One of my favorite video game franchises growing up was the original Mega Man series. A fun action platformer following a humanoid robot in blue armor fighting the forces of evil and saving the day. I was introduced to the series by my father and older sibling through a manga adaptation known as MegaMan Megamix, written by Hitoshi Ariga. My father grew up watching the cheesy animated cartoon back in the 1990s, and my sister found the manga series out of curiosity. They passed these books down to me and I was drawn in through the premise and cool artstyle. I love sci-fi and Mega Man served as an inspiration for all the things I could potentially create. I mean Mega Man in a lot of ways was the result of Keiji Inafune’s passion to entertain people and pay respect to Mega Man’s inspirations for being Astro Boy. He’s responsible for the success of the entire franchise, and even though he eventually left to start an indie studio the Mega Man series is still doing pretty well today. With an eleventh game having come out 5 years ago, collections of the older games are being received pretty well today, and tons of fans are still talking about how these games formed their childhoods. As much as I talk about how Hades, Bloodborne, Octopath Traveler, and Hollow Knight are important to me I will always fondly remember the Blue Bomber that raised me.
I really wish I could talk more about Mega Man on this site, but I have more interesting titles to cover and covering each individual game would be a pain in the ass seeing how many there are. I will say though that it’s been quite awhile since we got an actual new Mega Man game. As said, Mega Man 11 came out back in 2018 and despite being well received by fans it didn’t sell well enough to warrant possible future entries. That’s why we’ve been seeing re-releases of the older games. When you want more of something you love but the company isn’t willing to make more of it then what do you do? You find creators attempting to make what are spiritual successors to these older, nearly forgotten games. We’ve been seeing a lot of spiritual successors come out in 2023 and almost all of them are from indie studios. Sea of Stars is trying to be a successor to old JRPGs, mainly Chrono Trigger. The hip Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is trying to be the successor to the cult classic Jet Set Radio. The acid trip El Paso, Elsewhere is a successor to Max Payne, and here we are with one that I’ve been excited to try out the moment I was told about it. For once we are receiving a spiritual successor to Mega Man, and one that is actually good. That game is Gravity Circuit, a fast paced retro platformer developed by Domesticated Ant Games.
Don’t know anything about this studio, the development for Gravity Circuit, and from the looks of it this is their first outing. For their first outing they absolutely nailed it as Gravity Circuit is a game that understands what made Mega Man and its equally successful spinoff Mega Man X so brilliant. Fast pace movement, challenging platforming, eight levels available from the start that add choice with how you tackle a playthrough, intense bosses, and more. Played the entirety of it over the weekend and despite Gravity Circuit only being 4-5 hours long I had a blast. Will say that this game may not be for everyone. Just like the Mega Man series it can be very demanding at times and if you aren’t willing to overcome the steep learning curve then you are not going to have a funtime. I braved it and it was an incredibly satisfying feeling as I beat the final foe of the game. Reminded me of days long gone, but those some great days. Today we’ll be talking about Gravity Circuit and why it deserves your attention.
Story
The story of Gravity Circuit takes place in a city inhabited mainly by robots. Quite lovely robots to be exact as all they want to is live about their lives like us human beings. They go to work, go on the occasional stroll, build big structures for which they can live, and maybe pay robots taxes. All is well for these robotic individuals, but then out of nowhere a mysterious army arises which threaten the existence of these peaceful bots. The Virus Army, emerging from the ground hoping to take everything these robots have built. War broke out and to help in the war effort were nine elite robots designed for combat. They possessed powerful relics known as Circuits, and these special Circuits could either grant them elemental powers or abilities to manipulate the universe around them. These nine elite robots fought with all their might, and their sacrifices led to the end of the war. Eight of the elites were vanquished, but one managed to survive.
He was badly wounded and taken in to be repaired. Slowly they resemble him, but even when fixed he did not awaken. Only when chaos appeared or the Virus Army returned would this bot power on, and out of nowhere the Virus Army returned. They were stronger than ever and managed to resurrect the eight elites that everyone thought were killed in the war. The eight bots had turned and were now the ones leading the Virus Army to take over the world. All seemed hopeless, but then the ninth robot awakened. This being the Gravity Circuit, a bot designed for melee combat and specialize in martial arts. He begins tearing through the Virus Army and questions what led his former team members to betray him. Those mysteries shall be left unknown for now, but all we can do is try to reclaim peace. Go to where the eight Circuit users lie, defeat them, bring back their relics, and restore the balance in the world. It’s all up to the Gravity Circuit, now named Kai, and slowly he'll regain his memories of who he was.
