PLATFORM: PC, PS4/5, SWITCH (REVIEWED), XBOX ONE/SERIES | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
Following the events of the first Luminous Avenger iX, the world is now at peace and series protagonist Copen takes a break from fighting and immerses himself into researching a strange piece of robotic tech that has come into his possession. Suddenly, a wormhole opens and transports him, along with his pal Kohaku and sentient robot Lola, to an unknown world. Discovering the only way home is at the top of a giant tower, Copen sets off to fight his way through the massive structure one floor at a time, evading hazards and obstacles while smashing his way through all manner of robotic enemies…
Coming from the team who created the Mega Man Zero games back in the early 2000s, a lot of that series’ DNA has been consistently visible throughout the Gunvolt series (from which LaiX is a spinoff). Short but challenging levels, stylish and colourful locations and a host of bosses whose powers you eventually get to use against later opponents. LAiX2 follows much the same formula, although the inclusion of a new ability to restore your health at any time (and as often as you want) does take a lot of the challenge away. Eight of the twelve levels can be finished in around ten minutes each (the final four are variations on familiar “boss rush” levels featuring rematches against multiple enemies), so it’s not the longest game, but there’s a lot of additional mileage in replaying levels to perfect your skills, discover the best routes, find all the hidden tokens and chase the elusive top rankings.
Another hallmark of Inti Creates’ titles is their tendency to expand and / or refine each game’s unique mechanics as the series progresses, making each one of their games at least slightly different to all the others. LAiX2 gives Copen a melee attack and reduces his previous ability to perform multiple “bullit dashes”, restricting him to a single dash which is replenished when he lands on the ground. The dash mechanic is still the most fun way of dispatching opponents, zooming towards them to lock on to your target before unleashing a barrage of projectiles at them never gets old. Reaching 1000 “kudos” points makes Copen enter “overdrive” mode where his power is increased and dashes are unlimited, but hitting a checkpoint or restoring your health resets your score back to zero so there’s a nice element of risk and reward for those who want to challenge themselves. There’s a lot going on and it’s very much worth reading through the in game manual, but even then it might still take three or four levels to figure out exactly how to get the most out of Copen’s abilities. Take the time to master the various techniques and give the game chance to bring all of its ideas into play, and LAiX2 becomes a really satisfying – if a little too brief – action platformer that certainly serves its intended purpose of giving fans something to tide them over until Gunvolt 3 arrives later this year.
