“A fully remastered 70s-style super robot anime meets fast-paced arcade-style 2D side-scrolling shooter action. A Japanese cult classic finally available worldwide — now reborn in HD.” – Steam Description

A mysterious force calling itself the Cosmic Demon Empire suddenly launched an assault on Earth, commanding an army of colossal beast-shaped war machines known as the Space Beasts. Meanwhile, at a certain top-secret Space Robot Laboratory somewhere in the Far East, preparations had been made “just in case something like this ever happened”. Thus, the newly developed transforming and combining combat robot GEPPY-X was deployed into action.

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Setting the Scene

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Yesterday I had the pleasure of streaming my first playthrough of the Steam Remastered version of the PS1 robot shoot ’em up 70’s Robot Anime Geppy-X, also available on PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series consoles, and the Microsoft Store. And yes, that is the title. Even the original Japanese title 70年代風ロボットアニメ ゲッP-X is equally as straightforward with its meaning. The game goes as far as opening with a heartwarming love letter to those that grew up watching mecha anime in the 70’s. If you are familiar with mecha media from this era, especially the series Getter Robo from which this game takes primary inspiration from, you will love this game.

And if you didn’t? You’re still going to really fucking love this game. On a brief rundown the 70’s anime aesthetic and art style of the game has aged incredibly well and it continues to look good even through the remastering process.

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Character designs are colorful, dynamic, and play up classical anime tropes shamelessly. Among the protagonists you have the hot blooded Keiichi “Kei” Mozu, bishonen pretty boy Hitoshi “Jin” Hanate, and the stout goofball Riki Tennouji. Half way through the game any of these three protagonists can sacrifice themselves to introduce one of three possible female protagonists to take their place. Tomboy Kyouko “Kyo” Takatsuki, studious class president type Suzuka “Suzu” Senri, and Macross idol singer turned pilot Hiromi “Romi” Sakai.

Even the cast of antagonists provide a familiar platter of enjoyable cliches including a Char Aznable cosplay provided by General Jarg, the commander of the imperial Cosmic Demon Empire guard. His handle is the manual is listed as the “Maroon Meteor.” Not quite a red comet, but it will do.

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Nostalgia Remastered

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The music is jam packed with heavy hitters such as MIQ, Hironobu Kageyama, Isao Sasaki, and Akira Kushida, among others. Isao Sasaki having song the opening for Getter Robo, and Akira Kushida going on to later do the song “Gods” in the New Getter Robo. The vocal cast of the game also includes legendary powerhouses such as Akira Kamiya, Sho Hayami, Shuichi Ikeda, Ichiro Nagai, and Goro Naya. This quite frankly goes beyond paying homage to being a straight incarnation of the very thing this game is celebrating.

This is as much an anime viewing experience as it is a video game. Geppy-X includes over 8000 fully re-scanned and remastered cutscenes taking directly from the original Betacam master tape collection. That’s right, eight thousand. Remember, Geppy-X was originally a PlayStation 1 game. Final Fantasy VII, a whole ass RPG spanning an entire 3D world with dungeons, monsters, magic, and more took four discs.

Geppy-X despite only have 9 stages of side scrolling shooting action also took up four complete PlayStation 1 CD-ROMS from the plethora of cutscenes and high-quality music alone.

Remember how I mentioned that any of the original three male protagonists can be killed halfway through the game to introduce a new female protagonist? That means for the remaining half of the game every cutscene has three completely different variations to include one of the three heroines over their dead hero counterpart. Every single boss also includes a secret death animation that can trigger depending on which mech you used to defeat them, each of these secret animations being played out as the cinematic climax of any monster of the week anime special. As far as style and substance goes, this game is a solid 10 out of 10.

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Get in the Robot, Redeye

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So, how is the gameplay? The remastered version of Geppy-X features plenty of modern quality of life enhancements. The game features dynamic controller input recognition so your preferred glyphs appear on screen correctly. There are new rewind and quick save functions that are helpful for skipping lengthy cutscene segments between 1cc attempts, and a CRT filter that’s implemented decently enough. Usually CRT filters are hit or miss for me but I found the CRT in Geppy-X good enough to keep up my entire playthrough. A translated and high-quality scan of the original manual is provided in game.

Over the course of 9 stages you play as the titular Geppy-X (ゲッP-X) as you fly from one side of a side scrolling map to the next while blasting down a plethora of evil demonic robot monsters from space. The Geppy-X can transform into three different variations using the shoulder buttons to cycle forward or backward through the configurations with each transformation having its own main weapon, sub weapon, speed, and defenses. Both main and sub weapons can be charged up for a stronger version or alternative version of each attack, effectively giving you 12 attacks to choose from. There is also a super attack you can use when your Geppy meter fills. The animation is different for each transformation, but it is always a full screen wipe. Finally, there is a dedicated button for turning yourself around in the event you want to attack an enemy behind you.

Each variation of the Geppy-X is unique enough that you might want to try each one individually for any given stage or boss fight. You might find that a particular boss lacks an ability to attack above itself and so you’ll want to use the Geppy-X2 to drop bombs on its head. As mentioned before, bosses have secret death animations that can play after the fight depending on which version of the Geppy-X2 you used to defeat them.

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Halfway through the game shortly after you have recruited one of the female protagonists your Geppy-X will be upgraded into the Geppy-XX (Geppy Double X). Each variation of the Geppy-XX will have a slightly different main weapon with an often significantly different sub weapon. You are incentivized to transform and experiment with different variations often. Further encouragement is provided thanks to the inherent i-frames (invincibility frames) provided during the transformation sequence. Many bosses include an attack or bullet pattern that looks impossible to avoid at first glance but by utilizing a well timed transformation you can circumvent the attack and come out on top.

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• Graphics– Masterfully crafted cutscenes make you feel like you’re really watching an anime straight from the 70’s. Pixel design of each Mech and monster in game pops and carries lasting appeal
• Gameplay– Smooth and tight controls. You always have the tools available to you to take on any configuration of enemy or boss patterns. The perfect shoot ’em up for anyone looking to get into the genre.
• Sound– Music and voice acting from a cast of, quite frankly, genre defining and industry legends. If you are at all familiar with classic Mecha anime or 70’s and 80’s anime you’re going to fall in love with the game instantly.
• Controls– Shoot and move. Doesn’t get more basic than this. Being able to turn around and cycle forward and backward through transformations makes it feel like you are always in control of the situation.
• Story– This isn’t Shakespeare but you’re not playing this game for its story. This game has an audience it is targeting and if you’re part of that audience this game has enough references, tropes, and beloved clichés that will have you pointing at the screen and begging for more.