The whole of video games is on fire right now, and not in a good way. It’s sometimes important to latch onto something good, and then just dig your nails in. I’m choosing to dig my nails into the ability to play once unlocalized games in my boring, native English. Gotta have something to get out of bed for.

I’m always excited to see a formerly Japan-only game finally anglicized. Especially, since it usually leads me to something new and unique. I was very excited to learn of 70s-Style Robot Anime: Geppy-X earlier this year, a remaster of a 1999 PS1 game that flopped hard when it first hit the market. There are few games with as much love behind them as Geppy-X, and even fewer get such an equally love-crammed remaster.

GUTS! GUTS! GEPPY GUTS!

It probably helps if you come packing an appreciation for ‘70s robot anime, because that’s what 70s-Style Robot Anime: Geppy-X styles itself after. I don’t really have much experience with that particular niche, but since I can easily cop some nostalgia by proxy, I don’t feel I really needed the background.

More specifically, Geppy-X is significantly analogous to Getter Robo, right down to a team featuring overly-emotion Judo guy; preening, detached pretty boy; and dude. Plus, they’re backed up by girl. And the robot is a combination of three vehicles and has three different modes related to each pilot. It’s stark, but not overwhelmingly so.

The developer is not shy about the relation to Getter Robo. The director, Akira Yamato, has even said they went to the Getter Robo license holder and asked their permission, making adjustments to fit. But that’s more of a launching point rather than a strict framework. If you know nothing about Getter Robo, which isn’t well represented on this side of the Atlantic, you’re only going to miss the homage, which doesn’t amount to a tonne.

SALAD DRESSING

I’m maybe getting ahead of myself. Geppy-X was unique on PS1 because it came on four discs, but is, like, a four hour game. The space is mainly dominated by cutscenes, music, and voice files. The game is structured like an anime series. There are two parts to each level. They’re introduced with a text crawl, a theme song, and an expository sequence. Between the two level sections, there’s a commercial break for fictitious products. The levels typically conclude with another cutscene and a credits roll. The idea is that you’re living the episodes. It’s not a mere stylistic choice, like it was in No More Heroes 3, the episodic feel is core to Geppy-X’s philosophy.

I don’t want to overstate it, however. The cutscenes are reasonably short and greatly compress each “episode.” It’s told remarkably efficiently, wasting absolutely no time, but being sure to touch the highs and lows, as well as a variety of anime tropes and references.

You might consider it a parody, but it’s a respectful one. While there are absurd commercials for Geppy-X salad dressing, there are also more emotional death scenes. Not too emotional. Tears will most likely not be jerked. But it’s not trying to be funny all the time.

And besides, in retrospect, Getter Robo is practically a parody of itself already. The bad guys are dinosaurs who are mad that they went extinct, so they’re out to destroy humans. Geppy-X is slightly less absurd with an invading space empire.

64-BEAM!

The playable episode facade is convincing enough that it covers for the fact that the game itself is pretty thin. It’s a horizontal shmup where you swap your robot between three modes.

It’s really not that the game itself is bad. It’s relatively average. Unimpressive. Better executed than most games that are just trying to kill time. The levels are very short, and you spend a lot of time fighting a variety of bosses. The different modes all feel distinct, but there’s a possibility that you’ll just find one that seems effective and stick with it. The gameplay is not dynamic enough to require you adapt the the situation. I mostly stuck with Geppy-X2 because I found the lingering explosions of its sub-weapon effective at dealing damage, while the melee attack primary helped protect against projectiles.

If there’s one thing about the gameplay that could use a bit more polish, it’s your ability to turn around. There are rare occasions where you need to pull an about face, and you’ll want to do it sparingly. If you’re charging your weapon, for example, you can’t turn around. You have to fire your shot, wait for it to fully play out, and then you can turn around. It’s a rather gluey limitation, and it makes it difficult to react right away when something gets behind you. It’s occasionally frustrating.

I’LL FORM THE HEAD

I think focusing on gameplay is missing the forest for the trees. Over the years, there’s certainly been a lot of debate about the intrusiveness of non-interactive cutscenes in a video game. I will absolutely complain about the feature film-length expositions in the Metal Gear Solid series. It comes down to intent and appropriateness. With Geppy-X, you know what you’re in for, and you’re here for it. On the other hand, the cutscenes aren’t that long. You aren’t left waiting 90 minutes so every character can get an epilogue before the credits run.

And, as I mentioned, it’s effective in its execution. While the game itself is quite short, there’s a narrative branch early on. It’s nothing extravagant, but it means the back half can play out in different ways, which almost demands replay; recycling the levels and just changing their context. There are also bonus modes that can be unlocked. It’s really quite neat.

GEPPY BEEEEEAAM!

The remaster is exceptionally well done. A lot ado has been made of their complete rescan of all the Betacam footage to clean it up and get the cutscenes running at a better pace. It can be somewhat jarring when it switches back to lo-fi PS1 stills, but it’s not surprising given the historical perspective. Plus, if you want to, you can switch the cutscenes back to their original format, so they look and play like the original.

Otherwise, there’s rewind, saves states, and a terrific array of CRT effects. I feel I should note that the upscaled cutscenes won’t play with the CRT filter on; they switch over to unfiltered visuals and switch back when you return to PS1 mode. However, if you use the original PS1 cutscenes, they can be played with a filter. It makes sense, in a weird way.

The translation is subtitled using an overlay. As far as I can tell, it’s a decent localization. It feels a bit like any fan sub you might download, and I don’t mean that disparagingly. 

THE INVINCIBLE SUPER-MACHINE IS NOW COMPLETE

If it isn’t obvious, it’s crucial that you approach Geppy-X as an experience, rather than just a game. As a shooter, it isn’t impressive, and if you just gather up all the gameplay sequences, it’s very insubstantial. In fact, if you just look at it as an anime, it isn’t all that impressive either. It’s really a “greater than the sum of its parts” sort of situation. It’s all held together by a unified vision and a development team that was willing to go for broke. Which, they did. Go broke, I mean.

In a world with games like Blippo+ and Squad 51 vs The Flying Saucers, it’s possible to imagine that Geppy-X could have succeeded in finding its niche, and maybe it still can. For its time, its focus on providing an experience rather than just a game makes it a rare thing. From an audio and visual standpoint it’s absorbing. Grand, over-the-top songs about Geppy fighting against evil are belted out behind an average shooter that takes a break to tell you not to pour salad dressing in your eyes. It feels appropriate that Geppy-X got a reverent remaster, because it absolutely deserves it.

8/10

This review was conducted using a pre-release Steam copy of the game. It was provided by the publisher’s PR.