Rival Megagun (Steam)

Rival Megagun is a rather unique title in that it fuses two game types that really shouldn’t go together. Does it payoff? Dodge bullets and find out!. 

Rival Megagun is developed by Spacewave Software, the game originally released on Steam in 2018 with consoles following, this review has come to be due to the game receiving a huge update.

Rival Megagun fuses the world of Shmup/STG with the world of competitve Tetris/Puyo, now I don’t mean you’re fighting Tetromino and blobs, I mean you and your opponent are side by side, shooting foes and building chains which then spawn more enemies on each others screens. 

If you have ever played multiplayer Tetris such as Tetris 99 you’ll know exactly what to expect. If on the other hand you’re just an old hand exclusive STG head then just know this title will test and entertain you while scratching that bullet dodging itch!. 

You’ll pick one of the 6 playable characters and jet off into space, dodging bullets, shooting enemies and causing headaches for your rivals, be it on the Single player arcade mode or the multiplayer which is couch or online.

The single player doesn’t have nor needs an epic story, your character wants to save earth by defeating aliens in a somewhat tournament. You’ll play matches against the A.I until the final stage which plays out much more like a traditional STG, final boss included.

Battles play out with 2 life sets, get hit twice and you’re done. You’ll both start off with identical enemy patterns, as you destroy enemies you build up a chain. Doing this allows you to not only send attacks to your foe (vary character to character) but also spawn more enemies on their field. Fill your meter and you can activate Megagun, this turns you into a boss enemy on your rivals field, while not a guaranteed victory you’ll make the pressure rise ten fold.

As you can imagine this is insanely fun for fans of STG games as it makes every match playout differently and offers a unique challenge everytime you pick up the game. 

The game offers an arcade mode, versus and online battles. An arcade run takes around 20 minutes and is great for learning the ropes and getting a handle on your characters abilities. 

Versus mode allows for Player vs CPU, Player vs Player or CPU vs CPU for some viewing shenanigans. Online Battle has Find a battle and Battle with friends, while waiting for an opponent you can fight the CPU which is a fantastic feature. 

For the new update all the characters have been rebalanced, the online is more stable and robust and it has given the title a nice new coat of paint. I haven’t played prior to the update so cannot vouch for how much it’s changed since launch.

Rival Megagun is a fantastic idea, excecuted well in multiplayer while slightly lacking in terms of solo content. As it’s strictly a competitive affair you won’t be HiScore hunting on this one and as such your single player time is limited. 

Much like fighting games lately there is much more of a pull to play it online with other people and that is where this title shines. The chance to practice while matchmaking is fantastic and helps keep you in the zone between matches. 

Rival Megagun is available physically through First Press Games and can be found here https://firstpressgames.com/collections/rival-megagun