For most gamers, the name Game Freak should be somewhat familiar. While not holding the same notoriety as Nintendo, the company still developed one of the most popular and long-running game series in the world: Pokémon. It was because I knew of Game Freak's previous work that I took interest in their most recent 2D action game, GIGA Wrecker. Given how highly-rated the Pokémon series is, I thought that a different game from the same developers would prove to be an enjoyable experience. After having played through GIGA Wrecker, I can say that my hunch was indeed correct; GIGA Wrecker is an overall satisfying game.

The Would-be High School Cyborg

In GIGA Wrecker, you play as Reika, a would-be high school girl struggling to survive in a world taken over by robots. After a fateful encounter, Reika is left dying in a cell until a passing scientist finds her. In exchange for saving her life, Reika agrees to let the scientist change her into a cyborg. From there, she sets out on an adventure to get some answers, save the city, and protect the future of humanity itself.

It’s a fairly simple story, one that makes sense without being too cliche. While I did find myself curious as to how the story would end, I did not become emotionally invested in the characters. The few personalities and backstories that you learn about while playing the game are endearing enough, but not so much that you get attached. The plot may have a few twists, but the presentation is generally straightforward; plot is presented directly through dialogue, and there are signs scattered about with various tidbits of information if you’re feeling curious. All in all, the story does not have any glaring faults, although the translation can be somewhat awkward and the story does become somewhat mute during the second half of the game. What the game lacks in storytelling and plot however, it makes up for in gameplay.

Saving Humanity, One Puzzle at a Time

The bulk of the game consists mainly of puzzles. Using your cyborg abilities, you bash, build, and slice your way through countless obstacles to open paths leading to continually more difficult puzzles. As you progress, you gain more abilities in a Megaman-esque fashion. While the number of abilities are not as numerous, most of the abilities tend to have multiples uses and can be gradually enhanced as you spend more points in your skill tree.

As you become more familiar with the various ways in which you can use the abilities, you can start to get more creative with how you solve the puzzles. That may seem strange since in general puzzles are made with one solution in mind, and this is true for the majority of the puzzles in the game. However, while there are intended solutions for each puzzle, with a little bit of experimentation, you can find other ways to work them out.

For example, you have to place missing gears in order to open doors, but with the right amount of debris, you can substitute a block into the gear’s place using your ‘Lock’ ability. It may seem like a flaw that the player can get past puzzles using an alternative solution, but I personally see it as an unintended perk. While perhaps not intentional, the game allows the player to use various methods to tackle the same problem.

Despite the creativity GIGA Wrecker presents with its puzzles, it is not without flaws. I’ll be upfront with you: the game lacks some necessary polish when it comes to gameplay, specifically with the physics of solving puzzles. You see, when solving puzzles in GIGA Wrecker, a lot of moving rocks and destructible platforms are involved. Many of the puzzles rely on these rocks and platforms landing in specific ways or at specific locations, but they don’t always do that. In fact, the platforms often seem to land at every location aside from where you want them to be, despite using your abilities correctly. Because of this, you sometimes feel like you need both perfect execution and a good amount of luck to get past puzzles. Get lucky enough and you can sometimes even bypass the majority of a puzzle altogether.

It also doesn’t help that Reika can only stand on a platform if its slope is flat enough; if you’re standing on a platform while it’s moving, and it happens to tilt too much, Reika will immediately fall through the platform and, in many cases, to her immediate death. There are also some rare cases where Reika will fall and get stuck inside the platform itself. In most of those instances, the only option is to reset the puzzle, as escaping is only achievable through breaking the platform (which usually needs to be in one piece in order for the puzzle to be solved).

These few issues can be pretty detrimental altogether. It can feel quite rewarding whenever you do solve a puzzle and execute it correctly. However, if you are forced to repeat the same puzzle many times, despite already knowing the solution, it can become a tedious grind—which is neither fun nor satisfying.

Luckily, there is a saving grace found in how quickly the game lets you get back into action. It seems to me that the developers likely predicted that the player would die many times, which is why there is no limit on lives and why there is no additional penalty to dying, aside from resetting. As a matter of fact, in some early stages, I allowed myself to die in order to quickly reset a room.

Aside from the puzzles, there is another reason why getting back into action quickly is a good feature in GIGA Wrecker: boss battles.

Robo-boss Battles

Once you have solved all the puzzles in an area, you face off against a robo-boss. I was taken aback when I first came across a boss battle, not because I wasn’t expecting a boss, but because I wasn’t expecting a very difficult boss. The sudden difficulty spike that they present makes them seem a bit unfair to the player, especially at the first battle. If the obstacles and enemies leading up to the boss were like solving a jigsaw puzzle, then the boss would be like that same jigsaw puzzle except now it’s flying around and throwing knives at you. To some, the boss battles may not be very difficult, but the difficulty level they present is not one that the puzzles or smaller enemies beforehand really prepare you for.

In the end, I found these battles to be a fairly satisfying and challenging experience, especially the final battle, as it is a culmination of everything you learn from fighting the other bosses. Whenever you die during a boss battle, you appear again right outside the entrance to their lair, so there’s no delay in charging in again. Thanks to this, you can bust in immediately again and again, learning the attack patterns and how to counter them. The only limit on your lives is your determination to beat the boss.

As you learn at the beginning of the game, one of the main things you do is gather debris. The more debris you have, the more baddies you can take down and the better your abilities work. I feel that this mechanic shines in the boss battles. In order to do damage to almost any enemy, you need a certain amount of debris, and this is true with the bosses as well. Rather than running around and waiting for an opening, you’ve got to collect debris from the boss’ attacks until you get enough to do damage. It’s a clever mechanic that I believe makes the combat more interesting and engaging.

GIGA Wrecker

GIGA Wrecker is a game that is challenging, fun, and unique, but in some ways frustrating and unpolished. The simple story will carry you along well enough, with the puzzles and boss battles providing a fair deal of challenge (and at times a fair deal of frustration). Those who enjoy 2D platformers should definitely give the game a try. For those who are unfamiliar with the genre, it may not be a fitting introductory game, but can still provide some enjoyment once you adapt to the controls.

Game Freak certainly isn’t a master of all game genres, but I am definitely a fan of the creativity they exhibited in GIGA Wrecker.