Chumps Preview is a special kind of post where we unofficially preview games in Early Access, Beta, or are otherwise “unfinished.” This kind of preview is meant to be a first impression rather than a definitive review where we provide a rating to determine a game’s value. As such, we fully expect a game covered in a Chumps Preview to have room for improvement, some bugginess, and other features associated with similar games in the category.
The Megaman series was a huge part of my upbringing, and assumedly many 90s kids with Super Nintendos and PlayStations. These kinds of games boasted incredibly tight platforming, restricted movement, and crazy-difficult early shooter gameplay. In 2022, there are few games that contain that Megaman-esque gameplay, let alone variations on the Megaman-inspired design.
Enter 30xx. The spiritual successor to 20XX with so much more to love: a Megaman-inspired roguelike with randomly assigned upgrades and powerups for Nina and Ace (think Megaman and Zero), floating buddies (“Repros”) who assist you in battle, a level editor, and incredibly designed levels that change with each run. Today, Batterystaple games have announced the Abyssal Armory update for 30XX featuring an eighth level called WaterGrav, a new boss, character model updates that reflect armor upgrades you acquire, lore terminals scattered throughout each stage, and a fourth difficulty level, “Spicy,” among many, many more!
I’ve spent the past few days with the update, and I’m quite impressed with how much fun WaterGrav is shaping up to be. The level features sections of inverse gravity, underwater platforming, and interactable level portions where adding water dissolves enemy projectiles and creates new platforms. Even more, none of it is gimicky. Usually, games that featured inverse gravity implemented the feature in an unfun and gimicky fashion, forcing you to nearly tilt your head almost 180 degrees to get used to being upside down. In WaterGrav, these sections are merely temporary, and sometimes entirely missable if you simply jump over the grav pad. The boss room features the grav pads at the edges of the screen making it so that you’re not forced to play upside down. The water portions hardly slow you down and give you some breathing room (heh), as enemy projectiles and environmental hazards instantly dissolve in the water. While some of these new enemies (like the fishies!) may be stronger in water, Ace and Nina have no trouble using their unique abilities (blaster and sword) to dispose of them.
The lore terminals in the randomly generated levels are a nice touch, but they seem disconnected from the rest of the game because of how little lore exists to begin with. I’ve appreciated some of the humor and the quips of these terminals, but I cannot help but wonder how these factor into the story later on.
I really appreciate how armor pieces change Ace and Nina’s look. Instead of the typical model changes that may be associated with a specific powerup (see also: the Megaman X series), the armor pieces you come across can change your character’s model and give each run a unique feel.
I spent a near-equal amount of time playing the Standard and the Mega Mode during my playthrough, and I think both are incredibly fun (with some caveats). The Standard mode is the roguelike mode, where each run is entirely different, from the levels you play to the upgrades you come across. The Mega Mode is the typical kind of mode you may see in a Megaman game, where you select your next level. It’s important to note that the levels in Mega Mode are randomly generated _only once,_ so if you end up getting two levels that feel impossible, your only option is to delete your current file and start over. Luckily, I never had that happen, and this mode is balanced as such so that each level is given a variable and randomly-assigned difficulty (ranging from Normal to Defiant to Bold). Once you acquire enough powerups in Mega Mode, however, it will feel like you activated God mode. After defeating six bosses, I had enough augments and powerups to delete bosses a matter of seconds assuming I had a large amount of currency and it was within the first few seconds of the boss battle. Sure, I was incredibly lucky with which upgrades I managed to come across, but it’s pretty clear that the Standard mode is the mode you’ll want to play for a consistent challenge.
Outside of that, 30XX is in pretty good shape. The few bugs I came across were less gamebreaking and more currency/boss based. For instance, once you beat a boss, you’re rewarded with Potentia (one of the currency that can unlock persistent upgrades for Standard mode, like additional starting health, currency, and so forth). In my Mega Mode, I defeated several bosses, obtained the Potentia that dropped from their corpses, and…did not see my Potentia inventory increase. The Potentia numbers began to increase once I quit and restarted my game, though. Also, in that same run of Mega Mode, I was completely unable to obtain Ace’s powerup upon defeating Zen Primus. After beating the rest of the bosses, I went back to Zen Primus and tried obtaining the upgrade–no dice. Instead, defeating another boss gave me a duplicate upgrade. I’m sure these will be fixed in a future patch, but you should have no stability or gameplay issues as you play.
I am really excited for the future of 30XX, and the Abyssal Armory update is chock full of welcome additions. It has the futuristic design and fluid gameplay of the Megaman X series with the replayability of roguelike gold-standards of Hades, Returnal, and Enter the Gungeon. 30XX is available now on Early Access for Steam.
