This isn't out in NA territories yet, but I happened to be lucky enough to play the JP version of the game and I could not have been more enthused about it. Crisp, classic arcadey gameplay, a clean, enjoyable soundtrack, and just impeccably strong pixel art throughout. Environments are lushly detailed, with elaborate pixel effects that blend in seamlessly with the rest of the on-screen action.

Docked just a half point because one of the (IMO) biggest draws, the 2-player Free Mode, is locked behind either clearing Story Mode or collecting 10,000 coins. If you're reasonable at playing the game on Normal you'll definitely finish Story Mode first, but even the game's Normal difficulty is going to have some punishing stretches. Fortunately for some, the difficulty is a little bit offset by the game's checkpoint system, which allows players to continue Story Mode in the event of a game over. It won't get in the way of anyone looking for that juicy 1CC, either - players can have their dango and eat it, too.

As more of a "reimagining" of the original Pocky & Rocky than a straight remake, Reshrined introduces some neat new mechanics and a host of new playable characters, available at select points in Story Mode and free to choose in Free Mode. Each character has its own quirks and style to work with, and no two characters really play alike, so there's a lot of replay value in testing your mettle with the whole cast.

If you're at all a fan of the original SNES game, you are not gonna want to miss this one. It's a step up in just about every conceivable way, but I don't mean that as disparaging towards the OG -- I'm overjoyed to see a legend like this brought back with some modern flair.

Beginning as a gorgeous reimagining of the second (and most well known) game in the Pocky & Rocky series, with stages and a plot echoing the original but decidedly their own, Reshrined quickly establishes itself as even more than that--a fully fledged new entry in what I consider one of the most charming series there is.

And what an entry! Reshrined is bursting with delights, with every inch of every stage crammed full of character, begging the player to do the impossible: take their eyes off the action and enjoy the sights. Look at the cute dog do a little dance! Check out the pure smile on the cyclops dude as he jumps off the cart you just blew up! The leaves move!!

The story mode flings you through its progressively ominious stages with generous checkpoints and multiple characters--a sort of tour for what you'll be spending your time with if you choose to go deep--while delivering a sweet little narrative in-between. It's tough, but not frustratingly so, easily stumbled through with a few continues, and leaving me absolutely jazzed to dive in for more. I have to try all the styles, all the characters, shoot for that glorious 1cc victory! That's the power of a short, tight game, folks!

So...yeah. Reshrined has made me feel as good as anything has this year. I never ever thought we'd get more from this series that I have so much love and nostalgia for, and it makes me feel so profoundly warm inside to be able to say this new entry is everything I could have hoped for. Absolutely a gaming highlight for 2022.

A great addition to the series, albeit a tad short. Regardless, still a great time.

As a KiKi KaiKai purist, it does bother me a little that they didn't stick to the Japanese names of "Sayo-chan" and "Manuke", but it's a minor detail and doesn't hamper my enjoyment of the game.

Also, the English version is censored for some weird reason but the Japanese version is fully playable in English, so I'm happy about that.

Pocky & Rocky Reshrined is a beautiful and faithfully represented arcade gaming experience. The music and stage designs are great, as well as the animations.

Like many arcade games though there's a decent amount of stuff that feels pretty bullshit. Like the occasional huge difficulty spike, or how you can dash perfectly onto a moving platform and still fall to your death.

Also, the progression/unlocks make no sense at all. You need to beat the game once to unlock 2-player mode, which is ridiculous. Not to mention that you have to beat the game on either normal or hard mode in order to unlock easy mode.

It is a pretty challenging game and fun, all things considered.

P&R Reshrined was sort of underwhelming.
It may just be me, but the way most characters control is way too stiff, and some bosses and enemy encounters are just too overwhelming with the tools you are offered.

The game looks and sounds gorgeous, and some bosses are very enjoyable, but it kinda ended without reaching any real peaks. The story is rather incoherent too.

