At some point almost every game developer has at least one game that has all of their franchises come together for one big game. Capcom has Capcom All Stars, Nintendo has Smash Bros., etc, etc. Even Arc System Works has a game like that, and no it’s not BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle. Actually its a game that just released awhile back called Code Shifter. Who did Arc System Works include and do they even have enough characters to even pull it off? Let’s check it out.
Red pill…
Cute simple story- The story for Code Shifter is pretty simple and kind of cute. Players take on the role of video game programmer Stella who works for Awesome Rainbow Corp or ARC for short (we see what you did there Arc System Works). Her job is to run through the code of the game and make sure that everything is good. One day as the dead line for ARC’s latest game, Colorful Fighters, is coming up several bugs start showing up in several of her co-workers’ files. It seems that something or someone is trying to sabotage and delay their launch. It’s up to Stella and her “Code Shifter” program avatar Sera to clear the game of all the bugs and find out who is responsible. Stella is cool, cute, full of energy and loves her job at ARC. She can be bit of a scatter brain when pulling all-nighters trying to get as much work done before launch but she loves her job and co-workers. It’s a really simple story, but I find it cute and nice that a game has a female protagonist that most female gamers who want to enter the video game industry can relate to.
Cool concept- Now the main concept/gimmick of the game is that as Sera, Stella enters Colorful Fighters and destroys all of the bugs that are infecting the game. That’s a pretty cool concept/gimmick. But what makes it even cooler is that as Sera, Stella can recruit several characters from previous “ARC” games as assists or even transform as them.
Tons of guest characters from various ASW games and partner studios- The roster of characters that show up in Code Shifter is 100: 30 actual playable characters and 70 assist characters. To be honest when I first heard that ASW was going to fill this game with a ton of their characters, I thought “Does ASW even have that many characters”. See when I think of games that ASW has created ie their own IPs, I think of Guilty Gear and BlazBlue. Then I realized that they bought and now own Technōs Japan IPs like the Kunio-kun series (which includes recent spin offs River City Girls and Stay Cool Kobayashi-san!) and Double Dragon. Then there are games that ASW published but didn’t developed and developers that have worked with such as the Jake Hunter series, Birthday the Beginnings, Wizard’s Symphony, Inferno Climber, and many, many more. It’s really cool to see that ASW has worked with various developers over the years, saving their games (Kunio-kun and Double Dragon come to mind) or working with them to bring out some weird and interesting titles. Personal favorite characters of mine to use are the River City crew (Kunio, Riki, Misako, and Kyoko), the Double Dragon Brothers with the hulking Abobo and the Inferno Climber knight.
Themes of ASW characters play when on screen- What better than playing as your favorite character? Playing as your favorite character while their theme track is playing in the background. In Code Shifter, every time Sera transforms into a different hero, the theme of that hero start playing. Themes range from Kunio’s version of his theme from River City Ransom and Sol Badguy’s theme from Guilty Gear to two different versions of the Double Dragon theme (one for Billy and one for Jimmy) and Misako and Kyoko’s theme from River City Girls.
Colorful Fighters- Colorful Fighters is a Super Smash Bros type of fighting game within Code Shifter. As I mentioned before, Colorful Fighters is the game that Stella is working on and trying to clear bugs out of. In between missions you can actually play the game just by walking up to where its set up. Up to four players can battle it out in various arenas to see who is number one. There are only four characters unlocked at first but you are able to unlock more characters by playing EX missions and beating the characters that are the bosses of the missions.
…or Blue pill
Most of game feels like a flash game- As fun as it is to brawl my way through the various stages, the majority of Code Shifter looks and feels like a flash game from the early 00’s. As much as the art style for the parts outside ARC’s game looks cute, it feels flat. Stella’s movements looks a bit stiff. Her movements inside ARC’s game as Sera are floaty , from her jumps to attack combos. I’m not sure what it is about Sera that feels off, but that’s a big difference from how the 8-bit characters where they feel like they have weight on them.
No jukebox- This might sound repetitive and a small complaint, but whenever there are retro game compilations that get released, I really like going to the sound options and see if there’s a jukebox/sound test option. I enjoy listing and going through the game’s music tracks, seeing which ones got remixes or if I recognize any of them. A minor complaint sure, but with all of these characters in the game, it would have been nice to have a jukebox option.
Generic looking enemies- In addition to looking like a flash game, Code Shifters enemies are pretty generic looking and are not that really hard to beat. There isn’t really any variations of these enemies as you progress through the game. Which is a shame really since ASW could have taken enemies from the different games of the characters you play as or at least infected clones of the characters. Something to make the game more interesting.
No combo system- The combo/fighting mechanics are kind of weak in Code Shifter, You have only one base attack, a jump and a special attack and that applies to all of the characters. I get that ASW was trying to make the combo/fight system easy for newcomers who might be new to platformers/beat em ups, but games like Double Dragon and the Kunio-kun series are already simple as it is. I feel that they could have stepped it up with a system similar to either game.
Code Shifter is a decent attempt to introducing those who are new platformers/beat em’ ups. I like that the hero of the game is not just a female character, but a video game programmer at that. It’s a real nice touch of inclusion. It was also great to see thirty year’s worth of characters from ASW and hear each character’s theme when on screen. The game within a game, Colorful Fighters is the highlight of the game, letting you and three other friends duke it out in Smash Bros. type fights. What brings Code Shifter down is that it looks and feels like a flash game. Sera’s, Stella’s avatar, jumps feel floaty, the combo system is super basic, enemies look generic and with all the awesome tunes in the game there’s no jukebox.
Code Shifter isn’t a bad game by all means, it’s just super simple. I feel that this most likely would be better suited for a beginner/younger audience. So if you have a kid and want them to get a feel for platformers/beat em up and want to send a good message, then buy the game for your kids.
6/10
