All right it’s time for one of the stronger Genesis titles. Pulseman has aged really well as a quality platformer with a lot of life to it. The levels feel a lot like a Mega Man title but then you have the fun Pokemon soundtrack going along with it. It’s a fun title that feels like a hybrid of 2 of the most popular video game series of all time. You’re definitely going to be satisfied with your playthrough here.

Similar to the Mega Man titles you are given the option of choosing which stage you want to start with. You have 3 options in this one and when you clear them, another 3 stages appear. Once you beat them all then you end up fighting the big boss and the true conspirator behind all of this. Each level is unique and they fit the theme of the villain that you’re fighting. Some levels involve a lot of running, others a lot of fighting, etc. It definitely keeps you on your toes at all times.

So what makes this game so solid? Well, in the first place the fast paced nature of the gameplay is a very good thing. You’re always on the go here as you run around trying to charge your energy. Your main weapon is your energy punch but when you run for a while you build up energy. This allows you to fire off your energy blast or turn into a thunder ball and zoom around the area. The latter is what you will be using most of the time to solve puzzles and get to the end. Some bosses can only be damaged by the thunder ball form as well so you want to keep that in mind.

The thunder ball can’t be controlled but it always moves in the same angles so you can definitely use that to time it. It moves in a diaganal direction and upwards. You can cancel it at any time so that’s something to keep in mind. Usually you want to reach a place that’s very high up so you want to cancel this as soon as you are above the platform. If the object is too high, intentionally bouncing against a wall will increase your height and let you get up there. It’s simpler than it sounds.

Against enemies, well it’s really the same principle. At most it can just be tricky to build up enough running room with enemies around you. The punch will work well against most bosses anyway though. One of them I’m pretty sure I did not beat the way that the devs intended though. I just walked up to the boss and started punching. Somehow all of his hits would go over my head so I didn’t have to move at all. No way that’s intentional but hey…we take those.

The game is definitely difficult though. It’s not one of the toughest that I’ve played on the console because some of these have been super insane but it’s definitely still really intense. There’s one level that’s even a full blown maze so you can easily die many times by falling back o to the same enemies over and over again. Additionally it just takes time since you are given many options and basically have to find the right exit through trial and error. Expect to be here a while and then things will go a lot smoother.

As I mentioned before, the soundtrack is excellent. It’s really got a lot of those classic Pokemon vibes to it while still keeping the Megaman techno vibe. It’s really great and gives the game a very unique identity. The graphics are also very colorful and detailed. The artstyle is really what helps to keep this high up because it is timeless. So even 50 years from now it will still look good.

Overall, Pulseman is a very good game and I definitely recommend playing it. I would say that the game even feels ahead of its time in some ways as it plays like a very modern platformer. Everything about this game was well executed and the developers really did not hold back here. Hopefully it can make a comeback at some point. Yes, it will have to endure being called a Mega Man ripoff for a while but that’s not a big deal since Capcom refuses to do anything with that franchise anyway. In fact, maybe this can get them to finally make more games!

Overall 7/10