‘Mechabop’ is a rhythm shooter blend of ‘Hades’ and ‘Jet Set Radio’

12 September, 2023

Team TriGear’s Mechabop is a colourful and cartoony roguelike rhythm shooter, that is inspired by Hades and Jet Set Radio.

Visually, it is very similar to the latter title, as well as Bomb Rush Cyberpunk, Hi-Fi Rush and Neon White. This low-poly art direction lends itself to the bright comic book style city that Mechabop introduces to players.

The robotic enemies are also reactive to Rain, the name of the playable protagonist. Flipside, a tanky type of brawler, flips its goofy grin over to a cold grimace when under fire.

Alternatively, M.O.R.T. trots across the levels until threatened, to which it responds by turning into a turret that fires missiles. Fortunately, the player is able to throw up a peace sign at the precise moment to freeze enemies in place for an extra chance at an attack.

Parkour is another major aspect of Mechabop with launch pads and dashes that let the player outmanoeuvre their enemies and cross chunks of the level with haste.

Rain is not alone though and will be accompanied by Zeri, a cassette tape character wearing a beanie who is comparable to Navi from The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time. 

The Zelda influences are clear in Pokari too, a “mobile vending machine bot that sells unique wares” like special cassettes that are the ammunition in Rain’s boom box revolver. Pokari looks a lot like the Postman who was first seen in Majora’s Mask.

At the moment, it’s not known what platforms the game is targeting nor when it would likely be released. However, the team’s previous game, Contract Killer, came to PC in May 2022.

In other gaming news, a replica of World Of Warcraft‘s Frostmourne was found in a police raid in Manitoba, Canada, alongside nine firearms and over 130 grams of what was presumed to be crack cocaine.

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