It does look like this game might be a lot more fun with two players (as long as it doesn't pull a Wild Guns Reloaded), but I don't understand why it would lock multiplayer behind the story mode. I waited a fair bit for my physical copy, and was rather disappointed I couldn't hop right into it with a friend.

Ich verstehe nicht, warum genau DAS Spiel ein Remake brauchte, aber immerhin funktioniert es zu zweit.
Die Entwickler haben einen Code nachgepatcht, mit dem man auch schon von Beginn an zu zweit spielen kann.

Das Spiel selbst hätte als kompletter Twinstickshooter so viel besser geklappt. Die Schultertasten sind ja da.
So ist das Spiel sehr unpräzise, erfordert schnelle Reaktionen, ausweichen geht aber nur mit Delay und schlagen hat eine Reichweite von 10cm.
Upgrades sind zufällig. Es gibt Wasser, Wind und Feuer.
Hat man eines der Elemente, braucht man genau dieses noch einmal, da man sonst keine höhere Fähigkeit bekommt, sondern nur auf die andere wechselt.
Nur.. sucht man sich ja nicht aus, was spawnt.
Sowas nervt einfach.

Wie gesagt, im Coop ok, alleine hätte ich das Spiel aber nicht angespielt.

Out of all of Tengo Project’s games, this is one that seems to be straining the most at being something entirely new- really it’s only bookended by some classic levels and stars some of the same characters, but it’s got a ton of new additions: characters, mechanics, levels, and a much stronger emphasis on it’s story than I was expecting. There’s something like 30 minutes worth of cutscenes and there’s twists and time travel and you play as a bunch of different characters- it’s a lot! A little darker too? Some of the later stages and bosses are probably going to be a surprise for anyone looking forward to another ultra-cute action game. (Would never have guessed “Burning Cityscape” as one of the locales.)

Certainly seems more in its element when you’re playing as one of the new characters, such as Hotaru (the samurai ghost) who seems better suited to the more serious tone the game is aiming for, and allows you to play a little more freely. One of the reasons I had a harder time getting into the older games was the way you would lose some of your power when you got hit, leading to moments where you hadn't actually died, but were practically in a no-win situation, limply attacking bosses with your most basic moves.

Hotaru, in contrast, doesn't suffer from the same concerns, as even her most basic attack does a tremendous amount of damage, with the different types of power-ups feeling less vital to her success, serving more to accentuate her normal attack instead of bringing it up to a base level of usability. Even at my lowest moments, runs still felt viable when playing as her- really, all of the new characters benefit from these sorts of additions, balancing practicality with excitement.

You get to hover over terrain, spawn miniature copies of yourself, have dodges with actual i-frames- these are great additions and I’m still learning new ways of utilizing the abilities throughout the game, but it means Pocky and Rocky sort of get sidelined in their own revival: a little out of place, tonally, and more cumbersome, mechanically. (It’s especially surprising given that Wild Guns Reloaded and The Ninja Warriors Once Again did a great job of expanding the roster in some weird directions while keeping the original cast relevant.)

I don’t mean to sound too down on the game, I’ve played through it a bunch over the last few days, and it’s another excellent addition to Tengo Project’s body of work, but I am left wondering if it signals a shift in their future, veering so far from the source material that they might as well go all the way. They’ve done three best-in-class revivals, but now I’m more interested to see what they might do with their own original project, unconcerned with the expectations of the past.

After being pushed back twice and ultimately not shipping from Amazon dot com, I caved and picked up Pocky & Rocky: Reshrined from Gamestop. Like an absolute lunatic, I also purchased two gigantic boxes of batteries because my addled brain would rather slap an extra 25 dollars on an order and get something rather than cough up six bucks for shipping. The real question is, was all this trouble worth it?

I think so. Like Tengo Project's other releases, Reshrined does such a great job at replicating every element that made the original games work while innovating on them in a way that feels like a natural progression, you'd almost think it was released a generation apart from the originals rather than 20+ years. If anything, the most "modern" aspect about the game is how the difficulty has been scaled back. It's still certainly challenging, but unlimited continues and mid-level checkpointing after game overs makes it a lot less frustrating when you bite it. I found myself entering into a sort of Castlevania rhythm where failure only meant another chance to approach a level armed with foreknowledge of enemy patterns and item locations, and building a new route accordingly.

