GB Rober
mokkograd
Steam/PC
From the indie studio mokkograd comes GB Rober. In the future, you fight for the right of the people from the evil landlords who have destroyed the world. In a side-scrolling adventure, that is a Mega Man clone that doesn’t stray from the homaging.
GB Rober is the standard 2D side scroller that uses similar mechanics and ideas from classic Mega Man games. Traveling from level to level, you defeat bosses, take their powers to advance levels until you liberate the world from the oppressors who have destroyed it.
Game play
Straight from the start, GB Rober doesn’t hide that it is very political and copies a lot from Mega Man. You traverse each level using the powers you have gained from defeating level bosses. After you defeat the first round of bosses, a second round opens up before moving on to the final boss.
The gameplay and game are simple and forgiving. You can change the settings to make the game easier or harder. The changes you can make include enemies’ difficulty, lives, and the power of your weapons. The customization adds additional challenges for different playthroughs.
GB ROBER levels get repetitive after a while as they follow similar formulas. The minions, bosses, and level layout just become muscle memory to pass. The power-ups limits help, but how quickly they refill doesn’t add much difficultly. The checkpoints are far enough apart to add a slight challenge.
As you play the game, you start noticing flaws and issues with the visuals and experience. One of the biggest and consistent ones is when a minion explodes, the game freezes and waits for the explosion to finish before allowing you to resume. Having the game freeze during gameplay does take away from the run and gun style of play that many side scroller fans enjoy.
The game does have its gems. The hero is adorable and has a bullet jump and dash. The lack of a charge-up is offset by how powerful the regular blaster is. If done correctly, the power-up attack can cause a lot of damage.
Final Thoughts on GR ROBER
Overall, GB ROBER doesn’t hide from what it is as a political Mega Man clone. It gives you enough reasons to play through it once, maybe a second time with modifications. The hero grows on you after a while, so helping in his rebellion only feels natural.
The very heavily leftist anti-capitalistic stance comes off as more cartoonish satire than serious. It doesn’t distract or ad purpose outside of moving the story and showcasing the new abilities being gathered. Combining those elements allows mokkograd to make a clone of Mega Man that’s just different enough to be its own game.