Pocky & Rocky Reshrined Review (Moxie ⓛωⓛ)
Very fun game!
Pocky & Rocky Reshrined is both a remake and a retelling of original Super Nintendo game, as it loosely follows that game's premise but quickly diverges off into mostly new story involving time travel and other shenanigans at Stage 3 and onwards.
Positive
- Excellent high-quality pixel art that upgrades the fidelity of the product without losing the original charm. I can't even count the number of remasters of old 2D games I've played that shovel in generic high-quality assets willy-nilly without a care for it matching the original style of the game. Thankfully Pocky & Rocky Reshrined toes this line perfectly and shows that pixel art still does indeed have a place in 2025 and can look beautiful.
- Catchy music!
- The control is very smooth and responsive, allowing you to move and shoot in any direction with ease without the stiffness that was present in the original SNES games.
- Three different weapon upgrades that change how you play: spread shot, fireball, or homing shot. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses and it is fun to experiment with all three.
- A cast of five characters to play as, all of which who play differently thanks to their unique attacks and upgrade paths.
- Vibrant and cute cutscenes that are done in the same pixel-art style as the main game.
Neutral
- Checkpoints were added to stages so if you get a Game Over you will continue into the halfway point of the stage. This definitely helps less skilled players but it also makes this short game seem even shorter. Some might like it, others might not, hence it is a neutral to me.
- The cutscenes, while being very well done, are a bit too numerous. Especially for how short the game is. Putting some of the effort that went into the cutscenes into making more levels would have been a better idea, in my opinion.
Negative
- Story Mode forces you to play as specific characters for specific levels. This, combined with the short game length, means you're playing as most characters aside from Pocky for one level max.
- Free Play and Two Player Mode needs to be unlocked by beating the game once, so there's no such thing as going into the game blind with your friend to beat through it the first time.
- Two Player Mode is LOCAL CO-OP ONLY with no online matchmaking or lobbies. It might be able to work with Steam Remote Play but I have not tried it.
- The price is kind of steep for what it is, especially since the game can be beaten in like 2 or 3 hours blind if you're decent at shmups.
Overall
If you love shmups, retro games, or just games that have super cute and quirky artstyles this one is definitely worth a look, especially if you have someone to play a co-op playthrough! Hopefully the positive reception for this game means that that Pocky & Rocky franchise can see further installments.