Some of the best games on the Xbox One reside in the ID @ Xbox category, an area of the store which is often disregarded due to the size and stature of some of the bigger titles on the market. However, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t any good, here at AbsoluteGaming, we love them for they often provide great entertainment and memorable experience at such an affordable price. Today I get to review Mega Coin Squad, another addition to the ID @ Xbox family.
This vibrantly coloured 2D platformer makes great use of a simple concept which has been championed in the past by games way back over 15 years span. Mega Coin squad from Big Pixel studios aims to sum together some of the most well used and most valued ideas of the recent times, add in some cracking animation and you get a game which offers much more than the words 2D platformer.
Of course this is a tried and tested genre which is re-released a lot over time, which gave me a feeling of trepidation coming into playing Mega Coin Squad. Was this going to be another platformer that fell into line with the others? Thankfully I found many positives from Mega Coin Squad; there is a lot to love about this game and a variety of ways to go about the levels without losing the simple qualities.
One of the main ways in which Mega Coin Squad will appeal to you is the good use of the combat system, in the past we have seen just a simple jumping on enemies as the only way to get around them. Now we have a variety of weapons available to the player such as assault rifles and rocket launchers, each individual character, of which there are 5, have their own ability as well. Mega Coin Squad makes great use of this, and it adds depth to the game, I was surprised how well it worked and added into the experience.
The depth of opponents on Mega Coin Squad also made a concept such as a platformer a lot more interesting, I’ve found in the past that they bore me quickly, but Mega Coin squad as a high speed, high octane feel to it. This is mainly down to the timer in which you have to collect all coin and return them to the piggy bank in time, the added challenge of getting 600 coins in one go had me coming back for more as I struggled to achieve this. But for players who wish to simply progress the game allows you to do that, so there is some replay ability in this too.
Alongside the depth of opponents you also have 5 different main characters to use, all with their own narrative at the beginning, as there is no story this acts a simple but hilarious intro. Each character brings a fresh take with higher stats such Speed, Power, Acceleration and Weight, and each brings something new to the table with a different ability in combat. You can also level up each individual character as well giving yet more replay ability.
Single Player reigns king for me in Mega Coin Squad, I love it, I love the challenge of trying to beat the levels as quickly as possible. But that doesn’t mean the multiplayer is no fun either. Up to 4 players can tackle each other in local multiplayer making this extremely fun and even higher octane than the single player. Bringing a few laughs to the table along the way, you can have a simple quick match or the tournament mode which gives you a first to “3 or more” option.
Although you can rattle through the levels very quickly on Mega Coin Squad depth is there, but this isn’t a game which is going to last a long time, I found myself very deep into the game without hardly playing 2 hours of the thing, but this was just progressing without aiming for 100% in the game. That being said though, this is probably the only thing that will stop you from buying it once you have trailed it, Mega Coin Squad offers great action and great laughs.
Alongside this, it’s important to talk about the way the game plays for me, in the past we have seen games such as these give characters just for the sake of it, without actually offering any diversification to the game, but not in Mega Coin Squad, everything it promises on, it delivers and I am truly impressed how much fun I had with this simple colourful platformer.
It’s short, sweet and to the point gameplay will have you coming back for more, and although it is a little too short to really keep your interests peeked for a long period of time it could be that game in your library you just keep revisiting to play again with a different style or a different mode. It’s almost a different experience every time you pick up the pad to have a dabble. For me it’s now easily in my top 10 of ID @ Xbox Games and may just sneak into my Top 5. Considering the amount of ID@Xbox games I’ve played (Too many) that’s a good accolade.
For more on ID @ Xbox Games, and Mega Coin Squad keep it here on AbsoluteGaming.
Many Thanks to XCN and Microsoft for allowing me to review Mega Coin Squad, developed by Big Pixel Studios.