MegaByte Punch | Switch Review

Wake up. You have been created to protect your village from the empire. The tyrannical leader of this empire, the Valk Emperor, seeks to destroy your precious home. You are a Megac, a mechanical robot that can interchange body parts which helps you throughout your mission. That mission includes battling small robots that are nothing but a nuisance to you, as well as Megac that are the same size as you. Fighting multiples at times in an arena that is somewhat similar to Super Smash Bros. However, with Megabyte Punch, the biggest and best differences is the freeform abilities and no button mashing.

The Heartcore

Your village is sustained on what you know as your creator, who goes by the name “The Heartcore”. It brings you into existence to aid the village where it resides. Two external forces are fighting to harness the power of it, and your mission is to protect.

A gift from The Heartcore gives you the ability to swap out parts to help you become stronger, faster, and even more powerful. There are about 150 interchangeable parts, ranging from your head to your mechanical feet. There’s even a chance to find color capsules, which let you customize your color combination to your heart’s content. My combination ranged tremendously, but my two favorite parts were the machine gun arm and the torso part that allowed you to jump more than twice. This became extremely useful in the boss battles.

Levels & Stages

So just like any other possible game that you play, you start at level 1. Each level has an intricate maze with a plethora of soulless Megac seeking to stop you from progressing. Yet, their plot to foil your mission is destroyed, along with them. When this happens, they leave behind parts or little crystals that, if you collect enough of them, grant you another life. However, if you collect more than three lives, they won’t transfer to the next stage. This left a sour taste in my mouth.

There are six levels, getting tougher as you go through them, with a boss battle at the end of each. Although, if you are down to only one life and start a boss battle, you get bumped back up to three. This makes things easier.

Each level also has three stages in it. If you lose all of your lives at stage 3, you have to start all over again. If you die in the boss battle, you get transported back to your house. When this happens, you’re transported back to your house, so you can go right to the boss battle without going through the stages again. This is a relieving issue that I thankfully found out after level 1’s boss battle.

Tactics

I previously mentioned that the biggest and best differences from Super Smash Bros. was the freeform gameplay and not needing to button mash to win a fight. In Megabyte Punch, your enemy’s move determines what you should do next. That sounds pretty original I know, but with this game everything must be dealt with on the fly.

The trickiest part of that though, is the controls. I feel as if they are a bit clumped together. When you interchange parts with ones with abilities, it makes you put that ability “trigger” in a specific spot. In order to trigger that ability, you must press the joystick up, down, or side to side, then press the designated “B” button to actually work it. This is all done while jumping with the “X” button and striking down enemies with the “A” button, leaving you no chance to fix a mistake while falling.

Final Thoughts

Look, if you are into Super Smash Bros. or Brawlhalla because of the gameplay, battling against friends, and the constant stat increases, then Megabyte Punch is something to consider. You can interchange parts that will make you better in the battlefield. You can fight in tournaments to get better than those pesky friends of yours. Although, I tried playing online with people and I found out that you can’t play co-op with a Switch Lite. Not sure if that’s what Team Reptile did purposely, but I was kind of hoping to play against other good Megacs. Anyway, Megabyte Punch is an overly good game that makes me want to play more often to enhance my skills.

To hear me talk more about MegaByte Punch, be sure to check out Episode 295 of The Gaming Outsider Podcast, which should publish next week.

This review is based on a Switch copy of MegaByte Punch provided by SuperIndie Games for coverage purposes. It is also available on Linux, Microsoft Windows, and macOS.