Android Hunter A Review (Steam)
A robotic uprising swarms the streets and it’s up to you, an advanced Android Hunter, to fight back. Inspired by beloved sidescrolling platformers of the past, Android Hunter A is a well-oiled machine of fast-paced action, smooth platforming, and deadly bosses.
Pros:
- Decent graphics.
- 5873MB download size.
- Steam achievements.
- Controller support.
- Graphics-fullscreen, resolution, post-processing, texture quality, and visual effects.
- Can rebind controls.
- Action shooter platformer gameplay.
- Heavy Mega Man influence.
- Can wall jump, shoot, charge shoot, build up a special attack.
- Upbeat soundtrack.
- Enemies respawn and can drop health and charge for your specials.
- In-game cutscenes.
- Big boss fights.
- Checkpoints at boss fights.
- Eight levels.
- You pick which one to play each time as they are all unlocked.
- Base metal-currency and found in-game.
- Customise-buy and equip new items for visor/head/back and effects.
- Character stats screen.
- Online and offline leaderboards.
- Levels are timed.
- Fast loading speed.
- Levels can have multiple paths.
- Defeat bosses to get their powers and then equip them as you need them.
- Uses the Megaman slowdown animation when going through a boss door.
- Six lives before game over and continuing.
- Game over choices-continue, return to stage select, or return to the main menu.
- Gallery-shows off some cool art.
Cons:
- Wouldn’t save my resolution choice.
- The menu is very basic.
- Not sure if the controller can be Rebound as the game quits the menu.
- No tutorials or explanation of controls.
- The screen is full of color and explosions and the enemies blend in making it hard.
- Not the fastest restart times.
- Hard to see far in front of you which makes long jumps a pain.
- Bosses will repeat an unskippable dialogue exchange every life meanwhile the counter continues to count.
- Death restarts the level. Enemies respawn instantly upon them leaving your sight, they don’t turn around so you can just grind pickups and health.
- Boss fights are overly cheesy in tactics and the amount of damage you do to them.
- One difficulty option.
- Place yourself right and you can have the enemy show on the screen but not attack you.
- Bosses have erratic behavior and sometimes will be overly aggressive and other times will just stand there.
- No voicework.
- Infuriating controls as the crouch seems like it hates to work.
- The view is as such that knowing if a drop is death or a floor is a gamble each time and it’s a bitch to see alternate paths or ledges.
- A lot of one-hit deaths.
- Can’t quit out from the game back to the main menu.
- Outside of leaderboards, there is no replayability.
- Boss fights are just not fun or engaging.
- Wall jumping is not fluid or particularly great.
- Graphics - 6/106/10
- Sound - 5/105/10
- Accessibility - 5/105/10
- Length - 6/106/10
- Fun Factor - 5/105/10
Summary
Android Hunter A is a Mega Man clone pure and simple. I will cut to chase and skip any formalities as the game decided to just chuck you straight in with no tutorial or explanation. I did not get on well with this title at all, the controls are flaky, the shooting is basic which is OK but with enemies that stood still and bosses that couldn’t miss a shot, it all culminates into a cluster of pain and suffering for the player. The platformer doesn’t even feel right will wall jumps and boosts the game’s selling point, these feel off and squidgy along with a tight viewpoint that makes any sort of planning ahead impossible. Boss fights are what finally broke me as they are just bad a real bad time you could say. Unavoidable hits or the way you can’t dodge through them without taking damage, if the wall jump was as fluid as they say then it would mitigate a lot of stress but instead it amplifies it. My settings refused to be saved and trying to rebind would cause weird errors and lockups, the colors are neon and fantastical but when the enemies are following the same dress code it can get very hard to see things. Overall Android Hunter A is a game that is flawed in many ways and doesn’t deviate from Mega Man at all gameplay-wise, outside of gameplay it’s just a load of customizable options that, let’s face it don’t matter. It has nothing unique and when it can’t even do the controls to a playable state it does make you question what happened. I seem harsh but it’s my experience and it was not a good one in any way, it’s just one of those games that never clicked with me and for that, I left earlier than intended fully frustrated and not at all entertained.
