Bot Gaiden [Xbox]

Bot Gaiden is SwordSwipe Studios love letter to the likes of early Mega Man and Ninja Gaiden games, both in terms of its general gameplay and appearance. You play as Robyu (though a secondary character is available too, Bytron, for co-op), a ninjabot who is on a mission to retrieve the Golden Skulls from the evil Giorqio and his hench-bots. There are four difficulty options to choose from, though all of them (bar Casual) are absurdly challenging, causing me to give up and go for Casual after not too long.

Each stage has different bots to face off against, and you can choose to take them on in any order (aside from the final boss), gaining more power as you go. If you feel that one boss is just a bit too challenging, you can always go deal with another, and then come back stronger to fight them a second time. But you’ve gotta go fast! Getting through a level as quickly as possible is the aim - as not only will that allow you to come across the boss at less than full power (giving you the extra power for later) - but ending a level under certain times will net you various rewards.

As you progress through each level, you’ll gain abilities: Jump Jet, which gives you a mid-air boost; Sling Star, a projectile that can be fired long-range and can be recalled at will; and Dashblade, which has a wider attack radius. If you take damage, then you’ll lose the abilities you’ve gained, so you need to work hard to maintain them - eventually gaining the fourth ability, Hyper Speed, if you manage to keep a hold of the others.

We both found the controls to be extremely off-putting, causing needless deaths due to how inaccurate they feel at times - and unintentionally sticking to every surface is utterly draining after a while. The dodge also seems to be really frustrating, as instead of physically moving you out of the way, it just makes you float and be invulnerable whilst you hold it in - though hold it too long, and you’ll self-destruct. One of the most infuriating things with the overall control is that getting hit whilst mid-air will cause you to drop to your death, with barely any chance to make an attempt at jumping somewhere - anywhere - for survival. All of these things become a bit less of an issue when playing on Casual Mode - and when you kinda get used to it doing these things - so whilst it is a pain, it’s a manageable one.

The colourful, chunky art style is gorgeous, and every single level - and their respective bosses - pop. As each level begins, a short cutscene will reveal some sassy, pun-filled dialogue between you and the boss you’re about to face, and these help to give the game a little bit of humour. The rocky, arcade vibe from the soundtrack is great too - and really fits the fast-paced action throughout the levels - which admittedly did encourage us to keep giving the game a chance, even when it was pushing us beyond our limits.

Overall, Bot Gaiden is a thoroughly challenging game (if not playing on Casual), best suited to players that are both looking for something to test them, and who are likely already fans of similar titles. Thankfully, the Casual mode gives players that are looking for a less-stressful experience a chance, as otherwise I don’t think I’d have made it (though this does drop the gameplay time considerably). It’s a pretty short game to run through, but has plenty of replayability for those looking to improve their times on each level, and gain the best rewards possible. If Bot Gaiden looks like something you’d love to have a go of, you can nab it for £12.49 on Xbox.

In the end, we decided to give Bot Gaiden the Collecting Asylum rating of 7.5/10.

Are you interested in Bot Gaiden? What do you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!

- V x

Thank you to EastAsiaSoft for the Bot Gaiden Xbox review code!