Mighty Goose Review

Mighty Goose by developers Blastmode Games, MP2 Games and publisher Playism—Microsoft Xbox Series X|S review written by Pierre-Yves with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes.

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Mighty Goose by Blastmode Games and MP2 Games is one of those titles that once you pick up you may not put down until it's over. Designed as a run and gun almost Bullet Hell and shoot 'em up (shmup) at times, it's not only fun, but it just got a new fairly long post game stage as free DLC.

Originally covered by Richard for the PS4 last June, I've been meaning to sit down to Mighty Goose for a while and I'm glad that I finally have. Retro in design, the experience made me think of an easier Contra, yes anything is technically easier than Contra, that won't have you wanting to hit your head against a wall figuring out just how you'll get past this one point.

Starting off with a prison break to free one of Goose’s fellow companions, this first stage helps you get your bearings in this 2D platforming world. You'll be running, jumping and dodge rolling your way through hordes of enemies with your trusty pistol and companion(s). Power ups can also be acquired for more oomph in the form of machine guns, shotguns and rocket launchers before getting your hands on a few sweet rides each with their own flavor.

This is something that I appreciated as Mighty Goose never tried to overcomplicate things. Instead, it offers a few select weapons combined with some special abilities that can only be equipped one at a time to allow you to focus on the big picture. Not getting your Goose cooked. Literally as that’s the dying animation which had me laughing each time it happened because it served me right. Get it? Served? Cooked Goose? I’ll see myself out...

Back on topic, the special abilities start with the ability to honk at your enemies which does absolutely nothing short of adding entertainment value and some good old Xbox achievement points! From there though, you’ll eventually be able to slow time, bring down a Gears of War Hammer of Dawn satellite attack or simply summon a bunch of skeletons because why not? Each of these abilities has the potential to be super useful or absolutely useless depending on the situation but that is up for you to figure out as you move through the various stages.

Having only your current weapon and one of the above abilities really lets you focus on that bigger picture of jumping and dodging around an almost Bullet Hell like adventure as you’ll have a variety of projectiles flying your way ALL THE TIME. High, low, being lobbed up and over alongside actual enemies charging you, your focus is going to be anywhere other than on wondering which weapon is equipped and how much ammo it has. To compensate for the Bullet Hell, you’ll also have the ability to go all shmup on your enemies as you can fill up your Mighty Meter to become, Mighty Goose!

While in your super mode, you won’t take any damage and all of your weapons both cause more damage and have much wider spreads to their attacks. Fair is fair right? This does even the playing field as you are 1 versus MANY and oftentimes while not in super mode I would be getting hit and I couldn’t have told you where it came from. Left? Right? Above? At my feet? I didn’t know as there could be too much going on so the super mode which is easy enough to fill could help as I didn’t need to worry about taking a hit. I just needed to worry about clearing the screen of enemies.

Finally, the stage designs are basic enough but they are fun. They consist of some light platforming with combat sequences that must be cleared in order to move on to what will often be a fun boss fight. Newly added as of April 19 though is a brand new stage that mixes it up with some new mechanics such as underwater travel in a submarine and a surfboard sequence making me extremely nostalgic for both Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project on the NES and Turtles in Time on the SNES.

The new stage is not only fun, but it’s also free and available after you’ve finished the original final boss. If you’ve been wanting to go back just for the fun of it? I would recommend it as this new stage is longer than the previous ones and changes the flow enough from the original set of stages to be worth coming back for. Haven’t jumped at the chance to have your goose cooked at all? Then it’s an easy recommendation alongside the core game as it’ll keep you busy for an afternoon or an evening as you run and gun your way through.

Summary

Mighty Goose is a fun and short experience that will keep you busy for a couple hours but not overstay its welcome. With several stages, boss fights, abilities and new content having recently been added for free which could easily have been at a premium price, it’s worth checking out on the PC, consoles and the Xbox GamePass.