Gameplay
It’s a straightforward good versus the forces of evil narrative, but gameplay is where focus lies. You navigate a series of levels, fight any baddies that stand in your way, avoid hazards, and try to reach the boss at the end of each stage. Much like Mega Man you are given eight Robot Masters, otherwise Circuit users in this case, to tackle in any order once you beat the first level. Each of the eight users have a theme to their stage, and each stage will have a variety of mechanics and tricks for which you have to get around. The Music Circuit has surfaces that emit sound to the beat of the music and that sound will hurt you, or there are springs that launch you into the air if you stand on them too long which can either be helpful or launch you into hazards. The Scrapper Circuit has a level filled with conveyor belts, shutes that drop out scrap blocks, and undead robot enemies that crawl out of the floor. Each level is pretty lengthy and some levels may be harder than others. That’s why you have a choice between eight stages and if one is troubling you can always come back later and instead tackle a potentially easier one. The one thing that makes this game truly special though is the movement.
You can move left or right of course, jump, cling onto walls, and dash around by holding down the left trigger if you use a controller like me. Sounds pretty simple on paper, but it is how you mix together these options that makes movement fun. You could be dashing, jump while dashing to launch yourself across a long distance, cling onto a wall, start hopping up, dash jump off the wall, and so on. The game is melee focused compared to Mega Man and so it pushes you to get up close and personal. Start beating enemies up close, kick them in the air, or dive kick into them which can let you bounce off them and back into the air. When enemies are defeated they’ll turn gray and this is where you have the option to pick them up and throw them. A very fun move to use as you can kill another enemy just by chucking a dead one their way. You can use throwing to hit objects without risking taking a hit, and that’s especially useful with how far apart every checkpoint is in this game. Finally you have this energy meter built up by either beating down foes or picking up energy refills. Using this contained energy will allow you to perform one of four special abilities you have mapped out and these can be very useful. From an uppercut that causes continuous damage as you punch into the air, a kick that lunges you forward, a projectile attack with quite a bit of difference, and much more. You unlock new abilities through a shop and there are a lot of options.
How do you purchase new abilities? Well littered throughout the game is money and you pick it up in droves. Money can not only be spent on cool combat abilities, but also perks and full energy refills at checkpoints. You can have three perks equipped at a time and they can be really useful depending on the situation. A refill at a checkpoint will refill you to max health and energy every time you spend, but that price will increase each time. If you need energy refills for a boss then you better save your cash or try not to spend too much throughout a level. There are also secrets hidden throughout each stage most of which are pretty hard to notice. Survivors in need of rescue and you’ll want to find them as they serve a second currency needed for perks. Maximum health and energy upgrades cleverly tucked away, and of course the bosses. They’re not like Mega Man where beating one will grant you a new power to use against another one. Instead it’s pure skill and endurance, and it’s really fun. Find the time to attack them, use your special skills to then knock them about, survive their special attacks in phase two, and do the exact same thing. Beat them and progress further with the story. Besides that there’s nothing really much else to say. This is basically Mega Man with melee combat and it’s executed pretty well. Hopefully you can defeat the Virus Army, locate where they are coming from, and save the day once more!
Thoughts
Gravity Circuit is so far the best Mega Man inspired game I’ve played and is probably gonna be my favorite platformer of 2023. It has a couple of flaws which we’ll discuss shortly, but overall it’s a very well designed game that pushes you to engage with most of its mechanics. Movement and controls took awhile to get used to as it’s much more close to Mega Man X than Mega Man. The first Mega Man X is one of the best Mega Man games out there, but I always preferred the original series. Always preferred simplicity over complexity when it came to these games, but I still thought the movement was good. However, I never felt like the movement of Mega Man X was pushed to its fullest potential. Gravity Circuit does so though and that’s why there’s so many platforming sections which require quick reaction and good precision. Some sections which can be pretty difficult if navigated slowly are actually a lot easier if you master the movement. For example, there’s one section where the platforms are emerging from lava and cauldrons are then pouring on you from above. These platforms move in a conveyor-like pattern towards you and dump into the lava. New ones emerge at the other end, so basically what you have to do is jump on over to the other side, pay attention to the cauldrons, and try not to fall in or fall behind into the lava. Doing it the normal way is hard, but then you start dash jumping and you get across in like five seconds tops. Still, movement takes a lot getting used to with how fast pace this game is and the first Circuit user stage I did, the ice one, took me thirty minutes to beat.
