Kokuga Review

[Zera]

Greetings folks. This is my review of Kokuga, a $15 3DS eShop title developed by G. Rev and directed by Hiroshi Iuchi (the director of Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEQ9o3uUANM

Kokuga is a shooting action game where you pilot a tank. Unlike the nimble ships of most shoot-em-ups, your tank moves... a bit slowly. You fire bullets... a bit slowly. And you use the L and R buttons to rotate your turret... a bit slowly. It's clear that Kokuga has a more deliberate pace than most shooters - perhaps the intention was to have a more tactical game, like "Geometry Wars, but in slow motion".

But that's not how it plays. Instead of being shoved into an arena with waves of enemies, you'll traverse fairly linear stages, destroying one platoon of enemies at a time until you reach the end. After each platoon is a large, impassable Gatekeeper. Destroying it will destroy the remaining platoon, but if you destroy it last, you'll earn a score bonus and regain 1/3 of your shield energy - very handy.

Unfortunately, the game's structure supports a tedious playstyle. Enemies can fire a variety of weapons - bullets, bombs, lasers, rockets, and homing shots. Many attacks are difficult, if not impossible, to avoid at close range. Because of this and your tank's slowness, playing aggressively will often get you killed. Without time limits, what you should do is sit back, relax, and take pot shots at enemies from the safety of Far Away. With enough distance enemy attacks won't reach you, or they might not even bother attacking.

I heard from other reviews that Kokuga has a "hardcore" difficulty, but that's only true to the extent that you aren't patient. And I would know, because I cleared every stage on "Ultimate" difficulty without much trouble. Most of the real challenge comes from the bosses at the end of each stage. They're unique, creative, and don't give you room to run away, so they're definitely a highlight of the game.

In each stage, you're given 20 power-up cards, including rapid fire, lasers, invincibility, shield restoration, etc. Only four cards are available at a time on the touch screen, and their order is always random. These cards can make Kokuga much more exciting - but because you'll want to save them for the boss, you may find yourself reverting to the "slowly pick off enemies from afar" strategy.

The cards also have score multipliers on them, encouraging a more aggressive approach, but playing for score alone is pointless. Not only are there are no leaderboards, but the order of cards, and therefore the multipliers, and therefore your maximum score, are random. This kind of destroys the whole point of a scoring system, which is being "an absolute numerical measure of the player's awesomeness".

Aside from the bosses, the strongest feature of Kokuga is the multiplayer. Through download play up to four people can pilot different-colored tanks and work together to clear the stages. However, only the player with the most score will earn a Medal of Honor, so again, an aggressive approach could get you ahead if you don't get killed.

So, do I recommend Kokuga? YES... is what I would like to say, if the core gameplay were better. The power-ups, bosses, and multiplayer are fun, but with a "move freely and destroy groups of enemies" structure that is unfitting for Kokuga's low speed and firepower, it ultimately feels like a poor man's Bangai-O Spirits.

6/10 (Inferior!)

Edited July 30, 2017 by Zera

[BrightBow]

I could never beat this game. I always find myself unable to get anywhere without playing super careful, so the game just ends up boring me quickly. And even if I could survive playing more aggressively, I can't imagine that it would really change anything. Dodging projectiles is one thing but your turret is just way to slow for that kind of approach.

It doesn't help that the game doesn't seem to save your progress as far as I can tell. Unless of course the game actually keeps track of which of the final stages you beat even after a reset but... if that's the case I don't get why the game starts out with allowing you to freely choose any stage but then once you beat that stage you are suddenly restricted to the adjutant stages. That doesn't make any sense unless the game expects you to beat all the three final stages in one go. And I really don't have the patience for that.

Edited July 30, 2017 by BrightBow

[Zera]

The game records your scores and medals for each stage and difficulty... and nothing else. The stage select is pointless, since you can select any stage by going to the title screen and back.