izigame.me

I hope a review before I've beaten this is acceptable, as that's going to take a while. To get one important thing out of the way up front: For reasons I don't currently understand, two-player mode is gated at first, requiring you to either collect a certain number of coins in-game or complete the game. I have no idea why this is the case for a game that originally featured co-op so prominently. Fortunately, there is an old-school cheat code you can enter on the title screen to unlock it (left 4 times, right 4 times, then left and right 4 times) if you prefer, but I have no idea why this was locked to begin with.
Just to clear up some ambiguity I felt around the game at first, this is more sequel (or remake) than remaster, contrary to initial appearances. The game starts out beat-for-beat identical to the SNES original by Natsume, from the opening cutscene to the first leg of the first level, right down to enemy and power-up locations. But while the story's basically just an identical retelling to begin with, the level layout changes quickly and introduces new enemy types as well. (I felt mildly betrayed that the frog in level 1 no longer drops power ups, but I'll get over it.) There are a lot of places where specific sections from the first game are reproduced, from area layouts to boss fights, but they're stirred in among major changes, serving more like references and callbacks than the backbone of the gameplay.
The basic gameplay hasn't changed much, and it remains, at least to my hamfisted skills, no-nonsense difficult. You start with four points of health and two extra lives, and it's back to the start of the level with you if you blow it. Not to mention that getting hit will also cause you to drop your most recent power-up, and the enemies are varied and endless. Thankfully the game saves between levels, so it doesn't have to be completed in one sitting, and continues are unlimited.
For the considerable amount of content that's been reused from the original, the developers made exactly the right moves, taking advantage of their resources to lavish some love on the graphics and animation that the original didn't or couldn't get. They didn't just lazily slap 3D models onto recycled AI-upscaled 2D backgrounds and call it a day. Everything's still in bright, readable pixel art, but enemies that were largely static and unremarkable have been given more detailed and spirited animation. Pocky & Rocky's aesthetics already owed a great deal to the old Hyakki Yagyō paintings that inspired the likes of Shigeru Mizuki (GeGeGe no Kitarō), and this game's wacky, colorful bestiary of adorably weird yokai absolutely brims with their energy and charm. A few existing characters have received some small tweaks. Rocky the tanuki looks like he's gained a few pounds, which is cute, but our heroic shrine maiden has swapped one form of pleasant blandness for another in a way I'm not completely sure I'm into. She's gone from what looked like a big-headed, pleasantly bland young woman to a big-headed, pleasantly bland toddler of some kind. But in fairness, that may be better in line with the character's appearance in the pre-Natsume games in the series.
The music hasn't fared as well. A lot of tunes from the original are re-used essentially unchanged, just using slightly different instrumentation. But the resulting tone is often a little too laid-back and thin, and rather than getting the adrenaline pumping for boss fights and the like, it tends to just get lost.
The short of it: Absolutely worth a go if you're a fan of the original and its sequel. If not, and you're into difficult arcade style 8-directional shooters and lighthearted takes on Japanese mythology, it's still enjoyable enough for the simple but challenging gameplay and excellent art and animation.