If you are a fan of rogue-lite action platformers with randomly generated stages and upgrades then 30XX from independent developer Batterystaple Games is the sure shot. Not just another Mega Man clone with a fresh coat of “Totally Original, Do Not Steal” slapped over it, 30XX evolves super solid gameplay in its own way and creates a very charming experience that doesn’t have to hide behind its inspirations. Built off the solid backbone of 20XX’s engine, the gameplay smoothness is nearly perfect from the get-go. Even at high speeds, you will always feel like you have perfect control of your movement – to the point where you’ll feel like you’re handicapped if you go back to play older Mega Man titles.
In 30XX, There are two different playable characters (Nina or Ace) with completely unique mechanics, giving you an incentive to beat the game with both. There’s also the Entropy mechanic (similar to heat in Hades) – this lets you raise the difficulty further and further to extreme degrees with different modifiers, trying to beat the game on harder and harder difficulties, and you’re rewarded for it too, which encourages you to keep playing the game far after your first win. You can also play the whole game in co-op, both couch and online, and there are also daily and weekly challenges to try with a set seed and unique modifiers with online leaderboards to keep trying. Throughout the 10-stage run, you’ll find challenges, boxes, and other ways to obtain augments and cores, such as the double jump. These can boost your attack, defense and mobility. There are a lot of fun upgrades and busted synergies and creative and wacky level gimmicks. With all that, and with all the options and accessibility features on display, it absolutely succeeds at having that addictive “let me just do one more run” quality that makes this genre so compelling.
There’s something, a big something, to be said about level design, especially in platformers. Look, if you are thinking that with procedural content generation you lose that sense of “I was meant to discover this!” or with permadeath, you sacrifice the nostalgia around those discoveries … this is not that and that is not this. The difference is in execution. One of the game’s biggest strengths here IS the level design. In a normal run, the game pulls handcrafted level “chunks” from a large selection to generate levels. While 20XX also had this system and was more than serviceable, 30XX cranks it up to eleven in terms of complexity and detail. I know there will always be people who prefer an entirely static traditional game, but the game’s design is honestly very close to one. Also, the devs have confirmed more playable characters, new game modes, and other new content is coming in future updates as well. 30XX Improves on the first in nearly every way and is the best Mega Man game that isn’t a Mega Man game made in years.