Berserk Boy

« I absolutely loved Berserk Boy – enough to want to come back for more thanks to its fast-paced platforming, fluid combat, incredible soundtrack, and nostalgia-bomb of SNES-era gaming. This 2D action-platformer is worth the ride so you can GO BERSERK!! »

« Berzerk Boy's platforming action manages to eclipse its inspiration, leading to an experience that is an absolute must for fans of the genre. »

« Berserk Boy is a fun and challenging platformer with metroidvania elements and useful abilities that you will use during every stage you play. This is a title that you should check out. »

« Berserk Boy is a splendid and profound work, with a brilliant and lively game design, powerful and direct, capable of impressing and offering an engaging experience. To be had and propagated with joy, as this production is destined to be a yardstick. »

« Berserk Boy emerges as a standout 2D platformer that beautifully marries fast-paced action with deep narrative elements and vibrant visuals. The game excels in creating a dynamic and engaging gameplay experience through the introduction of Berserk Orbs, offering players a variety of elemental suits with unique abilities. While it excels in presentation and the initial gameplay experience, some aspects, like the underutilized elemental suits and challenging navigation, indicate areas for growth in future entries. »

« Berserk Boy is a fantastic Mega Man inspired action platformer, with loads of awesome abilities and a great flow through the stages. »

« Overall, Berserk Boy takes much more from the likes of Mega Man than it does the Metroidvania genre. This is not a bug, it’s a feature. I for one am very happy we got a high-speed action Mega Man in 2024. If you enjoy retro platformers, get out there and play Berserk Boy. »

« Indie developer Zu Ehtisham layers the references thickly, offering nods to Mega Man, Azure Striker Gunvolt, and even Sonic the Hedgehog. But despite the occasional feeling of familiarity, Berserk Boy’s frenzied action is distinctive and delightfully rhythmic. Anyone with an affinity for the 16-bit era should give the demo a go. »

« I really wanted to like this game. Unfortunately, it gets a LOT wrong. It seems to be a case of lots of great ideas, talented people, and very low quality control. Almost everything in the game feels underbaked. The pixel art is undeniably beautiful. And yet, some visual choices are strange or overlooked. The "alert!" symbol that tells you where an enemy will appear on screen is a layer under any flashing red translucent lights, meaning this visual is hard to see. It should be on one of the top layers to make it visually clear. It seems like a minor thing--and it is--but the game is full of a lack of attention to detail for these sorts of things. The hand-drawn graphics that occasionally appear have a very different resolution, and look like they've been blown up to 4-5x their original size, making them look muddy, pixelated, and out of place. The lack of tutorials is awful. Sure, there are some signs for a few things, but many mechanics are just not explained well and require experimentation, damage, and death before you figure it out. A lot of the moves feel like the team went "oh this is cool!" and just added it in without thinking about how it affects the whole. For example, if you jump towards a floor from below, at the arc of your jump, your character will automatically give a little kick up that gives you a boost. This is totally unnecessary and messes up your movement flow. Many of the moves are totally useless, and the main attack mechanic (dashing into an enemy and discharging electricity) often leads to you taking collision damage. Ugh. A few times in the game, you get teleported back to the hub, which is unnecessarily large and empty and boring, and you have to work your entire way through it killing easy enemies. It's entirely pointless. On the Switch version, after I got around 3/4 of the way through the game, the game would crash every time I completed a level and loaded a new level. That was extremely annoying. I wanted to like this game. The gameplay is decent enough, but can get repetitive. The music is great and the pixel art is beautiful. It's often compared to Mega Man, but it's nothing alike. It's closer to Mega Man Zero, but with more chaotic, random design, and less consideration, care, and deliberateness. Edit: I moved the score down to 4/10 because now the game crashes after every single level, and it takes a long time to load up the game, load levels, etc. And after collecting all medals, every time I try to load the true final stage, the game crashes. Bravo. »

« Well, first and foremost and to be fair, I must warn that this is not my type of game at all. It's an old-school hack 'n slash style with a certain degree of difficulty. But that doesn't stop me from understanding that, for genre aficionados, it can be a little gem. In my layman's opinion, it somewhat reminds me of Megaman. The little story is likable, the gameplay is very good, the music is pleasant, and the old-school style is very beautiful. However, as I'm not a player who enjoys repeating the same stage multiple times after dying, and I'm not a joystick expert, I can't play more than that. But, if this game is your cup of tea, go for it, I believe it will be a good experience. I recommend it! »

« This could have been a really fun game. The first power that you get allows you to freely dash around in the air which makes the game quite fun. But then you get the second power (fire) which has very weird mechanics like spinning, going underground, going through walls. And before you can get comfortable with that the game gets really tedious. You're jumping platforms, switching between powers, fighting people on the way. The controls were the main issue for me. Also, it felt very very stressful having to switch between 2 power-packages mid-air. I'm not interested in waiting to unlock another 3-4 powers and stressfully having to manage between them. The game could be a LOT more fun if switching between powers was not time-sensitive. Just let me switch based on my own time. Don't push me when I'm jumping mid-air over thorns and hitting a bad guy to switch sayan modes (or whatever they're called). »

« I feel a bit bad giving a 6 to Berserk Boy. It looks decent, it doesn't sound bad, controls are quite good, I just think it's kinda boring. As the game progresses you get access to different forms, but apart from the starter set and the ninja set, they kinda ****. In a game that moves swiftly and quickly, why would I use a form that doesn't have a dash? The game's built around speed, 3 out of 5 of these forms are slow. Level design - as fast and fluid as it often is - is still kinda bland. There are like 5 or maybe 6 different enemy types in the whole game, things get repetitive real fast. Oh no, I've just beat a boss, that means the ship is under attack. Again. I dunno, I want more from this game. Still, it's not without merit, but it's definitely not a must-play in my mind. »

« I never played this game and I'm not sure how I have given it a score. Since I cannot delete my score (as far as I'm aware) I will try to prevent it from skewing the original distribution. »

« [SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.] »

« Although uninspired at some points, Berserk Boy has good gameplay which, together with an impeccable soundtrack, makes it an interesting experience for fans of the genre. »

« Picture this: a game that's like stepping back into the heyday of Megaman, all pixelated and retro-cool, playable on those trusty old consoles. It's got those classic platforming levels that keep you hooked for hours, just like the good ol' days. But here's the kicker – you get to unlock these awesome transformations that totally shake things up! I'm talking about turning into badass forms and nabbing sweet new powers. It's like a blast from the past with a fresh twist. Whether you're a die-hard retro fan or just looking for a good time, this game nails that perfect mix of nostalgia and excitement. Get ready to geek out and have a blast! »