A few weeks ago I saw a "mini-documentary", so to speak, about this video game, in this video that is on Youtube (although it is in Spanish), it tells about the development and the creators of this game in a fairly summarized form, but very well explained and developed. The game visually called my attention, as it looks pretty good and is very colorful and striking, another aspect that attracted me about this game was its gameplay and its protagonist, as it is a game that could be considered as a mixture between Sonic and Megaman and the last aspect that caught my attention about this game is that it was developed by Game Freak, the same creators of Pokemon, so it was 100% assured that I was going to play it and so it was. I was able to discover an excellent game in many aspects.
Today's Retro Review is about: Pulseman.
The story of this game is very, very strange and quite particular, it is like the movie "Her" but a little more extreme. This game is set many years in the future where Doctor Yoshiyama was able to create a highly advanced Artificial Intelligence, to such an extent that he was able to give it feelings and human aspects such as consciousness and thoughts. And just like in the movie "Her", Yoshiyama fell in love with this A.I., which he called "C-Life". He fell in love so much that Dr. Yoshiyama digitized himself to be with her. In this way, being both together, Yoshiyama and C-Life had "sexual relations" (just as you are reading, it really happened) and from this very strange union of DNA and technology "was born" Pulseman, the protagonist of this game.
Because Pulseman was a hybrid between a human being and a technological being he could live outside the "network" unlike his parents, so he could go out whenever he wanted, however with the passage of time, Doctor Yoshiyama gradually loses his sanity to be so long inside the network and this cybernetic world, and somehow managed to recover his human body again, but adopting a new evil personality, which is called "Doctor Waruyama", thus creating his group of mercenaries and terrorists called "Galaxy Gang", so now, it is his own son, Pulseman, who must stop his father from all the chaos he is causing.
A rather strange story, which left me quite surprised when I heard it from that video, although coming from a developer like Game Freak, I didn't find it so strange either, since very few people know that there are descriptions of certain Pokemon that are quite rare and peculiar.
Everything that develops the graphical aspect of this game, is simply spectacular, in many scenarios you can see the great inspiration that this game has Sonic and Megaman, as I said at the beginning of this review, but still maintaining its own personality. The scenarios are very colorful and full of details, there is no scenario that is visually boring, at least they will have a good amount of detail, even if it is the minimum, to make it stand out and be visually pleasing. Logically, our character is going to move through scenarios of futuristic tone, many of them with lights and elements of the "future". Many other scenarios are strange, reaching the point of being even surreal, but still, it fits with all the aesthetics presented by this game.
In terms of animations it is a solid 10/10, it is simply great to see Pulseman move around the stage, as it has a good set of animations, very fluid and varied. Also the design of the enemies is very varied and original, without a doubt the character design of this game is outstanding. Pulseman also has many visual effects, lights, particles and decorative elements that undoubtedly makes this game, at least in its graphic aspect, one of the best of its time.
All aspects of this game are a genius and its sound aspect could not be an exception. With a very varied soundtrack, with rhythms according to each scenario, which together with the visuals manage to create an optimal and dynamic atmosphere, Pulseman is a game that stands out with its melodies. Many of them have fast rhythms, being a game where action and speed is a very important element. This game has voices that give a lot of personality to its characters and it is an addition that is always appreciated in this type of games despite its age. Likewise, the sound effects are great and help a lot to give "life" not only to the scenarios, but also to the attacks, acrobatics and any other element that needs a good and accurate sound effect.
The gameplay of Pulseman is very similar to Megaman, but with certain elements that will remind us of Sonic (as I have already mentioned), our protagonist is able to perform different actions all very classic from jumping, running and hitting enemies. But besides that, Pulseman will be able to perform other types of skills and different attacks using certain button combinations, it is quite fun to perform Pulseman's attacks and acrobatics, as they are very easy to learn.
Something that stands out in this game is that we can switch between the "physical" world and the "cybernetic" world, the physical world, logically is the one of all life and to enter the "cybernetic" world we must find some portals that will allow us to enter. The cyber world is just as challenging as the physical world, finding in both, enemies to defeat and obstacles to overcome.
As is classic in this type of games, in certain places of the scenarios we find items that will be very useful in our mission, items that will give us an extra life, others that will give us unlimited energy to complete the level, this being the most valuable and useful item of the whole game. The final bosses are challenging and it is very entertaining to fight with them, with their respective attack patterns and weak points.
Pulseman is one of the best I've played in these two months of the year, it's really a very good game, with simple but addictive mechanics, with a lot of originality in scenarios and situations and with a very well cared and outstanding look.