Itching for a melee-based Mega Man game? Check out Gravity Circuit!
What Is It? Gravity Circuit is a 2D action platforming game from Domesticated Ant Games. Players control Kai, a hero who harnesses the powerful Gravity Circuit, to save the world from the reawakened Virus Army. Defeat the bosses, upgrade your loadout, and save the world.
The video game industry loves to use the term “-like” when describing games. Souls-like, rogue-like, “the 1997 underrated PS1 puzzle masterpiece Intelligent Qube”-like, etc… Given that, I’m deliberately avoiding that term for Gravity Circuit and, instead, describing it as a Mega Man clone. I consider it a clone because the setup is identical; you are given eight levels, signaled by their bosses, you may defeat in any order, then you embark on the final stretch. All of this is wrapped in wonderful pixel art graphics. Yes, Gravity Circuit wears its Mega Man influences proudly, but does it do them justice?
The game takes a melee-focused approach to combat, which is the biggest difference between Kai and the Blue Bomber. You are equipped with your base attack, a grappling hook, and special moves which can be used once you fill up an energy gauge (these are called Burst Techniques). The grappling hook and certain burst attacks do provide some ranged attack chances, but the majority of the game will be played bashing foes with your metallic fists.
Each of the eight base levels have a theme built around the boss. There is some overlap in the basic enemy types, but each also includes some unique enemies and environmental challenges. Bosses here are fun and challenging, with many taking me a dozen or more tires. The game allows you unlimited tries from a checkpoint right outside of the boss room, thankfully, although you will have to use credits to refill your energy gauges each time, if you choose to do so.
The core combat is smooth and controls really well, as does the platforming. You will unlock a double jump and optionally equip it, more on that later, which pairs with the grapple hook to form most of the platforming challenge. The typical wall cling/slide also shows up and there is an “attack from above which bounces you a bit” move as well. I thought the platforming was good, particularly in the places the game leveraged the grappling hook, but I would say the game is more combat-heavy.
Much of the fun of Gravity Circuit comes through customizing your loadout. You get three passive ability slots and four burst technique slots. There are over 30 of each of these, so choosing which to equip provides a wide range of possible playstyles. I ended up with passive abilities to allow me to generate more energy for burst moves, cling to a wall without sliding, and the double jump. I played around with these a bit but ultimately came back to this setup as dropping any of those three made things much tougher for me.
For my burst abilities, I equipped a ranged beam attack, a healing move, and a couple of others I never used. For my first playthrough, I actually missed every single one of the health powerups. The mistake actually netted me a trophy, but also made it so I would die quite oftent, 150 times according to the end game stats. Given this, I came to heavily rely on the healing burst which would heal five bars of health. This was particularly necessary during boss fights. This led to me missing out on some fun burst techniques in favor of saving the energy for precious health, but it’s a good example of the game letting you play the game your own way, and that is always fun.
My first playthrough took 7.5 hours with those 150 aforementioned deaths. Each level has a bunch of secrets to find, from health and energy upgrades, to bots to rescue. They also have timing goals and I was comically over on every single one. I averaged about 45 minutes per level and the speedrun goals were like 12 minutes. Whoops. I found the game challenging but the forgiving, unlimited checkpoint system made sure it falls well short of “Nintendo hard” from the NES or SNES Mega Man days.
The pixel art looks great. It’s hard to break much new ground on this front, but I can say that the visuals stand up to just about any other I’ve seen in this style over the past few years.
The Best Part: The customization the game allows and the depth it provides. Through the various equipable item slots you can strongly customize Kai. If I didn’t equip the double jump, this would be almost an entirely different game. Same for the healing burst. The trophy list leans into this more with some very specific requirements which will require multiple playthroughs for most of us. In short; for a game that can be beaten over a weekend, there sure is a lot to keep you coming back if you enjoyed the experience.
The Worst Part: Making the double jump an optional, equipable ability is borderline criminal. I guess this is another ode to Mega Man and his single-jumping self, but to introduce that ability and then have the audacity to think that someone might NOT equip it??? Absolutely wild in my book. This is an especially troublesome problem because so many of these abilities are really good. I wanted to equip eight at a time, but the limit of three-but-actually-two was cruel.
The Verdict: Many games owe a lot to their influences but the line between honoring a series and simply copying it is a thin one to walk. Gravity Circuit manages to strike a wonderful balance of respect for the originals while offering something unique and fun enough to stand as something worth playing despite there being dozens of Mega Man games out there.
Through the customizations and melee-focus, the game offers something just unique enough while igniting those classic Mega Man memories. To be clear, there are legitimate gripes to have with this game. For some, the resemblance might be too much, maybe the customization isn’t appealing, or perhaps the melee focus.
For me, however, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Gravity Circuit. So much so that I immediately jumped right back into conquered levels so I could grab the abundance of power up and other hidden items I missed. This game is an easy one to recommend for me, especially given its frequent sale price of under $10, if you are looking for a very fun Mega Man clone.
How to Play: PlayStation 4/5*, Switch, PC
*console played on for this review
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