Pocky and Rocky still play like how you would expect them to, but you're quickly given a new technique that allows you to set crystal balls that ricochet your attacks, and a chargeable shield that reflects most incoming projectiles. These new skills can sometimes be tricky to set up, especially in later stages, but I suppose it needs to be balanced out somehow given the absolute havoc you can unleash with them. The roster is also expanded with three new characters, all of which offer more varied movesets over Pocky and Rocky. Ikazuchi is easily my favorite among the three with her homing electrical spell and snappy dodge making her feel both nimble and overpowered. I was less a fan of Ame-no-Uzume, who attacks using two Options positioned at her sides, giving her a broader base attack while leaving her open down the middle. To make up for this, she can float over bottomless pits and bodies of water, but in more narrow passageways having her spell power at 0 feels more punishing than any other character.

My one real complaint about Reshrined is that there's NOT. ENOUGH. ROCKY. Look at that little guy! You're telling me I can only play as him for three levels!? AND one of those is just a boss fight where the whole gimmick is the boss runs left and right? Get outta here... Docking a whole star for that. Yes I know I can play the whole game as him in free mode, but I've always had a hard time doing a second run of any arcade game right after finishing the first.

The game is of course great to look at. The sprite work is incredibly detailed and colorful, and you can tell a lot of care was put into the animations. There's some weird censorship in the US release where they covered up Ame-no-Uzume's chest in cutscenes, which feels a bit unnecessary but also kinda appropriate for a game that is so closely trying to emulate its 90's predecessors. Speaking of, the translation isn't great. Some lines of dialog just sound off, but maybe that's just me. The plot is fine for what it is (see: time travel shenanigans), but also bizarrely convoluted for a Pocky & Rocky game. The cutscenes can go on a bit long too, which I don't entirely mind because they are great to look at, but the pacing of free mode feels a whole lot better.

Like other Tengo helmed Natsume games, it comes at a pretty steep price for the amount of game you're getting. I prefer to look at it as supporting quality work. Reshrined takes maybe an hour or two before you're watching the credits, but the game just plays so good that I really don't mind dropping 30 bucks on it. No doubt it'll hit 10 dollars on PSN as routinely as Wild Guns Rearmed. In any case, I'm a big stupid freak for Pocky & Rocky and I just had to have it on disc along with, like, 50 AAA batteries. My cup runneth over...

The latest and arguably most ambitious Tengo Project outing, coming off of Wild Arms and Ninja Warriors, you know about what to expect at this point: Gorgeous 2D artistry that picks up where the 90s classics left off and goes ever so much further with it, and ultra tight gameplay marred by some questionable decisions here and there.

Unlike the last two tengo projects, and despite what the title would imply, P&RR isn't a remake at all but instead an entirely new game with new levels and somewhat different mechanics. Pocky and Rocky have an expanded arsenal that can be pretty tricky to get ahold of, but once you do you can absolutely flood the screen with attacks that make quick work of whatever stands in your way. Game is still quite difficult as per the series' standard, but this time it's offset by a much more forgiving continue system that makes completing the game the first time a matter of quick endurance.

My main issue with the game stems from its structure. Here the game is split into two modes, the main story mode and "Free Mode", which you unlock after beating the former and is the only way to play the game in co-op. Considering how integral co-op is to the identity of the original game, having it initially locked is an absolutely baffling choice, especially considering it's already enough of a hard sell with no online co-op. This isn't the first time a Tengo Project game has completely flubbed the multiplayer in some way, so the fact that they're still adamant on not learning anything continues to be disappointing to say the least.

