E3 2015: Rive Packs Serious Heat, Metroidvania-style

<p><span style&equals;"line-height&colon; 1&period;5&semi;">Somewhere among the stars&comma; there&&num;8217&semi;s just gotta be a story that goes something like <em>Rive<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s does&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a simple story – all about a man&comma; his ship&comma; and his dreams of space booty&period; Of course&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s really about the explosions&period; At its core&comma; the &&num;8220&semi;metal wrecking&comma; robot hacking shooter&&num;8221&semi; of <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;twotribes&period;com">Two Tribes<&sol;a>&&num;8216&semi;s creation <&sol;span><span style&equals;"line-height&colon; 1&period;5&semi;">holds no delusions about what it is&period; <em>Rive<&sol;em> flashes its license to thrill like a badge of honor so much that you can&&num;8217&semi;t help but love it a little more&period; Armed to the teeth and always begging for more&comma; <em>Rive<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s the gun-toting Metroidvania you&&num;8217&semi;ve probably wanted and maybe then some&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;04215441&sol;Rive-Wii-U-Demo-Asteroid-Field-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-85520 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;04215441&sol;Rive-Wii-U-Demo-Asteroid-Field-BagoGames&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Rive Wii U Demo Asteroid Field BagoGames" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"465" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There&&num;8217&semi;s definitely nothing dry or ponderous about <em>Rive<&sol;em>&comma; a game that finds no shame in ditching semantics and exclaiming &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Ahh&comma; whatever&comma; let’s exterminate asteroids and collect space loot&excl;&&num;8221&semi; You begin the game as Roughshot&comma; the intrepid captain of a little bowling ball of a ship equipped with a teeny tiny cannon capable of laying more waste than you&&num;8217&semi;d expect&period; As stated&comma; your mission starts you off being pelted by a ton of space rock before winding up exploring the halls of a derelict spaceship&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If there&&num;8217&semi;s an undeniable amount of <em>Metroid <&sol;em>in<em> Rive<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s 2&period;5D doings&comma; then it certainly uses its tongue-in-cheek inspiration to the fullest&period; In a ironic answer to the &&num;8220&semi;Y can&&num;8217&semi;t Metroid crawl&quest;&&num;8221&semi; meme&comma; Roughshot&&num;8217&semi;s ship is basically like piloting a flick-firing&comma; Samus Aran ball with legs&period; The 360 degree angle you&&num;8217&semi;re given for it lends a flexibility to the gameplay and crawling through air vents and jumping chasms like a rotund spider gives a quirky sensibility to the size and scale of increasingly larger enemies&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Rive<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s control scheme&&num;8217&semi;s pretty competent on the Wii U gamepad – you aim your target laser with the left stick&comma; control the camera with the right stick&comma; jump with the left trigger&comma; and fire with A&sol;X&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s fast&comma; fluid&comma; and carries the at times frantic action of the game dodging security drones&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;04215453&sol;Rive-Wii-U-Demo-Boss-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-85519 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;04215453&sol;Rive-Wii-U-Demo-Boss-BagoGames&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Rive Wii U Demo Boss BagoGames" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"465" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The game&&num;8217&semi;s main device besides bullets&comma; hacking&comma; lends a certain versatility to your otherwise tiny skill set&period; Security panels lay strewn across the ship granting access to new levels waiting for you to &&num;8220&semi;hack&&num;8221&semi; them by going into a scanning mode in which your ship can tether itself to them and open a new hatch&period; It all seems like a simple necessity to switch-up the gameplay from an action-platformer to an action-platformer with a switch-hitting mechanic&comma; but it could be interesting in concept if taken further&period; All the while&comma; it does provide a healthy distraction while mowing down enemies&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>At ten to fifteen minutes&comma; my time with <em>Rive<&sol;em> felt well-spent nonetheless&period; The many subsections of the ship took me through a variety of environments early on&period; From underwater pipeage to occupied train tracks&comma; the game makers clearly wanted <em>Rive&&num;8217&semi;<&sol;em>s levels to feel as well-rounded as possible&period; Enemy encounters were boisterous affairs of off-the-wall action and victory meant a fireworks show of wreckage as much as defeat&period; The final &&num;8220&semi;boss&&num;8221&semi; is almost daunting with its full robotic entourage present and the manic streak of onscreen lasers is a blast&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If its end-credits are to be believed&comma; I look forward to seeing what other exclamations fly out of our dear Captain Roughshot&&num;8217&semi;s mouth as much as I do the rest of <em>Rive<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s metal menaces&period; A fun-fueled shoot &&num;8217&semi;em up in a 2&period;5 wrapper&comma; <em>Two Tribes<&sol;em> could have a darling of a Metroid cousin on their hands with the right implementation&period; I dare say that I&&num;8217&semi;ve yet to get my fill out of<em> Rive<&sol;em> and what I sure wanna know just who&&num;8217&semi;s trying to kill my new favorite starship captain&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p><em>Rive<&sol;em> is available for digital download on Mac and Linux and will be coming to Wii U&comma; Playstation 4&comma; Xbox One&comma; and PC&period; Be sure to check out more of our coverage of <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;tag&sol;nindie&sol;">all things Nindie<&sol;a> and E3 happenings right here at <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com">BagoGames<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;