70s-style Robot Anime Geppy-X is a well-made package, artfully restoring the old animated footage and providing a ton of quality-of-life features to the 1999 PlayStation game. Its side-scrolling action is delightful, and it has a shocking amount of high-quality animations, but a hefty price tag makes it a tough recommendation to anyone unsure about jumping in.
70s-style Robot Anime Geppy-X follows three pilots who make up Geppy-X, taking inspiration from Kamen Rider and Power Rangers with the three vehicles combining into different mechs. Each episode features voice-acted and animated sequences, making it feel like a Saturday-morning cartoon. The animation is a rescanned version of the original, lovingly rendered in 24 FPS. The default version is upscaled and looks great, but you can also play with the original resolution if you prefer.
The side-scrolling action is relatively simple, with you floating around the screen in your Power Rangers-style mech, blasting incoming enemies. You have three different forms to choose from, each with unique primary, secondary, and special attacks, with a personal favorite of mine relying on a beam weapon. To cut down on button mashing, this version also has an auto-fire control option that uses the controller triggers, making for a far more relaxing experience.
Being able to switch which direction you are facing on the screen also allows for enemies to approach from every angle, providing a dynamic feel to combat that some side-scrolling shoot-em-ups lack in their level design. You also upgrade your different weapons throughout a run, which not only boosts damage but changes the function, like increasing the number of beams in a laser, keeping gameplay relatively fresh with even small changes.
The levels typically conclude with a boss battle against a beast mech, which has a short 3D animation before the battle begins. These are the best parts of 70s-style Robot Anime Geppy-X, with unique mechanics, like one extended section where you have to blow up different sections of a massive ship. It’s not particularly novel, nearly 30 years after the game originally released, but it’s still a smooth, responsive experience that kept me interested in completing more runs.
Between the levels is where some of the more interesting aspects of the game as a historical artifact come into play. Having a full, animated credit sequence along with fake commercials that play between levels makes the whole experience genuinely feel like a classic anime that would have aired on TV. It’s a ton of fun, and none of the cutscenes overstay their welcome, making for a delightful throwback experience.
You have save states and rewinds to make reaching the end a far easier task than the arcade-style runs of the original would have allowed, although it’s not a particularly tough experience. There is also an in-game save state as well, giving you multiple ways to preserve progress, so you don’t become frustrated with the arcade format with limited lives.
The game does feature a ton of optional remaster features, like multiple CRT filters to choose from. I didn’t find any of them interesting enough to use for a few minutes — I think the game looks great without one on — but those options are there for anyone hoping to emulate a pure experience. There are also multiple unlockable extra modes like a boss rush, which gives new ways to enjoy the experience once you make it through the relatively short base game.
Fair
The Final Word
All of this is fascinating to me as someone who didn’t play a ton of PlayStation 1 games, and the history here is rich. The weird fake commercials are fun to see, but the overall experience isn’t one that I left feeling overwhelmed by. If you have an interest in gaming or anime history, 70s-style Robot Anime Geppy-X is a fascinating experience, but as a video game, it’s just solid. The launch price of $40 makes it tough to recommend, though, as it doesn’t quite have the depth you would want at that price.
