Weird GBA vibes with a pretty brilliant concept that gets executed very frustratingly. It's 3/4th's beatemup and 1/4th fighting game for the bosses, the conceit being that the stage boss is giant and lurks over you during the course of the main stage, then you power up to fight it kaiju style at the level end. Stages are paced excellently and use their runtime to really build up to each encounter, sometimes through gradual intimidation and others by surprise attacks during the third act. The mechanics are rock-solid with a good selection of swift ground and air moves in levels and satisfying, weighty attacks in boss battles. The aesthetic alone is very strong but gets bolstered further by extremely impressive animation for 1993, combining snappy fixed frames with light tweening for a very distinct look that feels one parts street fighter, another part vectorman, and will remind most people of games like fire emblem or superstar saga. There's certainly better looking games on 16-bit, but the style feels a good decade ahead of its time.

All sounds good, but the problem is that taken as finished products, both gameplay styles are executed annoyingly. Beatemup areas have very 'videogamey' one-note attack patterns; you got enemies that jump all the time, big enemies, bomber enemies, etc. Nothing here nails the beatemup conceit of taking on similarly-powered foes in mutual combat. That's where bosses come in, but goddamn are they just brutal. They're 90's fighting game goons: They are contractually obligated to have the most fiendish AI possible, on top of just having objectively better tools and frame data than you. They block constantly and none of your attacks can chip them, but THEY all get special moves that can chip you. It feels like the only legit way to beat them is exploiting them, but even that becomes a stroke of luck when their AI magically figures out your shit. Even on easy I couldn't get past negative mazinger.

Ultimately what results of mazin saga's odd ambitions is a game that's very frequently a fun button masher spliced with extremely visceral, empowering boss battles. But it's too wildly inconsistent and leaves you strung up on brick walls too often. Felt like I found a real hidden gem at first, but came out just wanting to play other beatemups instead.

Mazin Saga is essentially a beat 'em up with its own spin - the game turns the table into a fully-featured fighting game during boss battles. The game is inspired by the popular mecha series "Mazinger". While Mazin Saga doesn't excel in any of its gameplay genres, the variety found in its short playthrough made the game diverse enough to be memorable without relying on cumbersome bonus stages; part of the game has mechanics such as being chased by a giant T-Rex while dodging enemies, while other parts of the game have you fighting the many tokusatsu-inspired "Bio-Beasts", each level ends in a one-on-one battle with your one of your five mecha rivals, before facing the "Evil Mazinger" himself.

Often barely functioning beat em up with an an extremely limited move set. At times non existent seeming hit detection and some of the most poorly designed enemies in a beat em up that I've seen. The first type of enemy you run into is one that just randomly tries to jump over you while kicking in the air which would only hit if you are jumping. Damage is random with enemies dying in 1 hit or 3. Changes into a terrible fighting game when you reach the end stage bosses with just as limited a move set and hit detection so bad that it doesn't consider a large portion of your sword to even exist.

Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1359496615472492545