Swing batta-batta.
Within seconds, Bat Boy’s inspirations hit like a home run. The 8-bit aesthetic of Mega Man with a bit of Shovel Knight thrown in for good measure certainly paints this game as what it is. While Bat Boy can often strike out with a few issues and some frustrating performance woes, it is nonetheless a fun action-packed take on a proven formula.
Bat Boy places you as high-schooler, Ryosuke. Alongside several of his friends, all decked out in various sports garb, they patrol the city and protect it from evil. One day; however, they are visited by an interdimensional villain, Lord Vicious. It is during this encounter that all of Ryosuke’s friends are brainwashed into taking on the roles of the game’s central villains, an act that Ryosuke is able to deflect using his bat, setting him up as our protagonist.
Bat Boy will then progress through a Mario 3-inspired overworld as levels are unlocked two by two, with shops, and bonus stages aplenty. As you defeat each pair of levels, the overworld fog will retreat to the right, revealing more of the map and places to go. You’ll also have a central hub where your rescued pals will show up as well as take on a few side missions and listen to the game’s soundtrack, provided you track down the hidden cassettes placed through each of the game’s 10+ levels.
Each of Ryosuke’s friends is centered around a different sport, often played out through each of the game’s stages. From football to soccer, to ribbon twirling and tennis, you’ll fight through fairly brief levels that eventually start to really require a deeper level of skill as you push through gauntlet after gauntlet of environments that require pixel-perfect timing and focus. Bat Boy often excels in delivering a true Mega Man-like experience, even if I have a few issues with its execution.
Bat Boy’s presentation is top-notch for the era it is trying to adapt, hell, the game itself is less than 200mb, if that is any indication on how 8-bit the game is swinging for. Its music is very appropriate for the tone and action, all syncing perfectly to create a damn fun game that can be pretty challenging and skill reliant, requiring a strong focus to follow patterns and use each of your new abilities to dash, wall-jump, slam, and even use a ribbon as something akin to a hook shot or grappling-hook.
While a few powers never really felt useful or worthwhile to really pull off, especially when you earn them so late in the game, the main issues I have with Bat Boy stem from two issues. Bat Boy has some inconsistent level design that goes from brutally hard to far too easy. While some levels can have a nice happy medium, some locations just have far too long of a gauntlet between checkpoints to really feel fair. Combine that with the game crashing fairly frequently for me, and it made me absolutely hate a few levels and caused me to turn the game off until I cooled off and returned to it.
One such location stalled my progress for hours. While most levels are side-scrolling, sometimes freely or through a panning camera, this level was scrolling upwards. The way the level is designed with the powers I had available, I had to make certain jumps at certain times and bounce off enemies to reach platforms above me, often either using my spinning bat to propel me upwards or the ribbon to latch onto the edge of a platform and lead me up and over it. However, no matter how I did this, it would trap me behind an art asset and I would get stuck as the level continued to scroll up. This was fairly far into the level, meaning every time it did this, I had to start the whole level over again.
Now, this wasn’t an early level mind you, this was at the end of the game, a level stuffed with so many gauntlets that required every skill the game taught me. Having to redo this level almost nine times before it decided to not screw me over took all the wind out of the sails for me. I still think that Bat Boy is a damn impressive homage to a fantastic series, but holy hell man, that glitch nearly broke me.
While a lesser nitpick, I certainly took issue with your bird companion, Garou. He is sort of your guide in some ways, assisting with tutorials and lore. While a few chat boxes covered Bat Boy entirely for some reason, his nature to cling to you often resulted in me getting lost in the action and assuming he was something to dodge. Given you need to time dashes and jumps and attacks to swat or avoid various projectiles, his inclusion here often made me think something was about to strike me at all times.
To aid in combating some of the challenge the game presents, Bat Boy can collect colored items throughout each level. Red is used to increase your health and green is used to boost your stamina, allowing for additional uses of your newly gained powers. And, by going back into previous levels, you can use your powers to reach places that were maybe a bit tricky to reach before or required the use of those powers. Going back to track down these helpful items became an absolute necessity.
Going into some of the later levels with boosted health and the ability to pull off those new tricks more frequently results in providing some better balance to the game’s combat and exploration. However, it is possible to defeat enemies that are supposed to be used for platforming and lack the stamina to continue, forcing you to backtrack to the checkpoint and start again. This can happen frequently if you don’t manage your options and stamina nodes properly.
Bat Boy, on his own, has a decent moveset to keep you going as he can ricochet attacks back to enemies with a well-timed swing. You can deflect the attack upwards, straight ahead, or downward, depending on if you are attempting to bounce that shot to a nearby switch or at an enemy. You’ll eventually learn an attack that allows you to throw your bat and have it spin in place, which is used for rotating locks or used as a means to double jump. This attack, as well as the Shovel Knight bounce attack, are your best attack options and often lead to the defeat of each and every boss.
In fact, some bosses can be defeated by simply staying on one side of the screen and bouncing on them until they die. Granted, it’s not every boss, but many fell by this simple strategy. Every time I tried to fight them on their terms, I would die over and over again. Staying in one spot and bouncing on them? Well, I first tried many bosses with this technique. Now, that said, some of the bosses are a riot, especially one that is so clearly inspired by one of the Koopa Kids. Honestly, it’s likely my favorite of the boss encounters, that and the second battle with one of Lord Vicious’ goons.
You’ll eventually gain dashes, slams, and the ability to shoot out several tennis balls, but it was rare that I ever really used them. Yeah, there would be blocks to rush through or to slam downward to, but these were rarely effective in how the game stages its foes or exploration. I do have to say that the ribbon ability and the bubble shield really saved my bacon more times than I could count, so make sure to rely on those for sure, they are lifesavers.
Bat Boy does a remarkable job pulling off the Mega Man gameplay in ways I think many people have been wanting for years. While most of the powers you gain through fighting bosses are extremely helpful in your moment-to-moment gameplay, some feel wasteful and irrelevant, almost as if they ran out of good ideas early on and still had a few levels to attach a boss to. Regardless, Bat Boy is fun, action-packed, and requires a decent level of skill to really pull off. It may not be a home run, but it’s certainly not a swing and a miss.
Developer - X PLUS Co. Ltd, Sonzai Games. Publisher - X PLUS Co. Ltd. Released - May 25th, 2023. Available On - Xbox One, Series X/S, PS4/PS5, Nintendo Switch, PC. Rated - (E) Mild Fantasy Violence. Platform Reviewed - PC - Steam. Review Access - A review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
Jeff is the original founder of Analog Stick Gaming. His favorite games include The Witcher III, the Mass Effect Trilogy, Hi-Fi Rush, Stellar Blade, Hellbade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and the Legend of Heroes series, especially Trails of Cold Steel III & IV.