Spyborgs has certainly been through a lot. Since its original unveil as an action-adventure title with a very cartoony—and apparently somewhat unpopular—feel, it was sent back to the drawing board and re-emerged as a classic brawler.
While I'm curious about how original direction might have worked out, the final released game Capcom sent me for review is still a pretty cool thing to have—a brand-new entry in this genre with a good amount of artistic love put into it. But presentational prowess, while much appreciated, isn't everything that's necessary for a good time.
Starting up Spyborgs for the first time, I can't help but wonder if the about-face in development after 2008's showing brought with it some truncation of the development schedule. The opening screen and menus are thoroughly spartan and fail to impress. Once in the game, though, the story's a bit different.
You've no doubt seen the screenshots that are floating around (there are some in this review!) and, if you've got a sharp eye, noted that they're not actually Wii captures. The cool bit, though, is that in motion, even on my 42" plasma, the game really doesn't look appreciably worse. I don't know if I'd go quite so far as calling it a stand-out style, but both environments and the endless horde of enemy robots look very cool.
Basic combat is a matter of running around with the Nunchuk's analog stick and using combinations of jumps, weak and strong attacks, and blocks, all mapped to easy-to-reach buttons. Combos are racked up if you and your partner (AI or co-op) can keep hitting enemies or the bits of the environment that are actually destructible. Both feel pretty good. There's also a handful of button-combo moves you can pull off, though you might miss them if you're not looking hard—as far as I saw, they were listed only in the pause menus. Didn't really use those quite so much.
The spy in Spyborgs comes from Spyvision, a system utilizing the Wii Remote's pointer to uncloak items and some enemies that are otherwise mostly-invisible. A little environmental shimmer will alert you to the presence of these (and enemies will usually warp in before becoming invisible); just point at them, hold A, and flip the Remote up as if you were yanking off a physical cloak (gotcha!). It sounds really awkward, I know—and sometimes looking for the crates and bonus items is best done after you wipe out the area's enemies—but I thought it turned out a rather slick addition to the action, in particular when trying to get a robot made visible in the middle of a fight.
Less slick is the motion-controlled finishers. You and your partner both have a bar that, when filled, will let you initiate a finisher by standing in front of an enemy, guarding, and whipping your Remote up. Animations will play out on-screen and prompt you to swing your Remote and/or Nunchuk in some direction at key points. For whatever reason, I had no end of trouble with this, annoying me in particular when it was required to finish off the first end-boss. Eventually I learned to keep my hands at a home position to minimize confusion on the part of the motion-recognition code, and I have a little less trouble now, but I'd still have been grateful had that particular feature simply been left out.
There's also one other piece of minor bugginess to complain about. You're supposed to wipe all the robots out to get to the next area, of course, but on rare occasions it becomes possible to move on without doing so—leaving you unable to complete the level. I would have probably reset, but I'd read in another writeup about a similar problem, and so set to backtracking. Sure enough, there was a tiny little robot milling about, waiting to be killed. I did so, and noted the end-level door promptly opened up for me. Pay close attention to this sort of thing, I guess!
Those annoyances aside, Spyborgs is generally good, mindless fun. It doesn't have what it takes to be a classic, but I think it has what it takes to be enjoyable.
While I'm curious about how original direction might have worked out, the final released game Capcom sent me for review is still a pretty cool thing to have—a brand-new entry in this genre with a good amount of artistic love put into it. But presentational prowess, while much appreciated, isn't everything that's necessary for a good time.
Starting up Spyborgs for the first time, I can't help but wonder if the about-face in development after 2008's showing brought with it some truncation of the development schedule. The opening screen and menus are thoroughly spartan and fail to impress. Once in the game, though, the story's a bit different.
You've no doubt seen the screenshots that are floating around (there are some in this review!) and, if you've got a sharp eye, noted that they're not actually Wii captures. The cool bit, though, is that in motion, even on my 42" plasma, the game really doesn't look appreciably worse. I don't know if I'd go quite so far as calling it a stand-out style, but both environments and the endless horde of enemy robots look very cool.
Basic combat is a matter of running around with the Nunchuk's analog stick and using combinations of jumps, weak and strong attacks, and blocks, all mapped to easy-to-reach buttons. Combos are racked up if you and your partner (AI or co-op) can keep hitting enemies or the bits of the environment that are actually destructible. Both feel pretty good. There's also a handful of button-combo moves you can pull off, though you might miss them if you're not looking hard—as far as I saw, they were listed only in the pause menus. Didn't really use those quite so much.
The spy in Spyborgs comes from Spyvision, a system utilizing the Wii Remote's pointer to uncloak items and some enemies that are otherwise mostly-invisible. A little environmental shimmer will alert you to the presence of these (and enemies will usually warp in before becoming invisible); just point at them, hold A, and flip the Remote up as if you were yanking off a physical cloak (gotcha!). It sounds really awkward, I know—and sometimes looking for the crates and bonus items is best done after you wipe out the area's enemies—but I thought it turned out a rather slick addition to the action, in particular when trying to get a robot made visible in the middle of a fight.
Less slick is the motion-controlled finishers. You and your partner both have a bar that, when filled, will let you initiate a finisher by standing in front of an enemy, guarding, and whipping your Remote up. Animations will play out on-screen and prompt you to swing your Remote and/or Nunchuk in some direction at key points. For whatever reason, I had no end of trouble with this, annoying me in particular when it was required to finish off the first end-boss. Eventually I learned to keep my hands at a home position to minimize confusion on the part of the motion-recognition code, and I have a little less trouble now, but I'd still have been grateful had that particular feature simply been left out.
There's also one other piece of minor bugginess to complain about. You're supposed to wipe all the robots out to get to the next area, of course, but on rare occasions it becomes possible to move on without doing so—leaving you unable to complete the level. I would have probably reset, but I'd read in another writeup about a similar problem, and so set to backtracking. Sure enough, there was a tiny little robot milling about, waiting to be killed. I did so, and noted the end-level door promptly opened up for me. Pay close attention to this sort of thing, I guess!
Those annoyances aside, Spyborgs is generally good, mindless fun. It doesn't have what it takes to be a classic, but I think it has what it takes to be enjoyable.