Not that long ago (FIVE YEARS?! WHAT) I played, enjoyed and beat the 3DS version of this. I purposefully didn’t look back at what I wrote back then until just before writing this, and a few things surprised me.
Firstly, I never did get the good ending last time. This time, I did! Secondly, I had difficulties in all different places this time. For example, the “fire boss” was a walkover before, but he was one of the difficult ones this time. The final (for the bad ending) boss was much harder than I remember too. Some of these issues might be because I don’t think I knew about Gunvolt’s Prevasion skill last time around. It lets you use your shield power bar instead of your energy bar for attacks, essentially making you invincible so long as you don’t use your flashfield.
The transition to the Switch is a double-edged one. Yes, it’s great to have it on there, and in the twin pack with the sequel (which I’d previously never played) is a bonus too. But, the graphics – when blown up to what, eight times the resolution – aren’t quite so good looking. Not having the touch screen trigger for special attacks is a pain too, as instead they’re activated with a direction of the right stick and I frequently pushed up instead of left by mistake! But these are minor things really as the game is still fantastic.
Getting the good ending meant beating an extra boss, who wasn’t too difficult once I’d figured out how. And with it done, I can move on to Azure Striker Gunvolt 2!