Product Info

Platform

Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC

Publisher

Batterystaple

Developer

Batterystaple

Genre

Action, Arcade, Multiplayer, Platform

Players

1-2

File Size (Minimum)

2.93 GB

Release Date (NA)

Nov 25, 2014

Purchase From

eShop

PSN Store

Microsoft Store

Steam

Take an action platformer, add a little Mega Man X, some roguelike action platforming, over 100 power-ups, multiple playable characters, and sprinkle in randomized level generation. Shake it all up, and 20XX is what you have, a must-play for fans of Mega Man X!

Robot Uprising

The year is 20XX. A once-peaceful integration of robots into society has gone awry. The result: a robotic uprising is now terrorizing the Earth, causing massive damage and chaos. Viewing the carnage from the Ark, a space station that orbits Earth, Nina and Ace are called upon to stop the robot rebellion and bring peace back to both man and machine.

Learn at the Start

The story of 20XX is told via short cutscenes, one of which plays before the title screen. Once the game begins, Nina is placed in the tutorial stage, which can be accessed later at the Ark. In the tutorial, Nina learns how to dash, jump, and use her main weapon which is very similar to the P-shot in Mega Man X. While the controls are tight and responsive, newcomers may want to stick around in the tutorial to practice. Meanwhile, fans of the Mega Man X games will feel at home dashing and jumping around.

Nina and Ace, and Friends

After the tutorial, Nina is placed at the Ark. The Ark contains the settings for your current run, challenge runs, items and unlocks, and where you can choose your playable character. There are two playable characters at the start: Nina, developer Batterystaples Games’ homage to the Mega Man X character, who can fire shots from a distance, and Ace, whom many Mega Man fans will recognize as being very similar to Zero. Ace’s attacks require the enemy to be nearby, as his attack is short ranged. However, Ace’s attacks are much more powerful than Nina’s, at the cost of the safety range provides.

There are two other playable characters that can be unlocked by fully completing a run: Hawk and Draco. Hawk’s primary attack is the Siphon, a whip that allows him to steal an enemy’s energy so that he can use energy-draining powers more often than the others. The other character, Draco, can carry eight weapons and one power, as opposed to the standard one weapon and eight powers. In all, the four characters play much different from one another, adding to the game’s replayability.

One Run, Two Run, Three Run, Four

When starting a new run, you have no control over which level or boss you will fight first, which is just one of the many randomizers in 20XX. It follows the basic blueprint the Blue Bomber has used for decades: enter a level, survive the platforming, beat the boss, and gain the boss’s powers. However, 20XX rolls the dice, trims boss selection, adds random level generation and roguelike qualities. This means that upgrades and weapons do not persist between runs. Death is still inevitable, but each death generally results in a stronger Nina. Coupled with the random opening stage, each run has the potential to play much differently than the last. That said, the randomized level generation does start to show patterns after several hours.

Every stage has the player moving from left to right, following the path laid before them. Along the way, crates and other breakables will appear, which can contain health, energy, nuts, or armor. Enemies can drop these when defeated as well. Nuts are the games currency and can be spent at vending machines for health or energy, or at shops found in a stage. These shops contain three items that will provide an instant upgrade for Nina or Ace. Be on the lookout for rare or shiny enemies, which have more health than their normal counterparts. Defeating them will drop Soul Chips which are spent at the end of each run to purchase upgrades at the Ark.

During the course of a stage, doors to a Glory Zone may appear. These Glory Zones are small challenges with big rewards. Challenges include killing waves of enemies in a given amount of time, or surviving an onslaught of enemies without taking damage. Clearing the challenge results in a treasure chest full of goodies, while losing simply stops the mission with no reward.

The hero may also find branching paths, with one path far more difficult than the other. The difficult paths are well worth the additional challenge, as there is a chest at the end. Chests contain upgrades and power-ups for the hero, such as body upgrades, weapon upgrades, or power-ups. These can provide extra abilities, such as short flight, weapon quick-charging, or health/energy upgrades. There are over 100 upgrades, but the hero is not forced to pick any of them up. Once again, the randomness keeps things fresh during each run.

Blast the Boss

The end of each stage has the ever-so-familiar gate-hallway-gate before each boss. In this hallway, random items will spawn to help prepare for battle with the stage boss. Each boss has their own splash screen and introduction before the showdown begins. Defeating the boss results in a large chest as a reward, and an additional chest for completing the stage in a preset time. Then, the player has a choice of learning the boss’s weapon, or choosing a different power-up instead of the weapon. As each boss is weak to one other boss’s weapon, this provides for another way for the player to choose their own difficulty during play.

Finally, after defeating the boss and collecting the reward, the player can choose to save and exit their game to pick up at a later time, or select the next stage to play, indicated by the boss’s image above the stage teleporter. Each level progressively becomes more difficult than the preceding one, and boss patterns change the farther you progress as well.

Dying Only Makes Me Stronger

When a run fails or is completed, the player will get a performance review, highlighting stats such as damage dealt and enemies defeated, among others. Once viewed, the hero will respawn back at the Ark, with all power-ups lost, but with all gained Soul Chips in hand. Soul Chips can be spent on permanent upgrades for the hero. They can also be spent to unlock items to be found in future runs, or on items to have in the next run attempt. Collected Soul Chips will be discarded when the next run is started, so spend wisely!

Challenge Others or Bring a Friend

20XX offers other modes of play, known as challenges, all accessible from the Ark. Ranging from daily and weekly, and normal and hardcore, these challenges have the player trying to clear all ten levels as fast as possible and top the online leaderboard. Hardcore challenges are similar, but have random skulls (modifiers) activated. Also found in this area of the Ark is the Rush Job challenge and the Seed Racer. Rush Job is a timed boss rush. While Seed Racer allows players to compete against one another in a speedrun of the exact same uniquely generated stages.

The game also includes a co-op mode in addition to the single player features. Multiplayer is where 20XX shines the brightest. Everything during the single player run can be achieved with two people. Whether they’re playing together on the couch or miles away. While playing local co-op, both players must share and stay on the same screen. However with internet play, each player can go wherever they choose in the level. Also, when playing with a friend, each chest drops two items, one for each player. No item ninjas here!

Each player has their own health and energy bar as well, so there’s no losing health due to a friend’s bad jump! Every stage also has “Revive Gates” that will allow a player to revive another. Should one find their colleague out of health. Difficulty appears to take a bit of a hit when playing multiplayer, though, as bosses are easily defeated with more than one player. Even with the easier boss fights, this does not detract from the enjoyment and fun experienced when playing together.

20XX Neo-Retro

The game’s visuals are bright, colorful, and well-animated. Gameplay can put out at 60 frames per second for both handheld and docked modes. The little touches on animations, such as Nina’s eyes becoming focused when her weapon charges or gasping for air when low on heath, show loving attention to detail. The music sounds like a game from the 90s, with MIDI-sounding beats throughout each level, and fits the gameplay greatly, with some tunes adding to the excitement of play. However, enemy variety is lacking, with only a little over a dozen different foes to fight.

The load times aren’t great either. Be prepared to wait 15 seconds or additional time between stages. Thankfully, those are the only times loading visibly occurs, but it can still put a bit of a damper on the action.

Final Thoughts

20XX provides many hours of jumping, dashing, and shooting, solo or with a friend. Although the randomized level generation does show patterns after many hours and the wait between stages is a little inconvenient. Batterystaple Games is committed to updating the game, so there is more polish and refinement yet to come. This is an absolute, recommended must-play for any Mega Man X fans! 4.5 loud MEOWS!!!

A review code was provided by Stride PR for this review.