Initially released in 2023, Pocket Bravery has finally reached consoles courtesy of PQube and Pixelheart. Can Statera Studios drag you into grabbing distance with its interesting Neo Geo Pocket Chibi-style graphics and nostalgia-inducing title, or are you willing to whiff this one? Throw in some change, and let’s go first to three.
Crime Fighter
Pocket Bravery is a fighting game that fuses past and present. As such, it aims to have somewhat of a stronger narrative than you would have seen back in the ‘90s. While I can confirm it has a Story Mode and there is a lot of story to go through, with each character having a chapter showing how they all came together, I just didn’t really care for it all that much.
The story revolves around a criminal group called The Pack who are trying to control the world using artifacts of power. Nuno Alves is an ex-member of the group who grew a conscience and wants to stop The Pack and save the day. It’s not badly written and I do know people who really enjoyed the story, but I just couldn’t get myself invested enough to want to sit through screens of text between fights.
The roster in Pocket Bravery is both fantastic and feels like a snapshot of the ‘90s. It starts you off with 10 characters with another 3 unlockable, one of whom is the guest character Sho from SNK’s classic title Breakers, a fantastic underappreciated gem of the genre. Each of the characters comes from different corners of the world and feel like slightly more respectable representations of countries compared to classic titles like World Heroes or Fighters History.
The closest thing we have to a main character is Nuno Alves from Portugal, and while likely the first character you see, he isn’t actually the “Ryu” of the game, merely offering flashes of resemblance. The roster as a whole has a familiar feel to it but with fresh takes. It does feel rather grounded in design at points rather than being truly “out there”, but you have splashes of wildness. There are characters like Ninja, a woman who believes she’s Death and fights with spirit powers, and of course the Siberian Bear fighter, and that’s before you even touch on the boss who has the ability to wear a dog mask and completely change their fighting style.
Back In My Day
Pocket Bravery is your traditional 1 vs 1 fighting game, styled to be reminiscent of the Neo Geo Pocket titles such as the games included in the Neo Geo Pocket Collection Vol 1. Gameplay-wise, however, it has the feel and controls of titles like Street Fighter or Fatal Fury with a few little nuances to make it into its own beast.
It’s a four-button fighter (so two punches and two kicks), and you can string moves together from your standard attacks into special attacks. You’ll find the usual crowd of moves here with fireballs, throws and the like. Pocket Bravery still likes to do things a little extra; it’s a small game with a big heart and a book of ideas.
Like most fighting games, Pocket Bravery uses meters to determine what special moves you can do. What makes Pocket Bravery pop is the special meter activates an additional special attack which can further be combo’d into. More traditional “EX” moves are tied to your “Element” bar, and the two of these combined are your swiss pocket knife when it comes to throwing hands.
Having 2 “special” meters in your pile to juggle, you may take a while to get used to this level of meter management. Without your Special Meter you can’t cancel moves into Supers, and without the Elemental Meter you can’t hit the EX moves or your Final Move. It’s a delicate ballet that while it takes a little to get used to, it works oh so well for you eager combo fiends.
The input window for moves is unusually stringent and I can guess it’s because this game is aiming to emulate the older days of the fighting game genre before it became more casual-friendly. It feels fantastic to nail a combo and score a win in this one. The movement feels fluid and not heavy, which feels fantastic. I would say combat and movement capture indeed the magic of the SNK/Capcom glory days of the ‘90s.
If you aren’t quite as proficient with the controls of fighting games, there is an “easier” mode for casual players where special moves can be used by pressing a button instead of an input. This is becoming par for the course with the genre at the moment and I welcome it. It’s always good to help close gaps, especially when your game relies on having larger player pools. If you have the option to make those initial hours easier and get the cooler stuff quicker I am all for it.
Options? We Got Options!
Pocket Bravery has a whole bunch of modes for you persistent pugilists to take on. The traditional Arcade ladder is here, as are the training and combo trials for those wanting to “lab” out some combos and gain the upper hand. There is a story mode going over the events mentioned earlier in a traditional “Visual Novel” style wall of text then a fight and then there are the multiplayer and the extra modes.
Extras are where Pocket Bravery takes the round. Outside of the traditional Time Attack and Survival modes, there is a shop where you can spend points earnt from playing the game. Here you can buy characters and pallet swaps for them which reference a plethora of iconic fighting game characters, as well as gallery art and the two extra mini games, one of which is a free runner and the other is “Rainbow Edition”.
Rainbow Edition is an absolutely fantastic addition and should be commended. For the uninitiated, this is a wild and completely unbalanced version of the game as an homage to older, more unhinged mods of ‘90s fighting games. It features the ability to perform any special move in the air, many tweaks breaking the use of special moves, and other subtle changes to make it feel like a “bootleg” version of the game like the mode’s namesake was. I have had SO much fun just playing around with this mode seeing how wacky it can get.
There is online multiplayer, though I haven’t played it on this version, due to the stronger connections being required for a smoother experience for Switch. The game does have Rollback netcode so it is off to a good start, though it doesn’t support crossplay, meaning you’re stuck with the player pool on the console of your choice. Hopefully the gates are opened to everyone soon enough!
We looked at the Nintendo Switch version of the game for this review and for the most part it is a fine port of the game. The only issues I had with this version of the game were some of the bigger super moves featuring slow down and inputs for moves not always coming out. Having also played the Steam release, neither of these issues were present there for me so I am hoping a patch does land at some point.
A Little Pocket Of The Past
Pocket Bravery aims to capture the visual style of fighting games from the Neo Geo Pocket Color. Several excellent fighting games actually released on that little beast of a handheld, so while this may seem like a bizarre goal it’s not without reason.
The game does initially look like it would have been at home on the handheld, but once in motion it goes far beyond the level of animation and sprite work trickery even the consoles of the time could have handled. It’s incredible just how good this game looks in motion, from character intros to the moment-to-moment action. Pocket Bravery is anything but pocket-sized.
The backgrounds sadly don’t quite reach the same level of animation or detail that the characters have and this seems to be a compromise. Some stages look much better than others and it is especially notable looking at background characters; they aren’t terrible by a stretch but not all visuals are treated equally.
The music is fine and feels about on point for the genre, sadly there aren’t any standout tracks. There are also a lot of voice tracks, but it’s noticeable that they are all in Portuguese as far as I can tell, which makes it a bit jarring for a game with a multinational cast.
Verdict
Pocket Bravery is a fantastic homage to the art of ‘90s fighting games. It nails the fun factor and the sheer amount of content the games used to offer before online play was an option, while doing a fantastic job of replicating the fun of classic NeoGeo Pocket Color titles. This is certainly a title I would suggest any budding brawler puts the cash down on.
I will say this likely doesn’t have the strongest player count on any format so if you are picking this up purely for online multiplayer you may be better off spending your money elsewhere, especially since the performance issues on the Nintendo Switch version make that version less than ideal. But all in all Pocket Bravery is a damn fine time aimed at a fighting game playerbase who are already eating quite well at the moment.
POCKET BRAVERY IS RECOMMENDED
If you are looking for classic fighting games, check out our review of MARVEL vs. CAPCOM Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics.
Many thanks go to PQube Games for a Nintendo Switch review code for Pocket Bravery.
Pride of utopia & greatest thing ever, I found the One Piece, Collected the Dragon Balls & won the Mortal Kombat Tournament in one night, it was quiet for me that night! Follow me on Twitter @powahdunk
