Last year I played a game called Magical * Taruruuto-kun for the Mega Drive and it was a fun license game even if it wasn’t perfect. I’m surprised in my old terrible review for it that I never mentioned the engine used for it would be used for this game, Pulseman! One of the most popular games Game Freak did before making the Pokemon series. You might be wondering how have I not played this considering I’ve played some of their older games like Quinty, Yoshi’s Egg, and Jelly Boy 2? I honestly don’t know, I guess I’ve just never thought to try it. Last week they added the game to NSO along with Street Fighter II’ Plus: Champion Edition, Flicky, and Chameleon Kid. Finally I gave it a go.
Pulseman is a 2D platformer where you’ll go through 7 stages and fight a boss at the end of each stage. One interesting choice is allowing you to select from stages 1-3 and then stage 4-6 once you finish those three giving some small replayability though there’s no benefit to do them in a specific order. Pulseman’s controls are kind of weird, he has two speeds where he goes faster if you go a specific amount of distance. He also has a problem of stopping and you can get hit because of this problem. Thankfully he does have a few combat options. Your normal attack is a small ranged punch that puts out a little bit of electricity that can hit enemies. You can also do a kick on the ground by holding down and attack and you can do this jump attack with up and attack. Here’s a tip, that jump attack has i-frames throughout the whole move, you even have a second of it after the move ends so keep that in mind. You can also do a dash maneuver by double tapping left or right, I’m telling you this now because I didn’t realize it was in the game till the room before the final boss, I’m an idiot.
When you reach your second speed your body will get electrified letting you do additional moves. The most notable is the Voltteccer where you’ll become this ball of electricity and can dash diagonally to reach areas you couldn’t before, make sure you bounce off walls for additional time. You can actually use this when it’s not charged but it’s only for a couple of frames and goes nowhere but you can use it to attack if you like a challenge. You can also change your default attack into a slash arrow that makes your punch attack a projectile. Both of these moves however will get rid of your charge so keep that in mind. Pulseman also can’t use any of his electric moves underwater for some reason, they say it’s his weakness so I guess that’s a fair enough reason.
Level design is pretty interesting in Pulseman. While I’d argue some of it is simple, I think Pulseman’s movement options make it better. Though there are times where it can be uninteresting. I think it’s at the worst when they try to limit your moveset with the water. This game tries to have very unique looking locations that lead to some “blocky” level design but personally it never felt too dull to me. I do like when they have stuff like wires or orbs that you use your voltteccer on for navigating through the level leading to creative ideas. I do have another complaint which is just the speed of some levels being slow. While it never had anything frustrating, I do think some levels could use refinement. They also are pretty long so don’t get a game over which by the way you have a limited amount of continues.
You do at least have some helpful items to get you through the game. First is the spark ball which if you collect 10 will refill your health to full and give you a 1-up. Second is life up which will fill one piece of light up. Should mention that you can only take three hits, you’ll know how much health you have depending on the color of light on the top left which goes blue, yellow, red, and then death. There’s also your usual 1-up that just gives what it says. Lastly there is voltecc energy which lets you use as much of your electric moves for that entire section. Wait why is there only one t for that item name but the move name uses two t’s? You can also do bonus stages to get more points. It’s basically an odd take on breakout where you use voltteccer to break blocks. It’s a neat idea and even has a weird electricity paddle but they get too hard for me personally.
Bosses in this game are a mixed bag. You got some cool ones like the wireframe boss in stage 1 and the boss in stage 3 where you fight at the beginning and at the end. What really kills them though is just how easy a lot of them are and not in the good way. Remember that jump attack I told you about? Well they break some of these fights like the 2nd to last boss where I think they wanted you to use slash arrow but I ended up using the jump move for i-frames to get a free punch on him and then continue to do more of the jump move. The fight with the black Pulseman annoyed me because I wasn’t sure why he wasn’t dying until I realized you have to hit him with a punch as you make contact with your voltteccer. Here’s a tip if you want to make contact with him easily. Just use voltteccer right in front of him and he’ll activate his a little after and you’ll usually make contact every time making the fight one of the easiest. The final boss is also a joke because again they forgot how good the jump attack is. Like seriously look how easy this is! It really makes me wonder if they even knew how broken this move is.
This game uses a lot of colors and I mean A LOT! Seriously if you have epilepsy problems please do not play this game. While this game does push the limits for the console with the colors, I’d argue it’s still done poorly in a few areas. While it can look really nice, some of these stages just hurt my eyes. This game will also certainly make you feel like you’re in the 90s with the way this game portrays the more techy stuff. At least the character designs done by Ken Sugimori are really good looking. Seriously it pains me these designs are just used for one game! The music by Junichi Masuda is good but I swear when I hear the OST a lot of it blends in to me. It’s still good but not my favorite for the console. The voice samples however are terrible, seriously what happened here? It’s not all bad but stuff like the newscaster does not sound good. Is this just a console limitation?
Pulseman is a good but flawed game. I have fun playing it but I wouldn’t call it a must play either. I’d argue it’s the best Game Freak game I’ve played from them before Pokemon but I wish it got a sequel to iron out the flaws. The game sadly never got a US release till the Wii virtual console which is a shame and I can’t really see why this stayed in Japan. Maybe it was the seizure potential. I think it’s a game any platformer fan should try and it’s a good reminder that not everything Game Freak made was bad since people like to have that narrative sometimes. Still though, come on Game Freak make another game! You know what, considering the rush they do nowadays to get things done, maybe it’s for the best it was a one-off. Does anyone find it weird this wasn’t on either Mega Drive mini console? Feel like that was a missed opportunity. OH WAIT GUYS AND GALS! Before we end, I gotta tell you the most obscure fact about this game. Did you know the voltteccer move was what inspired Pikachu’s volt tackle move!? Wow such a cool fact I love hearing every time this game is brought up! Anyway umm bye! (That was such an awkward way to end this review...)
