A.R.E.S. is a love letter to the old school sidescroller with enough of its own freshness thrown in to not feel derivative. EX serves as a kind of directors cut to the earlier A.R.E.S. Extinction Agenda, with added stages, bosses and storylines, making itself available on both Steam and Xbox 360. While I didn’t play the original game, I instantly enjoyed what I saw with the new package.
The game lets lets you choose between two characters, Ares or Tarus, before you take off to explore the decrepit research space station Minos where a mysterious gas called “Zytron” has mutated all the drones on the station into bio mechanical monsters. In what can best be described as a kind of marriage between Megaman X and Contra, you’ll blast your way through 2.5D levels acquiring new weapons and abilities to take on the game’s many cannon fodder enemies and large, intimidating bosses.
While the game’s platforming will push skills, you won’t face too many normal enemies that will give you a run for your money. Where this game manages to shine the most is in the rather ginormous bosses you’ll end up facing at the end of every level, complete with camera work that does its best to try and make you piss your pants before you even take them on. The bosses themselves require you to keep moving whilst you observe their patterns and watch for inevitable changes in said patterns if you want to successfully win, simply shooting your way through them is a guaranteed fast death, I personally love challenging, thoughtful boss fights and we’re living in a gaming age sadly devoid of them.
At the end of most boss fights you’ll find yourself either absorbing or downloading a new upgrade to your offensive, defensive or mobile capabilities giving you cool ways of dealing with the game’s enemies or complicated ways to deal with some of the platforming challenges. These skills will also often allow you to return to older levels and explore areas that weren’t previously accessible. While Ares and Tarus will travel the same level paths, their abilities will evolve differently. Ares seems to get a bit more speed and range, while Tarus is all about tanking and power. You can also level up the skills and weapons Ares and Tarus unlike, though doing this expends the same currency you use to power said abilities, so careful conservation of power will dictate how much you’re able to beef up your skills.
The graphics are kind of bland, though I did like the overall art style and character designs. The heavy metal soundtrack also did a great job of supporting the feel of this game, an advanced robotic AI exploding other mechanical constructs to bits. The story isn’t the most complicated one in the world, and its delivery is very much reminiscent of the 16, 32bit eras it recalls, simple objectives with some minor twists and clever back and forth between the characters. The story serves the gameplay well and best of all, easily leaves the game open to sequels by not over-complicating the plot.
For me a lot of A.R.E.S. charm is born directly from the fact that it’s such a reminder of the olden days, when I would work a hefty morning on the farm before taking to my rocking chair and drinking lemonade before turning on my SNES (That’s Super Nintendo Entertainment System for anyone born this century, I’m sure you can find one in a museum). If sidescrollers aren’t your cup of tea, and if you’re easily put off by harder difficulties, you may want to avoid this one. On the other hand if you really love old school sidescrolling shooters, you’ll likely get a kick out of this title.
