![]() Pocky & Rocky was never a particularly prolific series, but still, vanishing for over 20 years before reemerging in 2022 with a game that’s part remake, part reboot, part sequel is all a little much. Previous entries in this series can be found through this link. ![]() ![]() Firmly a cult classic of the SNES era, it got more deserving eyeballs when Pocky & Rocky: Reshrined was released for the Nintendo Switch, and is probably the most definitive way to play the game today.This column is “Past meets present,” the aim of which is to look back at game franchises and games that are in the news and topical again thanks to a sequel, a remaster, a re-release, and so on. It does look different from other classic shooters – with no spaceships or muscular men to control – but with it’s timeless graphic style and a cute soundtrack that doesn’t get old – underneath you will find a solidly fun 16 bit shooter, that deserves more praise than it gets. After a month or so of solid playing, I didn’t complete it, but did have the best time with Pocky & Rocky. Some enemies are easier to beat with the melee attack than the actual firing of the weapon. It rewards repetition and using your full range of weapons to do the most damage. It’s a tough old cookie of a game, but like games of it’s genre like Contra and DoDonPachi, if you screw up, it’s your fault. The beauty of this game is the difficulty and it’s replay-ability. Both of which can be replenished with pickups, and there are a number of pickups dotted throughout the level, either by killing certain enemies or by firing at background objects. Unlike many games of this era you have an energy bar and lives. The game is tough, with a lot of Japanese cultural references and enemies trying to kill you, but over time you end up learning patterns and how to progress. There are subtle differences between both characters, and the game can be played in one player or two player mode. During the game you are shown stills of the action and a basic story, but you don’t really play this game for the story. Granted it’s not exactly the greatest plot but it’s not about the plot. The basic premise is that there’s a group of goblins that have gone insane with a spell and you need to break the spell. You can pick one of two characters – Pocky (a girl in traditional Japanese dress) or Rocky (a tanooki), and must battle through a number of levels. After dedicated a solid month of playing it, what you have is a fun little shoot em up. I couldn’t tell you anything about the game. Maybe average reviews, rather than dire reviews, but I can remember giving it a cursory glance at the name. I definitely remember hearing about the Natsume game, but I cannot remember it getting rave reviews. That wasn’t the case when – 29 years after it was released – I played Pocky & Rocky for the first time. I still own mine (albeit it’s a rather disgusting shade of yellow now), and in the 30 years or so I’d been SNES doing what Megadrive don’t, I thought I’ve played every game that was worth playing on Nintendo’s classic system: either I had it at the time, rented it from video stores, or emulated the ones that passed me by. I’d like to think I had either explored or made aware of every great game for my systems growing up.
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