Blaster Master Zero 2

A game by Inti Creates for PC, Switch, and PS4, originally released in 2019.

Blaster Master Zero 2 is the direct sequel to Blaster Master Zero, which itself was a reboot and retelling of the original Blaster Master that also incorporated story elements from the Worlds of Power Blaster Master novella. The original game starred a kid named Jason who had a pet frog named Fred. One day, Fred hops out of his terrarium and runs into the back yard where there's – for no understandable reason – a crate of radioactive material just sitting out in the open.

The frog touches the crate, begins growing in size, and then jumps down a hole that leads to a gigantic subterranean labyrinth. Continuing his pursuit, Jason also jumps down the hole where he encounters a body suit, helmet, and a gigantic tank called SOFIA III. As any reasonable person would do, he puts on the suit, hops in the tank, and heads off into the unknown.

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 2019, Inti Creates, PC, PS4, Switch

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon

A game by Inti Creates and ArtPlay for PC, PS4, Vita, Switch, 3DS, and Xbox One, originally released in 2018.

There’s no arguing that Castlevania has left a lasting mark on the gaming landscape. The series introduced players to gothic environments filled with classic monsters, the regularly-resurrected Dracula as its main villain, and a lineage of whip-wielding heroes with stiff jumps to push back evil for another 100 years (assuming Drac could ever stay down for that long). The series continued to break its own rules by introducing light RPG elements in its second outing, followed by a prequel that offered multiple playable characters, and then a revisitation of the original story of Simon Belmont that introduced new gameplay mechanics… and that’s all before the series went on to establish the basics of the now-well-trodden metroidvania subgenre.

While there are innumerable games that have pulled their influences from the metroidvania era of Castlevania, far fewer have drawn inspirations from the early games in the series. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon is one such game, delivering an experience that is so close to the early Castlevania games – Castlevania III in particular – that a few sprite swaps would make it impossible to separate it from the real thing; it looks and plays like a modern update to the classic series.

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 2018, 3DS, ArtPlay, Inti Creates, PC, PS4, Switch, Vita, Xbox One

Mighty Gunvolt Burst / Gal*Gunvolt Burst

A game by Inti Creates for Switch, 3DS, PS4, and PC, originally released in 2017, with the Gal*Gunvolt Burst version released in 2018.

Inti Creates followed up their retro-style Mighty Gunvolt with Mighty Gunvolt Burst / Gal*Gunvolt Burst, which once again features Gunvolt from Azure Striker Gunvolt and Beck from Mighty No. 9. There are several additional downloadable characters as well, including Ekoro and Kurona from Gal*Gun (Ekoro also appears in the original Mighty Gunvolt as a standard character, and is a standard character in the Gal*Gunvolt Burst version), Call and RAY from Mighty No. 9, and Joule and Copen from the Azure Striker Gunvolt series. Each character has his or her own playstyle, movement abilities, and weapons, although the levels themselves remain unchanged aside from a few story elements.

The game is not a canonical part of any of the aforementioned series, but rather takes place in a VR setting and acts as a retro throwback actioner heavily inspired by the Mega Man series. It’s a somewhat more substantial outing than its bite-sized predecessor, weighing in around two or three hours on a first attempt. Beck, Gunvolt, or whichever character you’ve downloaded have been sucked into a VR world and must defeat the eight robot masters… er, rather the eight robotic Mighty Numbers, in order to escape the simulation.

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 2017, 2018, 3DS, Inti Creates, PC, PS4, Switch

Blaster Master Zero

A game by Inti Creates for Switch, 3DS, and PC, originally released in 2017.

The original Blaster Master is something of a cult classic, standing out as a colorful metroidvania with unique mechanics that allow players to traverse the environment on foot or in a powerful tank called SOFIA 3rd. Players can freely enter and exit the tank, but attempting to move around the overworld on foot is dangerous, as enemies tower over the hero, and a single misstep can spell instant death (with limited lives and continues). However, players must leave the safety of the tank to move into underworld areas where they explore dungeons, shooting enemies, fighting bosses, and collecting upgrades for SOFIA. These upgrades allow the tank to fire more powerful projectiles, hover in the air, move underwater, and even climb walls, thus opening up new routes for exploration across a large world in a game that offers no map.