Which then brings me onto my next compliment in how each of the eight stages can be tackled in any order. I always loved this design aspect with Mega Man because it not only gave high replay value to these games, but allowed you to create your own difficulty. If one stage is too hard then do another one and come back later when you are better equipped or understand the mechanics more. Gravity Circuit also doesn’t use a live system like Mega Man, so it’s more forgiving as you will never run out and be forced to redo the stage from the beginning. Checkpoint system is cool as you consider spending money for upgrades instead of health/energy refills, and despite the game being more forgiving it still finds ways to push you as checkpoints are spread far from each other. It works, but there are a couple of elements I think Mega Man did better. First off, I love how in Mega Man you gained a new weapon after each boss. This not only added new ways to approach combat and problems, but created this rock paper scissor system. Beat one boss, try to guess what boss is weak to the weapon, and then go after that one. It can transform a difficult game into a slightly easier one, and each weapon serves a purpose if you know when to utilize it. Gravity Circuit instead has these combat skills and while they are fun to experiment with you can honestly just pick four as the game doesn’t truly push you to switch up your skills.
There was never a point in the game where I thought one skill was better for a specific scenario. The flying kick you start off with at the beginning of the game is the best skill in the game as it closes in on your enemies quickly and can knock them about easily. Especially useful for bosses as they curl into balls, bounce around the screen, and you wail on them as they bounce around. The perk system is also pretty ignorable as well as there’s only a few perks I think are actually worth using and the rest can be ignored. This makes the money you accumulate and finding the survivors in each level useless as you don’t have much to spend them on. The checkpoint system is cool as you spend upgrade money on health/energy refill, but the increase in price is so small every time you spend that it doesn’t really matter how much you pour in. Plus you respawn with full health everytime you die, so it doesn’t matter much. That’s not to say the game is easy, as it is still really hard. In fact, the game either spikes due to how platforming challenges are designed or flatlines. A majority of the bosses have complex attacks, but aren’t that hard as you can just special attack them to death or find enough max health upgrades to make them trivial like I did. The final boss was really fun despite having to do two fights in one go, and beating him was really satisfying because that was when the game was pushing me to the fullest again.
Those are probably my biggest complaints, because the rest of the game is really good. The game gets hard at times, but no matter how hard it got I say it was fair. I understood why I died and all I had to do was get better or understand what killed me. I like throwing foes as it offers a way to eliminate them from afar. I think the controls are snappy and fluid much like Mega Man. I like the design of the main character and the eight circuit users, and the style they went for. It’s akin to a Gameboy Color game where each character and object has a specific color tied to them. The main character is red and has shades of red, or this electric robot has green and different shades of green tied to him. It makes everything distinguish between each other and so that our main character doesn’t accidentally blend in with the environment. The music is really catchy which is good. I mean the Mega Man series had some of the best music among retro games, so you kind of want something that reminds people of it. The story while not a huge highlight is intriguing as you slowly work your way towards the truth. The plot twist is interesting and I like where the final confrontations lead. The game is short, four to five hours long, but has a ton of replayability and speedrun potential. Every stage marks how long it took you to beat, so maybe you want to go back and see if you can do it faster. Gravity Circuit is amazingly great. It’s fun, doesn’t overstay its welcome, and can fill the void left behind from the long absence of a Mega Man release. As to whether I like it more than Mega Man, no. Mega Man has a special place in my heart and I do not think Gravity Circuit can replace it. Still this is a good game and I strongly recommend it to anyone who likes challenging platformers or grew up with Mega Man. In the end I am going to give Gravity Circuit a 9/10 for excellence at best.
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