Pulseman is a 2D platformer where you’ll go through 7 stages and fight a boss at the end of each stage. One interesting choice is allowing you to select from stages 1-3 and then stage 4-6 once you finish those three giving some small replayability though there’s no benefit to do them in a specific order. Pulseman’s controls are kind of weird, he has two speeds where he goes faster if you go a specific amount of distance. He also has a problem of stopping and you can get hit because of this problem. Thankfully he does have a few combat options. Your normal attack is a small ranged punch that puts out a little bit of electricity that can hit enemies. You can also do a kick on the ground by holding down and attack and you can do this jump attack with up and attack. Here’s a tip, that jump attack has i-frames throughout the whole move, you even have a second of it after the move ends so keep that in mind. You can also do a dash maneuver by double tapping left or right, I’m telling you this now because I didn’t realize it was in the game till the room before the final boss, I’m an idiot.
When you reach your second speed your body will get electrified letting you do additional moves. The most notable is the Voltteccer where you’ll become this ball of electricity and can dash diagonally to reach areas you couldn’t before, make sure you bounce off walls for additional time. You can actually use this when it’s not charged but it’s only for a couple of frames and goes nowhere but you can use it to attack if you like a challenge. You can also change your default attack into a slash arrow that makes your punch attack a projectile. Both of these moves however will get rid of your charge so keep that in mind. Pulseman also can’t use any of his electric moves underwater for some reason, they say it’s his weakness so I guess that’s a fair enough reason.
Level design is pretty interesting in Pulseman. While I’d argue some of it is simple, I think Pulseman’s movement options make it better. Though there are times where it can be uninteresting. I think it’s at the worst when they try to limit your moveset with the water. This game tries to have very unique looking locations that lead to some “blocky” level design but personally it never felt too dull to me. I do like when they have stuff like wires or orbs that you use your voltteccer on for navigating through the level leading to creative ideas. I do have another complaint which is just the speed of some levels being slow. While it never had anything frustrating, I do think some levels could use refinement. They also are pretty long so don’t get a game over which by the way you have a limited amount of continues.
You do at least have some helpful items to get you through the game. First is the spark ball which if you collect 10 will refill your health to full and give you a 1-up. Second is life up which will fill one piece of light up. Should mention that you can only take three hits, you’ll know how much health you have depending on the color of light on the top left which goes blue, yellow, red, and then death. There’s also your usual 1-up that just gives what it says. Lastly there is voltecc energy which lets you use as much of your electric moves for that entire section. Wait why is there only one t for that item name but the move name uses two t’s? You can also do bonus stages to get more points. It’s basically an odd take on breakout where you use voltteccer to break blocks. It’s a neat idea and even has a weird electricity paddle but they get too hard for me personally.
Bosses in this game are a mixed bag. You got some cool ones like the wireframe boss in stage 1 and the boss in stage 3 where you fight at the beginning and at the end. What really kills them though is just how easy a lot of them are and not in the good way. Remember that jump attack I told you about? Well they break some of these fights like the 2nd to last boss where I think they wanted you to use slash arrow but I ended up using the jump move for i-frames to get a free punch on him and then continue to do more of the jump move. The fight with the black Pulseman annoyed me because I wasn’t sure why he wasn’t dying until I realized you have to hit him with a punch as you make contact with your voltteccer. Here’s a tip if you want to make contact with him easily. Just use voltteccer right in front of him and he’ll activate his a little after and you’ll usually make contact every time making the fight one of the easiest. The final boss is also a joke because again they forgot how good the jump attack is. Like seriously look how easy this is! It really makes me wonder if they even knew how broken this move is.
This game uses a lot of colors and I mean A LOT! Seriously if you have epilepsy problems please do not play this game. While this game does push the limits for the console with the colors, I’d argue it’s still done poorly in a few areas. While it can look really nice, some of these stages just hurt my eyes. This game will also certainly make you feel like you’re in the 90s with the way this game portrays the more techy stuff. At least the character designs done by Ken Sugimori are really good looking. Seriously it pains me these designs are just used for one game! The music by Junichi Masuda is good but I swear when I hear the OST a lot of it blends in to me. It’s still good but not my favorite for the console. The voice samples however are terrible, seriously what happened here? It’s not all bad but stuff like the newscaster does not sound good. Is this just a console limitation?
Pulseman is a good but flawed game. I have fun playing it but I wouldn’t call it a must play either. I’d argue it’s the best Game Freak game I’ve played from them before Pokemon but I wish it got a sequel to iron out the flaws. The game sadly never got a US release till the Wii virtual console which is a shame and I can’t really see why this stayed in Japan. Maybe it was the seizure potential. I think it’s a game any platformer fan should try and it’s a good reminder that not everything Game Freak made was bad since people like to have that narrative sometimes. Still though, come on Game Freak make another game! You know what, considering the rush they do nowadays to get things done, maybe it’s for the best it was a one-off. Does anyone find it weird this wasn’t on either Mega Drive mini console? Feel like that was a missed opportunity. OH WAIT GUYS AND GALS! Before we end, I gotta tell you the most obscure fact about this game. Did you know the voltteccer move was what inspired Pikachu’s volt tackle move!? Wow such a cool fact I love hearing every time this game is brought up! Anyway umm bye! (That was such an awkward way to end this review...)