as it would block a beautiful score done by none other than the composer Tee Lopes, who you may recognize from Sonic Mania. That said, we won’t be talking much about the story here, partly due to the story not being super deep, but also due to the story mostly taking a back seat to have solid gameplay. Abilities are kept simple, much like in similar titles, with each form having a niche, but each being strong enough on its own to be played as a base form based on player preference. There are two ways to switch forms, with buttons bound to either quickly cycle between forms or pause time and open a wheel to select a form from a list.

Accessibility and overall structure are where Berserk Boy does its best to change up the formula and modernize a classic gameplay formula, though.  In the early handheld eras of gaming, it wouldn’t be uncommon to see harsh life systems or systems that encourage multiple full playthroughs of a game, such as one-and-done ranking system with a cumulative score at the end. Berserk Boy recognizes that these systems, while they have their place and purpose, might not fit a modern game of this style. Multiple systems have been added to give a more customizable experience for players, with two game modes that change the influence of lives on the playthrough, being able to keep a limited life pool or having infinite retries. And for added benefit, there’s an extra option to turn off damage entirely in the menu (though falling down a pit will still net you a continue on the final score screen).

Together, these refinements to the formula make it easy to blast through the beautifully crafted levels at whatever pace you like, and there’s something for people playing each way. Speedsters are graded on a scale based on performance at the end of the stage, and explorers are granted resistance points for rescuing people in the city. Because levels are easily and infinitely replayable, neither playstyle is ever sacrificed for the other. The score chasers can repeat levels to shave milliseconds off of their times, and collecting everything in a stage opens up EX stages for added challenges. The music to go along with all of these stages keeps an upbeat tempo with motifs matching each of the varied worlds you’ll be moving through in your journey, helping invigorate the flow you’ll need to crush some of the more demanding platforming sections the game pushes later on.

Now, despite all the good the game does and its refinement, there are some minor hiccups it experiences that are noticeable but don’t hold it back. The first issue we have is enemy diversity. There’s only a small handful of different enemies that get in the player’s path, with limited ways to attack. But this issue is offset with a double-edged sword that leans into another issue, Kei’s overwhelming strength. The enemies that exist often feel like little more than a way to get Kei through the next area by chaining movement attacks off of them, which helps keep the game’s pace until you get locked in a room and forced to face multiple paper-thin waves of enemies one after the other, but this doesn’t occur often enough to cause any major annoyance. 

All this to say that Berserk Boy is a solid title for fans of the action platformer genre and an accessible jumping-off point for those wishing to test the waters with a new style of game they’ve never tried before.

PIXEL PERFECT

Recommended

Sevens has played a lot of games in the last 20 years, and thinks way too much about them, so now they’re here to share those too many thoughts with the world.