Growing up in the 70s and 80s, in the very early days of Japanese culture making its way over to the US, I’ll admit that some of the earliest anime I remember were both fascinating and odd to me. Visually, they were just on another level, though their storylines often seemed quite unusual, something I now understand usually being a product of some heavy editing and complete rewrites of quite a number of them. All that said, I still have some nostalgia for that very specific style, so I’ll admit that Geppy-X absolutely caught my eye.

Never before released outside of Japan, this absolutely looks and feels like a love letter to another time. Pairing restored broadcasts of the anime with a side-scrolling arcade-style shooter, it makes for quite a combination. In general, especially as a fan of anime from this era, I’d say it’s the animation and original voice work that are the stand-out stars here. If you’ve never been exposed to this style before, it may be tougher to appreciate, but even without having seen this specific show before, this still very easily triggers feelings of nostalgia, making it hard for me not to be a fan. In particular, the odd commercials included I really found amusing, just because they’re even more of a time capsule to how things looked in a time before computers took over the production process.

On the gameplay end of the spectrum, I do wish I was a little more impressed. It’s far from the most refined or fluid shooter out there, though I’ll at least give it credit for having a feel all its own. Each of the 3 mech configurations you’ll have to work with changes up the style of play, which is great, but I would say I clearly favored one over the other two, so it isn’t all good news. In general though I’d say there’s no getting around your craft feeling pretty sluggish, and not all of the attacks seem to have been created equal so there may be some balancing issues. Then there’s the matter of the asking price, which is unquestionably a bit high within the space, but that’s absolutely driven by the effort it took to bring together the presentation end of this package, which is also clearly where it shines the brightest. If you’re just out for a new shooter, this likely won’t be a top choice, but if you’re also a fan of anime or specifically that era, it does make for a wonderful treat.