Giga Wrecker Alt -Impressions (PS4)
When I think of the “legendary” game developer Game Freak, Pokemon is the first thing that comes to mind. If I’m being honest, until recently I didn’t know that they had developed many other games outside of these massively popular monster tamers. To my surprise, they’ve actually tried their hand at many other series throughout their thirty years of game development with the most recent game being a 2D Action Platformer called Giga Wrecker Alt released on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch.
In Giga Wrecker Alt you play as Reika Rekkeiji a young girl cursed with cybernetic enhancements who is hell-bent on ridding the earth of its robotic invaders, the Ajeet. On your journey, you’ll be tasked with solving all manner of physics-based puzzles and, of course, smashing a few robots.
In my small amount of time with the title, I’ve begun to really enjoy its anime aesthetic and artwork. The few levels I’ve been able to experience have been incredibly beautiful and I especially love their massive color pallet and use of geometric shapes throughout the environments. Sadly, I haven’t yet had a chance to really delve into the story of Giga Wrecker Alt. Which really is a shame due to my obsessive love of robots. What I have been able to experience is somewhat underwhelming, but you can’t exactly judge a game by its first few hours.
Its main draw for me so far is its combat or, in a weird way, lack thereof. Each battle is less of a combat scenario and more of a puzzle. When approaching enemies you’re forced to meticulously plan out your attacks in hopes of conserving your ball of debris, which you lose when attacking enemies or destroying obstacles. The larger ball you have the farther your attacks can reach and the larger the objects you can create once they’re unlocked, so your main priority is its conservation.
This, combined with a myriad of engaging physics puzzles, brings me to my only real criticism of Giga Wrecker Alt so far, its marketing. Since its original release on Steam back in 2017, it’s been toted as an Action Platformer. But in reality, it’s more of a Puzzle Platformer with some action here and there. Yet the marketing of a game has no real bearing on whether the game is good or bad, this is just a small nitpick of mine.
In the end, I don’t really know if I could recommend anyone purchase Giga Wrecker Alt based on the amount I’ve played. But I can tell you that it has me intrigued and I’m actually excited to play more, which is a great sign.
