Thank You ININ Games for providing us with a review code!

Tengo Project has been at work modernizing classic Super Nintendo games and introducing them to new audiences (namely Wild Guns Reloaded and The Ninja Warriors Once Again). Unlike many remakes and remasters, the games developed by Tengo Project include key members that worked on the original products. Their third release is more of a re-imagining of 1992’s Pocky & Rocky. 

Pocky & Rocky Reshrined is an isometric run & gun where you play as Pocky, Rocky, and three other characters across eight beautifully-detailed stages. The most notable aspect between the original and Reshrined is that the latter’s graphics are greatly improved while retaining a similar style so it doesn’t look completely different. But the detail that went into the sprites, set pieces, and environment is above and beyond what they needed to. Many of the character sprites have an increased amount of frames so they all move with great detail. The environments have the best improvements compared to the original, looking truly breathtaking and adding so much more. Some pieces even interact such as the leaves rustling when walked over in the first level or bushes moving when enemies swiftly move by. In my opinion, Reshrined is Tengo Project’s best-looking game, and Wild Guns Reloaded and The Ninja Warriors Once Again are already fantastic sprite work. 

Now how Reshrined plays, it takes some inspiration from the arcade scene as Pocky & Rocky 1992 is a sequel to the 1986 title Kiki Kaikai. Pocky and Rocky can shoot in eight directions, but shots go only where the character is facing. Modern consoles may all have two thumbsticks now, but Pocky & Rocky was made when consoles didn’t even have one! Frankly, if Reshrined was created with twin sticks in mind, it would break the entire game because it would make everything effortless. The designs and enemies would need a drastic overhaul to the point where it wouldn’t even feel like the same game. Coupled with shooting, you can also dodge, clear the screen with a limited special move, and use a sweeping maneuver. Pocky uses a gohei as she is a shrine maiden, while Rocky uses his tail as he is a tanuki. This move is very important as it swats away many smaller enemies, reflects most projectiles, and acts as a close-range method of attack. While the default controls all use the face buttons, they can all be remapped to any button on the controller. I found it best to map the sweep button and the dodge to the triggers/bumpers so you’ll never have to take your finger off the fire button.

Despite the cute artstyle, Reshrined is a pretty challenging game.  It will manage to make you use all of your abilities as I “game over’d” numerous times learning all of the mechanics. If you aren’t careful with your limited method of aiming, enemies will overwhelm you. Fortunately, getting a game over only resets your score and sends you back to the beginning of the level (or halfway on longer levels). Keeping at it will eventually net victory as you learn the patterns and placement of enemies. There is a sense of progression with three different power-ups that change your shot and every odd-numbered level completed increases your maximum health. Getting hit too many times can have you drop the power-ups collected so just because Reshrined is rather forgiving, it doesn’t mean it’s not punishing. Strangely enough, Reshrined’s difficulties start with normal and hard, with easy being the only difficulty needed to be unlocked and it does take some time with the requirement being 3000 coins in total collected. Even when I managed to beat the game, I didn’t have enough so a second playthrough was necessary. The major difference easy has over the other difficulties is that easy grants unlimited lives in a level. Ironically, this change can make the experience harder in a select few moments.

For those who played the 1992 original, Reshrined makes some significant changes after level two. Technically, the changes are noticed in the beginning but starting with level three the story takes a completely different turn. Some of these levels are where the new characters are played too, having different properties compared to Pocky and Rocky. The new levels end up replacing some of the levels in the SNES game, opting for a little more narrative cohesion as the original levels got way out there with graveyards, vampires, and jesters. With the changes made to the narrative, unfortunately, this means that co-op via free mode has to be unlocked either by beating the game or collecting 10,000 coins in total. The former is way more likely to happen first than the latter. The unlocking requirements are so weird in Reshrined and I’ve always disliked an easy mode that has to be unlocked. It’s so counter-intuitive. 

Pocky & Rocky Reshrined goes far into the Japanese mythology aspect. Every aspect of it bathes in it, from aspects such as the seven lucky gods, goddess Ame-no-Uzume, yokai such as kappa and yuki-onna, and even some levels taking place in the underworld and afterlife. If I had to name every aspect, I’d be here all day. Violence isn’t too bad as it’s mostly fantasy in nature and most enemies either poof or fade away. Sexual content only accounts for cleavage shown in Uzume’s character sprite and the way she moves. Her more detailed character portrait shot doesn’t show any so some form of censorship seems to be at play (and seems to be kind of unnecessary to me due to this fact). There is the second boss called the Hellkraken, but it's obvious it is used in regard to a place and not a form of exclamation. 

Pocky & Rocky Reshrined is not only a great game, but an example of a great remake. The price range may look questionable at first glance with a first playthrough clocking in around 2 hours, excluding any game overs. But with the fantastic sprites created in Unity of all engines, multiple playable characters, and online leaderboards, people who like to replay their games will get plenty of value from this title. The Switch version does have some frame dips here and there but it doesn’t seem to ever drop below 52 frames-per-second. If you do want more performance over portability, then the PS4 version will be the preferred platform. As usual, Tengo Project went above and beyond what they needed to do and manage to bring a beloved classic into a modern setting.