The game features a downright laughable story with a kid named Jason who has a pet frog named Fred. One day, Fred hops out of his terrarium and runs into the back yard, which just so happens to have a large crate containing radioactive material (as most houses do). Fred touches this crate and begins to grow to an enormous size before falling down a hole that leads to a labyrinthine underground tunnel system. Giving chase, Jason drops down the hole as well, and discovers a conveniently placed titanium tank and formfitting environment suit waiting for him at the bottom. He sets off on an adventure to find Fred, eventually killing a couple of giant frog creatures with no explanation as to whether Jason has blasted his pet froggie into a pile of oversized amphibian guts.

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 2017, 3DS, Inti Creates, PC, Switch

Mighty Gunvolt

A game by Inti Creates for 3DS and PC, originally released in 2014.

Mighty Gunvolt is an 8-bit style action game that was released alongside Azure Striker Gunvolt. The game stars three playable characters: Gunvolt from Azure Striker Gunvolt, Ekoro from Gal*Gun, and Beck from Mighty No. 9, all of which were developed in whole or in part by Inti Creates. At the time of the game’s release, Mighty No. 9 was still under development, so it also acted as an introduction to that upcoming title as well.

The connection to Mighty No. 9 is also notable due to the fact that it was under development in conjunction with Comcept, headed by Keiji Inafune, who was one of the creators of the Mega Man series. Mighty No. 9 shares a number of design similarities with the Mega Man series, and Beck’s appearance and abilities in Mighty Gunvolt are very reminiscent of those of the Blue Bomber.

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 2014, 3DS, Inti Creates, PC

Azure Striker Gunvolt

A game by Inti Creates for 3DS and PC, originally released in 2014.

Azure Striker Gunvolt stars the titular Gunvolt who is on a mission to silence “The Muse” for an organization called Quill. The game begins with Gunvolt tied to a chair and being tortured by a guy with some sort of electrical whip… which wasn’t a grand idea, given Gunvolt’s electricity manipulation powers. Gunvolt was just waiting for the guy to soliloquize for a bit and give away the true location of The Muse, at which point he makes his escape and fights his way to her in the game’s first mission.

But when he meets her, Gunvolt realizes The Muse is just a young girl, named Joule, who is being used by an evil organization called the Sumeragi Group. Despite this, Quill orders that Gunvolt kill her, but he decides to rescue her instead, and leaves the Quill organization to set out on his own, taking freelance work while offering protection to Joule. Of course, intrigue abounds, and Gunvolt’s string of odd jobs eventually leads him back to the Sumeragi again.

Azure Striker Gunvolt’s developer, Inti Creates, is also the developer behind the bulk of the latter-day Mega Man games, including the Mega Man Zero series, Mega Man 9, Mega Man 10, Mega Man ZX, and Mega Man ZX Advent. There are a number of design similarities between this game and the ZX series in particular, including a blue-clad hero, the aesthetics of the game world, basic environmental navigation, and the use of the touch screen to activate special abilities. Despite these similarities, however, the gameplay in Azure Striker Gunvolt is quite different from the Mega Man series… and from shooters in general.

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 2014, 3DS, Inti Creates, PC

Mega Man ZX Advent

A game by Inti Creates for DS, Switch, PS4, and Xbox One originally released in 2007.

CONTEXT
Mega Man… Where does one even begin? There have been more titles released in the Mega Man series than in any other franchise in Capcom’s history, and that’s saying something, given the company’s penchant for sequels and spinoffs. The series spans dozens of games from multiple genres, with releases on most of the major gaming platforms from the NES onward. To understand where Mega Man ZX Advent begins, it’s important to examine the continuity of the “core” Mega Man series, which is as follows:

Mega Man >> Mega Man X >> Mega Man Zero >> Mega Man ZX

The series started simply enough. In 1987, the Blue Bomber made his debut on the NES with its now-famous atrocious box art. The original game established a number of the gameplay elements that would go on to define the series for decades to come, including multiple stages available at the beginning of the game, which could be completed in any order, and which opened up a final set of linear stages leading to Wily’s fortress. The title also introduced gameplay that allowed players to gain new abilities from fallen bosses, and then turn those abilities against other bosses who were weak against them. The original game had only 6 bosses, and there wasn’t a 1-boss-per-weakness system as there would be in the later entries in the series, but the core gameplay was there.

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 2007, Capcom, DS, Heritage, Inti Creates, PS4, Switch, Xbox One