The main reason why it's structured like this is because story mode is structured in a way that it'd only make sense if one character is playable at a time, but the story in this game is a convoluted mess involving copious amounts of Time Travel Dipshittery that I was just zoning out whenever a new cutscene would play. It feels completely out of line by the series standards and feels like it was being penned by someone without much of a grasp on Kiki Kaikai as a whole, so a rewrite that gives a reason for co-op to not be absent really wouldn't have hurt at all. The free mode in comparison lacks cutscenes entirely, meaning if you're tackling it with someone unfamiliar with the story mode they won't have any context as to whats happening, a real shame considering how the previous games struck a good balance without needing to sacrifice one or the other.

The game is pretty short, but it makes fine enough use of its length save for one particular stage that, going through the files, seems to have been a major victim of time crunch so in the final game has been reduced to little more than a boss arena. While the setpieces are stunning, after stage 3 the environments get just a little more drab and less interesting looking, a problem I've had with the original game too, but I feel they could have done better here. The new characters are pretty fun but annoyingly you have to play story mode twice to unlock all of them, which I have not done currently.

Despite how critical this review is, I still give this game a solid recommend as a great return to form for Kiki Kaikai and yet another top quality retro revival so long as you're willing to look past these structural grievances. They better not forget Becky next time tho.

A minha memória me traiu um pouco jogando esse remaster, tanto pra bem como pra mal. Pra bem porque eu achava a versão de SNES linda quando eu era criança e nunca tinha revisitado, mas fui ver a comparação entre as versões e fiquei chocado com o trabalho que eles fizeram, da arte até o level design das fases. Pra mal é que eu lembrava do jogo ser meio difícil, mas nem tanto como ele é nessa versão kkkkkkkkkkkkkk não é nada impossível, se você quiser jogar com um mínimo de atenção (coisa que não tive) da pra passar tranquilamente. E finalizando, a trilha sonora que continua INCRÍVEL.
Chame alguém especial pra jogar com você, porque vale muito a pena.

I always veered away from this series. Being lactose intolerant the thought of Pocky makes me a bit nauseous and so I never really felt the utmost comfort by the premise of having it shoved in my face constantly, as it is the protagonist's name. Still a part of me wanted to face my gripes and give it a try anyway. I'm glad I did. Future mentions of the woman in question will be intentionally misspelled. Do not correct them in the comments.

An accurate metaphor for indoctrination through brainwashing and the need for public revolution, Ocky and her newly acquainted friend fight tooth and nail to save Rocky's friends from the poisoned well they themselves drink from within. He comes to her empty handed, with nothing to give, asking only for generosity from the maiden herself. Realizing this would be for the greater good, Ocky stands with Rocky and endures nigh endless gunfire to protest against the evil source of mind control.

Ocky sets a beautiful example. One we should all take notice of.

A really entertaining shoot em up. Quite a learning curve, but once it clicks, it's a real delight to play. Fun characters, lovely visuals and some nice music too.

I've never played any of the others but I've always liked the look of them, so this was a nice treat. Only real issue for me was the end boss who felt like it was an impossible task. Until I beat it, haha.

Now I've unlocked free mode I'm looking forward to playing it two player. If only someone in the house would want to play it with me.

But I'm looking forward to playing through it again, beating my score and times, and just having fun.

I first discovered this series while going through MAME roms years ago but quickly fell in love with it. It's a classic 80's arcade coin eater that plays as a top down shooter.

Reshrined is an HD remake that plays exactly like the classic game down to the incredibly hard and ruthlessly punishing gameplay. While the game is plenty of fun to grind through with infinite credits you're going to be fully aware that you suck the entire time as you struggle your way through each stage, inching your way to the finish line.

The rigid 8 way shooting combined with small projectiles means you can open yourself up to being hit quite easily. There's a dodge, and some subtle tricks like using your melee to deflect bullets but everything moves fast so you need good reactions or a great memory.

New to the game are 2 characters, some new attacks, and some new stages which are all cute bells and whistles but these are going to be more appreciated by the pro's who can make the most of them.

Needless to say this is a very authentic remake and its no wonder that only 2.7% of players have the 'no continues' achievements for each character. If you're looking for a fun cute arcade action game you may end up discovering a tough as nails grind fest! Fun with friends but alone you're in for a long fight.