Game Review: Azure Striker Gunvolt

I first learned about Azure Striker Gunvolt not from any of his games, but rather from playing Blaster Master Zero. After the game came out, Inti Creates put out a bunch of DLC characters from other franchises they were connected to, and since all of them had a two-week period where they were available for free, I downloaded them all. Shantae, from the Metroidvania games that bear her name; Shovel Knight, from his own eponymous game; Ekoro, from some eroge rail shooter series called Gal*Gun; and Gunvolt. He's actually pretty well-realized for being in a complete different game. I beat the first level with him, back when I thought about playing through BMZ with the DLC characters (it's on the list... ), and I was intrigued by the way his weaponry worked. Tagging people with some kind of dart gun and then blasting them with lightning? Slowfalling when the lightning field is on? Who was this "Gunvolt"?

Not too much longer after Gunvolt came out as DLC, a game called Mighty Gunvolt Burst came out and I bought it immediately. And then I read that it was a sequel to Mighty Gunvolt, which was spun off from the original Azure Striker Gunvolt series. I tend to be pretty systematic about this sort of thing, so I waited until Azure Striker Gunvolt was on sale on Steam and now I've finally gotten around to playing it.

It's a good game, but it's not for me.

His real superpower is using lightning in the rain.

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