Metamorphic Force - Arcade

"Send in the Furries..."

Take the idea of Captain Planet and have it saved by a bunch of furries and you've got Metamorphic Force in a nutshell. The idea is that nature is annoyed, someone turned up to rule the planet and what we have as our saviour group is a bunch of people that fight and can turn into various creatures as a powerup for stronger attacks and fighting styles. A little like Bloody Roar in some respects except it's a scrolling brawl em up rather than a one-on-one fighting game.

Thankfully nobody has the power of "Heart"

Metamorphic Force runs on the idea of hammering every enemy repeatedly but interestingly it also allows you to attack enemies that are down for the count. It also runs on the health idea being a number rather than a life bar, allowing for players to pop in more credits to boost their health so they don't die, but you still get the option anyway if you die as it is (more cash for the makers after all).

And the fur flies...

The game is fast however, your movement, combat, attacks and so on are done with very quick reactions from the game itself and the levels are decently short enough to be enjoyable rather than having them drag on for too long. Especially once you're transformed into your beast form, you'll find yourself mowing through the enemies with scant abandon.

Bosses attack the player too with psychadelic strobing.

Having said that for Metamorphic Force, it looks... Actually it's hard to state how it looks. It looks like it should belong on a Saturday morning kids show akin to some mutated post-adolescent tortoise saviours (or something like that), while the actual art style gives rise to almost everyone either looking like they're made of plastic like they're already action-figures or everyone is a muscle bound greased up hunk. Which looks ok on some characters, on others it is down-right weird.

Ice boss... Ice Golem... In the Ice World...

You've your usual mooks and monsters in the game with a selection of more powerful bosses that inevitably come back for a reprise in the "Boss run" level of the game before heading to the final level where you get to punch out God before he turns into a wrestling dragon monster. (What is it with wrestling and dragon monsters these days...). There's no

There's just something "off" about the model of the enemies...

Musically, Metamorphic Force goes straight for the jugular and doesn't let go. It slams in with a heavy intro composed to summon up the blood within players and overplays the sense of urgency worse than Brian Blessed on Open Ham night. It's certainly entertaining but it does shoot way too high for its target and over achieves to the point of becoming almost detrimental to the experience of the game. Though Hamminess is solid throughout the game with the over the top voice acting from the bosses which all really add to the fun of the game and I certainly wouldn't want it any other way.

Compulsory fire zone to offset ice zone!

The only real complaint to Metamorphic Force is that it's a touch too easy and a tad too short. Most levels fly past quickly and while it feels great making such progress and each of the levels is gloriously unique and devoid of cohesion between them all (as most brawling games are), you're left feeling that you wanted to experience the game a little more in ways that aren't just replaying the game over again.

It's silly, it's funny and as long as you don't try to take the game seriously in the first place, you can have a lot of laughs with the mindless fighting.