Medabots Survivors Review

I skipped Vampire Survivors when it came out. It just didn't look enjoyable to me. While I'm into Castlevania, and that whole gothic fantasy style, something about Vampire Survivors' low-poly, messy aesthetic just didn't grab me. To my untrained eye, it just looked like incessant, nonsensical explosions of pixels. I wrote Vampire Survivors and the emerging "Survivors-like" genre off. At least I did, until the unexpected happened.

 

One of my all time favorite franchises is Medabots, a Japanese Pokemon-esque series about kids battling with heavily customizable robotic companions. Unfortunately, the series has been absent from the West since the 2003 release of Medabots Infinity on GameCube. The series kept going in Japan, receiving plenty of new mobile and handheld titles over the years, and those of us who are Western fans of Medabots had to watch on the sidelines in complete envy. In the last couple of years, we started hearing some rumors that they wanted to reintroduce Medabots to a global audience (we reported on that here), and they had already selected the game through which they wanted to go about this mission. Medabots Survivors released last year in Japan, and as the name suggests, it is a "Survivors-like," and based on the incredibly popular gameplay mechanics laid out in Vampire Survivors. Just a few months ago, they finally confirmed that Medabots Survivors would in fact be seeing a global release. Well, that time is now, and I'm pleased to inform you that after twenty-three years, I'm playing a new Medabots game, and I'm fully addicted to it.

Zhuk is the Medabot featured on the left side of this image. Monjiro is featured on the right.

On one hand, I'm kicking myself for not treating myself sooner to the incredibly engrossing gameplay of Vampire Survivors. But, on the other hand, I feel like the treat is all the sweeter to be able to just fully lose myself in a new Medabots game after all these years, and with this satisfying, compelling gameplay loop as the cherry on top. It's really neat too, because the series has introduced so many new, amazing Medabots and characters over the last two decades, and I'm seeing most of these for the first time. It's almost as if someone had tapped out of Pokemon after Generation III and then jumped into a brand new Pokemon game now. My old favorites like Metabee, Rokusho and Sumilodon are still here, and they've included a ton of genuinely amazing looking newer Medabots like the Greek statue-inspired Heliossus, or the "Hercules beetle meets medieval knight" design of Zhuk. I spent a long while just scrolling through the massive list of available Medabots and fangirling over some their incredible designs.

 

I do have to say, while this shouldn't be a surprise, this game does heavily feature gacha mechanics as for how you go about obtaining Medabots. I know that's a huge, understandable turnoff for lots of people, but it doesn't really bother me. You're having to constantly accrue the various currencies, like diamonds and event tickets to hit the gacha machine and see what Medabots you can find. As with many gacha titles, Medabots Survivors is laden with absurdly expensive microtransactions and month long passes, as well. I have not felt like I needed to spend any money on the game thus far, though I do plan to support it in some ways, just to send the message to Imagineer that we want more Medabots.

 

Medabots Survivors' gameplay has me in a vice grip right now, which tracks with everything I've heard from people who are addicted to Vampire Survivors. This game just hammers you with dopamine blasts over and over, and I'm finding myself wishing I could just inject it straight into my veins. For those of you who might be unfamiliar with the Vampire Survivors gameplay style, it's viewed as an inverse of the "bullet hell" genre, and is otherwise referred to as a "bullet heaven." A bullet hell game has you dodging enemy projectiles, where a bullet heaven has your character generating the bullets, often in massive waves of projectiles. Thousands and thousands of enemies try to swarm you, and you have to carefully navigate the horde and carve your path through it, all the while collecting myriad upgrades to increase your survivability and lethality.

 

Before a match starts, you select which Medabot that you want to play as, and build a team of backup units to support and fortify your stats and abilities. Each Medabot plays slightly differently from each other, and then additionally serves an alternate function when utilized as a support team member, rather than a leader. For instance, if you're playing as Peppercat, an iconic Medabot from the older games and anime, it has a slashing move that temporarily stuns an enemy, which is critically important, as it allows you to make some space between you and that stunned enemy. When you instead utilize Peppercat as a support Medabot, it boosts your health, grants a small movement speed boon and increases the damage of specific attack types. There are dozens of distinct Medabots in the game that you can experiment with, both as playable leader units and as support units. Trying each of them out and discovering their strengths and weaknesses is key to building a competent team.

 

In a match, your chosen Medabot has a specific playstyle, with unique attacks, speed, etc. As you begin killing enemies and collecting experience gems, you'll start leveling up, which is really the meat and potatoes of Medabots Survivors' gameplay, and the wider "Survivors-like" genre as a whole. Each level up grants you three different, totally random power-ups that you can select from. You can potentially botch an entire round if the RNG gives you poor choices in a level up, especially in the early game, where your survivability is relatively low. You can grab upgrades to your health, attack speed, movement speed, range, etc.

 

You can also acquire attacks from other Medabots in these upgrades. As an example, there's a bird-like Medabot called Hell Phoenix, whose signature move is a burst of multi-directional small fire blasts. You can find his ability as an upgrade and give yourself that same attack. Here's the real kicker -- each and every ability that you pick up, can be upgraded several times within a match. So if you pick up Hell Phoenix's ability, and then upgrade it, you'll find that it's more lethal. Then with further upgrades, it might shoot more often, or it'll shoot more fire blasts at a time. If you manage to upgrade it all the way, it becomes this incredibly effective ring of fire attack that surrounds you and melts anything that tries to get too close. While the RNG can be frustrating, I've actually found it to be really fun to try out all the different Medabots and abilities, and see what works for me. The game has a serious difficulty curve too, that will have you regularly experimenting with different combinations to hopefully find success.

 

There are also various permanent upgrades that you can obtain outside of combat. There's a "Research" tab on the home screen, where you can pay in-game gold coins to boost your team's health, power and defense. There's also a collection of pixel art trading cards (which I believe are based on the old Medabots Game Boy Color card game) that you can get from the gacha pulls, and those cards give your team passive bonuses. The cards are also upgradable. I haven't reached this point in the game yet, but I've heard you can also unlock Medafighters, like Ikki or Hikaru, to even further augment your team's abilities and proficiencies. I'm really genuinely impressed with the amount of customization available. Medabots Survivors has a shocking level of depth to it, especially for a game that looks so simple on its surface.

 

Medabots Survivors is a genuine delight. As a long time fan of the franchise, and a new fan of the bullet heaven genre, I'm having an absolute blast with this title and foresee myself playing it for many, many more hours to come. While the microtransactions are pricey and egregious, they're nothing new for games in the mobile side of the industry, and they haven't impacted my gameplay so far. If you're a Medabots fan, you owe it to yourself to check out this title, and show them some support. Let them know they still have plenty of Medabots fans in the West and we're hungry for more.

 

 VERDICT: Recommended
Reviewed on Mobile