Cleared on May 10th, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 67/160)
The best way I can describe this game is an indie game before they were cool. Fitting as this game was developed by a famous indie studio you might know as Game Freak which as of 2024 has about 212 people involved.
In all seriousness, this game has a lot of positive attributes of a game made with passion such as combining retro ideas (Megaman X and Rocket Knight Adventures), colorful pixelated graphics that are really well detailed with a good variety of scenery, level-based mechanics that challenge your adaptability, and even voice acting? In a Sega Genesis game?! Well, kinda... these voices are all pixelated as hell which isn't too uncommon since Outrun, Space Harrier II, and Altered Beast have proven it do-able even during the Genesis' infancy days, but Pulseman takes it a step further by incorporating a surprising amount of voice lines.
The graphics and artstyle is remarkable. Pulseman himself is such a well designed superhero with the colors matching quite nicely with each other, and his sprite is well detailed with a determined run animation and flashy lightning attacks. And the scenery ranges from cities to snowy fields, and there's plenty of cyberspace locations with have a unique look across different levels complimented with a futuristic soundtrack that works with the Genesis soundfont. That said, these cyberspace areas may be too colorful and not friendly for anyone with epilepsy, but even if that isn't an issue, there is one problem... it may have played a part in this game's biggest flaw, the slowdown. It doesn't happen all the time, but it does happen quite often and does slow down the gameplay which otherwise feels quite energetic and fast paced.
Pulseman is a 2D action platformer similar to the Megaman X games except you only have a few abilities to work with and don't gain any new abilities. You have a jump, an attack, and a shock burst that gives a window of invincibility. However, if you move or dash, you charge up electricity which causes your next attack to fire a ranged projectile while your next shock burst becomes Voltteccer which propels you upward diagonally either left or right which can bounce up walls to extend the time which allows you to reach great heights in narrow corridors. You're also invincible during this time. There's also a flip kick which you can pull off by pressing the attack button and the up arrow which would come in handy in some cases, but it ends up being situational that I keep forgetting to use it when it would be optimal. You have a very good run speed, and it builds up instead of staying on one speed, so you can take it slow for more precise platforming.
One of the game's weaknesses are the boss battles as I thought they were kinda lame to the point where the best boss in the game is a ball... a ball. The rest of the bosses have only two or three attacks and while some of them can be hard at first, they are able to be figured out. You can also criticize the level design of Level 6 and 7 in particular as well as the water mechanic that straight up prevents you from using your electric skills, but I really don't mind. I think it makes for a good challenge although I can see why the Level 6 during the falling section of the water level would be scary. Even I was surprised I got that section through on my first try. The auto-scroller is also difficult, but given how you have a power-up that lets you use empowered electric skills until you get to the end of a section at one point, not to mention the lives that you can easily pick up in the following sections, you'll have plenty of chances to get it down.
I was warned how hard it was, but compared to other Sega Genesis games that I played, this game was far more manageable than I was expecting. I still had to use save states since I have other games to go through, but this is definitely a game that I'll be coming back to in the near future for a "no save state" run.
The best way I can describe this game is an indie game before they were cool. Fitting as this game was developed by a famous indie studio you might know as Game Freak which as of 2024 has about 212 people involved.
In all seriousness, this game has a lot of positive attributes of a game made with passion such as combining retro ideas (Megaman X and Rocket Knight Adventures), colorful pixelated graphics that are really well detailed with a good variety of scenery, level-based mechanics that challenge your adaptability, and even voice acting? In a Sega Genesis game?! Well, kinda... these voices are all pixelated as hell which isn't too uncommon since Outrun, Space Harrier II, and Altered Beast have proven it do-able even during the Genesis' infancy days, but Pulseman takes it a step further by incorporating a surprising amount of voice lines.
The graphics and artstyle is remarkable. Pulseman himself is such a well designed superhero with the colors matching quite nicely with each other, and his sprite is well detailed with a determined run animation and flashy lightning attacks. And the scenery ranges from cities to snowy fields, and there's plenty of cyberspace locations with have a unique look across different levels complimented with a futuristic soundtrack that works with the Genesis soundfont. That said, these cyberspace areas may be too colorful and not friendly for anyone with epilepsy, but even if that isn't an issue, there is one problem... it may have played a part in this game's biggest flaw, the slowdown. It doesn't happen all the time, but it does happen quite often and does slow down the gameplay which otherwise feels quite energetic and fast paced.
Pulseman is a 2D action platformer similar to the Megaman X games except you only have a few abilities to work with and don't gain any new abilities. You have a jump, an attack, and a shock burst that gives a window of invincibility. However, if you move or dash, you charge up electricity which causes your next attack to fire a ranged projectile while your next shock burst becomes Voltteccer which propels you upward diagonally either left or right which can bounce up walls to extend the time which allows you to reach great heights in narrow corridors. You're also invincible during this time. There's also a flip kick which you can pull off by pressing the attack button and the up arrow which would come in handy in some cases, but it ends up being situational that I keep forgetting to use it when it would be optimal. You have a very good run speed, and it builds up instead of staying on one speed, so you can take it slow for more precise platforming.
One of the game's weaknesses are the boss battles as I thought they were kinda lame to the point where the best boss in the game is a ball... a ball. The rest of the bosses have only two or three attacks and while some of them can be hard at first, they are able to be figured out. You can also criticize the level design of Level 6 and 7 in particular as well as the water mechanic that straight up prevents you from using your electric skills, but I really don't mind. I think it makes for a good challenge although I can see why the Level 6 during the falling section of the water level would be scary. Even I was surprised I got that section through on my first try. The auto-scroller is also difficult, but given how you have a power-up that lets you use empowered electric skills until you get to the end of a section at one point, not to mention the lives that you can easily pick up in the following sections, you'll have plenty of chances to get it down.
I was warned how hard it was, but compared to other Sega Genesis games that I played, this game was far more manageable than I was expecting. I still had to use save states since I have other games to go through, but this is definitely a game that I'll be coming back to in the near future for a "no save state" run.