izigame.me

Reshrined is a Top Notch High Quality Game

First of all - this is not a modern twin stick shooter, but a remake of the late 80s early 90s "Pocky & Rocky" Top-Down Shooters. Expect a awkward old school control scheme and a game with a hard retro-difficult challenge. That said the game plays like a dream!
Pocky & Rocky Reshrined has fantastic lush colorful 2D graphics. Good stage variaton. Nice boss fights. A selection of different player characters with different abilities. And a balanced (but difficult) nice learning curve progression. This is the sort of game you play through several times to improve your game completion runs in order to unlock new playable characters.
The first time I heard about Pocky & Rocky was back in the early 90s seeing some pictures in a videogame magazine. I always wanted to look further into and play these games since the graphics looked amazing. In most shoot 'em ups (SHMUPS) you were either playing as a space fighter pilot or a soldier. Pocky & Rocky does its own thing by its own rules and really benefits from those original game design decisions.
Come year 2024 and I finally I get to play 'Pocky & Rocky' with no further knowledge other than that of seeing those early 90s gaming magazine pictures. And the game's gameplay delivers even better than I was hoping for! A game I can highly recommend.
You do not need to play the 1986 arcade game, nor the two early 90s Super Nintendo games first before you play Pocky & Rocky Reshrined. You can jump right in and get the full "Pocky & Rocky Experience" right out of the box.
- The only heads up criticism I've got for you is that you have to play through the game several times in order to unlock the different player characters. 2-player mode is also not unlocked when you first boot up the game (believe it or not!) A really weird game design choice there (however a quick google search will fix you up giving you the cool 2-player mode code from the start of the game).
- Also the two special attacks/abilities are using the same buttons that are already assigned to the attack button and the ability button - with no way of reassigning them. Trust me your fingers are gonna hurt after a while (this is a genuine bad game design control scheme and should have been modernized for modern audiences). Luckily each play-through is short (so your fingers will recover fast). Short and fun levels.
If you grew up with the Sega MegaDrive/Genesis, Super Nintendo or both purchasing this game is a no brainer (otherwise use caution - this game is difficult) You have been warned!
Highly Recommended for Seasoned Gamers- Good luck !