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The Mega Man video games are a huge part of my childhood. I love these games and I bought all the legacy packs on Steam, even if I don't play most of them anymore.
30XX is a love letter to the good old Mega Man series but it isn't a straight copy of the formular, it evolves the gameplay in its own way and creates a very charming gaming experience that doesn't have to hide behind its inspiration.
I want to note, this is actually the second game in the series, before 30XX there was 20XX which uses the same gameplay but 30XX has evolved a lot further in terms of graphics and gameplay.
In its essence, 30XX is an action rogue-lite with Mega Man gameplay. You can play as one of two characters, Ace or Nina. Nina is your staple Mega Man copy, she has a buster to fire bullets, she can charge it up for extra damage and if she kills a boss she gets the boss weapon to use. However, she also can fuse two boss abilities together for a new power which costs more energy but is usually stronger or has some special gimmick to it.
Bosses usually don't have a straight up weakness like in Mega Man, instead all the boss weapons have some sort of utility, that helps in the boss fight. The developers didn't want that players feel forced to go in a perfect boss order and instead wanted that each weapon has different uses that the player could take advantage of. These weapons can for example manipulate stage hazards so you don't have to deal with them.
The first stage you face is also randomly decided from the pool of 8 stages but after you beat a boss you can decide what stage you take (from a small selection of three). Stages are randomly generated with different chunks that the developers have created. Because of this, you will get a different stage each time, but you will see similiar patterns through multiple runs. Each stage also has some sort of mid boss and different kind of challenge rooms, like glory rooms, gauntlets and so on. By beating those challenges you will get a selection of three tiems that improve your character. Items can simply improve your stats or have special effects. There is a wide selection of different items with all kinds of effects that are quite fun to experience.
A special type of items are core augments. These items can be only equipped if you have enough core points but they have powerful abilities. Some are weapons, some are armor pieces. Typical powers from cores can be a double jump or the ability to leech off health from kills. If you get all pieces of a specific set, you also get a super powerful set bonus.
If you don't like to play as Nina, you can also play as Ace. Ace was inspired by Zero from Mega Man X and starts with a sword as his main weapon. Instead of getting boss powers when he defeats them, he gets style moves. Unlike Nina, who can only equip 3 boss weapons at the same time (but can freely switch between them), he always has acess to all his style moves, he uses them by using the special attack buttons in combination with the movement button. Every style move has different uses and just like boss powers they take up energy. Ace can however generate a lot more energy than Nina by generating style points. When he hits an enemy with his main weapon, he generates style points, which passively increase his energy regeneration. This results in Ace being a very combo focused character that wants to chain many attacks together, both his main attack and his style attacks.
The graphics of the game are fantastic, the game features a pixelated graphics style similiar to SNES Mega Man X games with a lot of detail in the backgrounds. Just look at stages like Chronozone, which is a giant clock themed stage with tons of moving cogs and pendulums in the background.
And the music is simply amazing. I bought the soundtrack too because I really like this retro themed soundtrack that fits the art style. The stage music of Echo cave is my personal favourite.
By beating mid bosses and bosses you also get a currency called Memoria. This currency allows you to unlock some special mechanics in the game like the energy tank or a starting item for your runs. You can however beat the entire game without these unlocks because all the power ups are aviable from the beginning.
Once you beat the game, you unlock "entropy". These are challenge modifiers that you can activate and increase however you like. They can make the stages longer, increase boss HP or give enemies more attack damage. There is even a modifier that makes all hazards instakills, just like traditional Mega Man (which normally isn't the case here since you have no extra lifes). Entropy challenges are completely optional but by beating them you unlock another currency which can be used to overcharge the unlocked imrpovements from your memoria. These overcharges are ridiculously overpowered and make the normale gameplay incredibly easy but they are designed to make entropy not as hard as it is normally.
Besides the normal game mode you also have maker mode, in which you can play levels created by other players. The game features its own level editor that anyone can use and that was used by the devs to create the chunks for the main game. You can also play a more casual "Mega Mode" which features a more classic Mega Man experience. All 8 stages are aviable from the start for selection, the levels are randomly generated once at the start and will stay that way afterwards. Infinite lifes but you have to restart a stage if you die. It is the perfect mode for people who want the core Mega Man experience and don't care for all the rogue-like stuff.
And of course there are also daily challenges, weekly challenges, leaderboards and co-op. This game has a ton of features.