Score: 8 / 10

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Mighty Goose - PS4 Review

Mighty Goose by developers Blastmode Games, MP2 Games and publisher Playism—Sony Playstation 4 review written by Richard with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

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Do you know what the mightiest of birds are? Is it the pidgeon? The crow? Here in Canada, we know what the mightiest of birds is: the goose. They're tough, they're gruff, and they won't hesitate to beat you up. Obviously the developers of Mighty Goose are aware of this, with the eponymous bounty hunter and feathered friend Mighty Goose.

Mighty Goose is a fine feathered bounty hunter chasing after evil across the galaxy. The dreaded void king is taking over, and Mighty Goose is contracted to get rid of the problem. With his trusty mechanical gun arm and pig(?) assistant, the great Mighty Goose is off to rescue planets across the galaxy from the dominion of the VOID. Mighty Goose is very reminiscient of Metal Slug, or maybe some of the older megaman games for those of you who don't recognize Metal Slug, in both art style and gameplay.

You play as the eponymous Mighty Goose, fighting your way through 2D side-scrolling stages, shooting up enemies, collecting different weapon types, occasionally hopping in vehicles, and beating up the bad guys. The Mighty Goose has a normal shot that is the default, but can also pick up limited ammo weapons while going through a stage, or get them called in via air drop for a cash price. As you run, gun, and dodge-roll through stages, you may also come across "war machines", such as a bike, a tank, or a…mecha goose suit. Hop on in and rain bullets down upon your enemies. In addition to the gunning, the Mighty Goose also has a secondary skill that can be used. The secondary skills can be swapped out between stages, and may be damaging skills like bombs, support skills like filling the "mighty meter", or honking.

If you fill up the mighty meter, you can enter a super mode where you don't take damage from enemies (environment is still fair game) and your weapons are enhanced. The gauge will deplete, even when not using the mighty mode, so make sure to keep it filled for when you need it. After completing a stage you can visit the armoury to choose what secondary skills to equip, as well as passive skills which will unlock as you play through the game. Passive skills may be as small as "increased walking speed", but can help you out a lot. You have a limited amount of energy to assign skills, so make sure you know what you want. You can also pick an ally to join you. That's right, you can bring an assistant into battle, that can also be controlled by a friend in a sort of co-op mode. Although the partner isn't to the same level as Mighty Goose, they can definitely still assist you.

Mighty Goose has a great retro feel with both the soundtrack as well as graphic style, and I felt like the developers really nailed a lot of what made the old school games so enjoyable. Unfortunately there are a few very noticeable setbacks. First and foremost: you have a melee attack. If enemies get too close, you slash them instead of shooting. Which is pretty awful considering all of the guns other than the default definitely do more damage than the slash attack. Second, there's a sub weapon that are rockets, and they are unequivocably awful to handle. They are auto seeking, but hover around a bit before doing anything, and I would routinely go out of my way to avoid picking them up.

The game is also very short. I completed the normal game, "new game +", and had most of the stages S ranked within three hours. I'd also like to point out that the S rank requirements are… weird, I suppose you could say. It seems like there are certain benchmarks you need to hit for kills, deaths, combo, and speed, but points aren't total cumulative? There is also this really annoying slo-mo and cut-in with a honking goose occasionally, which is really infuriating. As much as I gripe though, I truly do hope to see more from the Blastmode and MP2 developers in the future. I had a lot of fun with Mighty Goose, and can't wait to see what they come out with next.

Summary

Overall, Mighty Goose is a pretty fun game with a lot good points to it. The combat basis is pretty well done, the skills and upgrades are a neat touch, and the weapon system was enjoyable. Unfortunately, there just isn't a whole lot there to really dig into. Mighty Goose is well too short, and coupled with some of the more aggravating issues, such as the periodic slow-mo, the easy difficulty, and how the "post game" is just the main game but a little harder, Mighty Goose probably won't keep you occupied for too long. That being said, if you enjoy Metal Slug, this is definitely going to be put on your watch list, it will probably just be one of those titles you'll pick up on sale.

Score: 7.5 / 10

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