Caught a nasty cold and my throat landed in Frog City for a week. Puts my next video review on hiatus for now. So, I went to Gamestop and picked up a copy of Spyborgs for $20 (really cheap for a recent release).
In Capcom beat'em up tradition, you have selection between three characters: the fast and furious yet not-so-strong ninja (Clandestine), the hulked-out, slow muscle machine (Bouncer), and the not-so-fast, not-so-strong, middle guy (Stinger) with built-in machine gun. After your first selection, its asked for your second. That's right....two-player co-op, and here's where the game begins to lose steam.
I've played Bouncer (Square's PS2 game). It's a neat beat'em up but three-character co-op idea was a major joykill. What's the fun in punching bad guys, if you're hardly doing the punching. It's like the game becomes the player and the player has become a Youtube walkthrough watcher. What's worse is fights become more chaotic. The AI wails the same enemies you are and you don't know whether you're the one hitting your enemies or not. Others times, the AI character blocks your view and can't see what the hell is going on. With a friend, both of you can coordinate strategies together, finding effective methods to overcome obstacles. The AI on the other hand is like a savant, he's smart enough to wail damage and survive but stupid enough to leave the enemy standing. What a nuisance.
Another thing that frustrates me is the special attack activated when the orange bar is filled by collecting orange sparky orbs. It's basically you and your partner wail enemies following a sequence of GoW (God of War) triggered events for an extra boost in power. What boggles my mind is with two players the attack effects only one enemy, but if alone, you can damage a group of them. Shouldn't the logic be if one person can attack a group, then two should damage all of them. It only give more incentive to throw your friend in the fire and do it alone, but a bad move for two reason. One, the AI character is regenerated after each round of fighting.
Two, the enemies are hard as hell, even the game's so-called "casual" difficulty will pound your cybernetic behind to the scrap heap in a split-second. It's so easy for them to gang up and force you into a defensive stance, there's hardly a way to fight back without taking damage. Reapers (machines with huge claws) are the worst. Not only are they cheap and deal heavy damage, they got a "dark" attack that can't be stopped unless heavy damage is dealt to them FAST! With so many things going on at once, it's hard to know when to block until it's too late.
It's a catch 22. Go at it alone and immediately slaughtered by the robot onslaught or bring the dumb AI and lose some of the fun. Big opposition said Spyborg will not be an awesome game and they're right....for all the WRONG reasons.
The concept of cyberheroes fighting evil robot armies wasn't a bad idea, in fact, it heralds back to the days of NES/SNES. What wrong if looks like a Saturday Morning Cartoon? Most video games from our childhood fit that description easily, so why hate something you loved as a kid? No, the Wii graphical capabilities aren't to blame either. That's saying all NES games are bad cause of its 8-bit graphics. As for the usual culprit (a.k.a. Wii Motion Control), you can turn it off in the option menu.
To tell you the truth, Spyborgs didn't rub me the right way. (Actually, it pounded my face into the wall...repeatedly.) But it kinda grew on me over time and found myself enjoying it more and more. We talked the bad, now let's get to the good stuff!
Boss battles are stupendously epic. It's the brightest part of the game, so far. Hell, the first boss is a 10-story robo-colossus with armaments that'll make the Army cry. Maybe a bit tough at first, but the fun is worth the reward. I know I've said special attack was backwards ass but here it's the opposite. Developers did great work creating each sequence as unique and entertaining for every boss, helping redeem the game's other crapfests.
If robots are still breaking your metallic heiny, you're welcome to revisit previous stages and acquire enough red orb to buy upgrade for greater power, improved health, or new moves. It's also a good chance to get practice your new moves and does help make later levels more manageable, but tough as nails to get through.
Like I said, Spyborgs is $20 less than half the price of new console games. If you like brawlers with balls to the walls difficulty and epic boss fight you can clutch your fist into, then Spyborgs may be for you.
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