Mecho Tales

Ultimately Mecho Tales is derivative, borrowing tried and tested ideas rather than coming up with anything that ever surprises or astounds. It fails to leave a lasting impression to result in another forgettable platformer that is unable to compete with far more memorable and groundbreaking games in the genre that are available on the Nintendo eShop.

Frankly, Mecho Tales breaks my heart because I want to see more creative talent and this team has so much promise in their character designs. While Mecho Tales is not an entirely broken game, it is a game that doesn’t quite seem to know what it wants to be.

While Mecho Tales looks to be a loving homage at first blush, upon further inspection that it’s actually just aping its inspirations instead of integrating them into something refreshing or new. The presentation lacks personality and charm, the level design is rote and arbitrary and controlling your given protagonist never clicks. Despite the intricate visuals and unusual design, there’s nothing on offer here that is genuinely compelling from a gameplay perspective.

I expected Mecho Tales on Xbox One to be a bad take on a good formula, but it proved me wrong. Instead, it provided a fun couple of hours of an unimpactful yet joyous action platformer which should attract anybody looking for a unique art style. It is an indie game which has the self-awareness to know what to accomplish from a gameplay point of view, but not perhaps from a storytelling perspective.

Mecho Tales is a beautiful game that takes homage from classic platform games such as Mega Man, sadly its dull gameplay doesn’t quite match the effort put into the designs of the characters and worlds leaving a mediocre adventure in its wake.