Gravity Circuit Review (Diggity)
MegaMan X meets Beat ‘Em Up
Gravity Circuit takes most of its ideas from other past successful games. There is not much to speak of for originality. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Every stage is fast-paced, as well as the bosses. They were fun to fight, each with a special attack halfway through the fight that lasts about 15 or 20 seconds. During which time you cannot harm them.
I played on Normal difficulty, and something that stood out to me is that I couldn’t recall a single overly frustrating moment in this entire game. None of the bosses had cheap unavoidable moves, including aforementioned specials. There wasn’t any stage I got that stuck on. No auto scrolling nonsense. Spikes, lava and getting crushed cause big damage, but are not instant death.
An interesting design choice was a lack of the traditional lives system. There are checkpoints throughout the stage that you start right back at, including one right before each stage boss. So you have infinite tries.
I’ve been playing games since the NES days, So I know all too well about the infamous NES Hard difficulty. Countless times I have gotten through a stage, died against the boss, and had to do the entire stage over again. Urgh.
Gravity Circuit has alleviated such frustration. However, for those who prefer a bit more of a masochist challenge, there is a perma death mode. One death means starting the entire game over. Not my thing, but the option is there.
There’s a speedrun mode as well, eliminating majority of story, conversations and cut scenes.
A few negative points: The grappling hook was sometimes a little awkward to use. Double jump takes up an ability slot. I think it should’ve been innate. Actually, I skipped over a lot of the abilities because it was the kind of stuff I wouldn’t really use often. At all.
And the story wasn’t much to write home about, but that’s usually not a reason I play this type of game anyway. To be fair, I feel the same about the MegaMan series. “Whoa, Wily is behind all this again!! …for the 11th time.”
“We meet again, Sigma! Not for the first time, and not for the last time.”
I will definitely replay on Hard mode at some point. Overall I had a fun time with it on Normal.
I give Gravity Circuit a solid 8/10. More originality would have helped boost the score.