Four core abilities make up your repertoire: there’s a standard attack, a dodge roll, a special attack that damages everything on-screen, and a deflect move which doubles up as a melee attack. Thankfully, no matter what difficulty you play on, you have a good range of skills available to you. Of course, if you relish in a challenge, hard difficulty is available too. There is an ‘Extra Easy’ mode, but for some bizarre reason, it’s locked out until you’ve gathered 3,000 coins in Normal mode. Yes, even Normal is taxing – and from the outset, that’s the easiest difficulty available to you. You’ll need to keep your wits about you to avoid taking damage, even on the game’s default ‘Normal’ setting. Their sprites are all excellently designed, but they don’t hold back. There’s a wide range of enemies to come up against, from demons, the undead, balls of fire and god-knows-what else. But you will eventually get the hang of Pocky & Rocky Reshrined‘s quirks and (hopefully) embrace them. It takes some getting used to a lock function would be a big help, allowing you to keep shooting in one direction while moving freely. You might be moving up the screen or you might be moving to the side, and so your projectiles will typically go in the direction you need to be moving in. You see, enemies pile in from all directions, but you can only shoot in the direction you’re facing. But it’s worth the work, because there’s a lot of fun to be had on the journey. You’re going to have to put in some serious practice before you can breeze your way through its levels. Despite its cutesy characters, Pocky & Rocky Reshrined is one of the more challenging games in the genre. This isn’t a game for the light-hearted, however. The audio has been redone too, with 16-bit tracks that really have stood the test of time. The beautiful pixel art looks sharper than ever, and the now-widescreen environments truly shine. And now, with Pocky & Rocky Reshrined, a remaster of the original, it looks even better. It makes for a somewhat unique experience, and it’s brought to life thanks to stand-out visuals and a catchy soundtrack.Įven back in 1993, Pocky & Rocky looked wonderful. Where the genre typically sees you in a spacecraft or similar, this time you’re on foot, firing out magical projectiles in front of you. Originally released on Super Nintendo back in 1993, Pocky & Rocky is a scrolling shooter with a difference. It might be lesser-known, but this retro shooter very much deserves your love. We’ve had the release of Sonic Origins, Capcom Fighting Collectionand now Pocky & Rocky Reshrined. Fans of classic games have a lot to celebrate this week.

Pocky and rocky 2 characters