Mighty Goose

This review in short: Do you like Metal Slug? If you answered yes, then you'll most likely enjoy this game.
To go into more detail, this is a very Metal Slug kind of run-and-gun game, but there are a few things that separate it from Metal Slug in a meaningful way. Obviously yes, you don't play is a anthropomorphic Goose (anthropomorphic in the way Earthworm Jim is an anthropomorphic worm) in Metal Slug, but that's a very superficial difference.
For one thing, there's mission selection in this game where as Metal Slug is a mission to mission arcade game. Also, you can equip enhancements to Goose that give various buffs. For example, one enhancement increases the ammo of the special guns you pick up. You can also equip a partner to join you on the mission. You unlock partners as you play through the game (aside from 2 who are hidden and you have to find them), and each one behaves differently. The partner system is also how coop is handled since the second player takes control of the partner you selected. I didn't play coop though, so I can't speak more on that front. Also, you have a dodge roll.
As far as gripes are concerned, I have several. First, there's no windowed mode to this game, which feels like a weird oversight to not have for a 2D pixel art game. Second, I felt like several of my victories were less about skill and more about 1) luck and 2) abusing the Mighty Mode. Mighty Mode is essentially when you fill up a bar, you can turn Mighty, which makes you invulnerable to most (if not all) forms of damage and makes your guns get a significant buff in effectiveness. The bar in question gets filled by doing combos (and I think decreases when you take damage), and that includes when you've activated Mighty Mode. Meaning that if you enter Mighty Mode and are able to constantly build your combo, then you could make Mighty Mode last a good while. I essentially did this against every boss fight and won most of them like that. The luck part comes from the fact that killing enemies could result in them dropping a weapon or a full heal (all health pickups restore you to full health). As such, my wins felt more empty. Now, did I have to abuse the Mighty Mode? No, but human nature is to gravitate towards the path of least resistance, so I just kept doing it.
Another problem is that there are times where you have to hit a lever to activate something, and even though you have a melee attack, you can't use that to flip levers. You have to shoot the lever. Meaning that if you have a special gun, then you have to expend ammunition just to flip a lever (no, you can't swap back to your standard gun which has unlimited ammo). This, like the lack of a Windowed mode, is another weird oversight.
There's also the problem of things often getting too chaotic and taking damage from a projectile. Which isn't a problem unique to this game, but what is more unique to this game are times where foreground objects obstruct enemies. Which doesn't happen often, but the fact that it happens at all is a problem.
Last thing I'll harp on is the fact that, when you shut the game down and boot it back up again later, the enhancements you equipped are saved, but the partner you selected isn't (it just gets set back to no partner at all). Why it remembers one and not the other is yet another weird oversight.
Overall, if you're just looking for a Metal Slug style run-and-gun game, then this should suffice.

⚖️ MATCHING EXPECTATION:
* 🟢 = Available = Fun +1
* 🔴 = Not Available = Fun -1
* Match Nothing = 0 Fun
🟢 Fun Gunplay
🟢 Super Power
🟢 Loadout Management
🟢 Smooth Frame Rate
🟢 Score better Grade for replay value
🔴 Long Hours Campaign
🔴 Save the latest progress and exit
🔴 Shooting in 45 degree
🔴 Variety Weapons
🔴 Mods Support

fMeter
FUN
fUN METER
DISCOUNT
COMMUNITY
REVIEWER


A+
5
Loving it
No Wait
-
-


A
4
Liked it
No Wait
✔
✔


B
2-3
Half satisfied
Wait 50%
-
-


C
1
Less interested
Wait 75%
-
-


D
0
Not what you need
Wait 100%
-
-

🏅 Community Rating: Very Positive
⚖️ fMeter {A-} Worth a play, if you enjoy Chaos Battlefield with Vehicle Support. However, if you're looking for shooting in 45 degree, don't play it
🔎 Check the full list for your preferred gameplay 👇
🕘 IMPRESSION:
* Year 2021: Game released
* Year 2026: Started playtest for the first time
* 2 hours later: Good game but things happening too fast
* 3 hours later: Hopefully allow checkpoint save so i don't need redo the mission
⭐️ COMPARE TO METAL SLUG #:
* Optional NPC companion
* Secondary Weapon
* Mighty Power available
* Scoring Grade in each chapter (Replay Value)
* Allow to dash with quick cooldown
* Allow to crouch to dodge and shoot
* Allow to use downward weapon recoil to stay in the air longer while jumping
* Allow to Shop anytime in the Pause menu
* Allow to summon vehicle as Armor
* Optional slow motion ability
* Optional slow motion on critical hit scene
* Double jump can be earn later
* No throwing grenade
💎 SAME GENRE COMPARISON:
* Funny animation
* We can destroy enemy projectile by shooting it
* Allow to have more than one NPC companion
* Enable enemy projectile outline to see things clearly
* Unlimited continue credits
🔊 TESTER MUST KNOW:
* Pick up double weapon don't have double ammo
* Secondary weapon loadout available next to the Armory
* Player allow to dash while crouching
* Goose Honk will generate a Shield
* Mighty Power = Temporarily invincible and supercharges your weapons
* Dash = Quick Dodge + Temporarily invincible + Damaging Enemies
* Complete the level as fast as possible to score better Rank / Grade
* We can toggle fullscreen by pressing Alt+Enter
* Require enter the portal to access "New Game Plus" after the last stage
⚠️ RUMOR CHECKING:
* The screen can become VERY messy ➜ Agree. The game intentionally creates visual
chaos, and you may need to configure the visual effects to make it comfortable.
* The biggest weakness is its length, short ➜ Sadly, it only last a few hours
* Music and presentation remain very well-liked ➜ Agree, one of the game's biggest strengths
* Much more gameplay content than Metal Slug series ➜ Agree
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A great time if you love games like Contra and Metal Slug. Fast and engaging.

This game is the definition of smooth. As in the mix of animation together with effects and gameplay has zero slowdown (except the actual slow-motion to emphasize explosions). You can turn down the effects if you want, but I kept them on and also turned on the readability of enemy bullets. The controller rumble goes really well with all the carnage on screen, very well put together game.

Hits the spot! Really fun game... plus, the Goose is cute. HONK!

very fun and charming game. played and completed this on game pass years ago and decided i want to play it again. for the sale price it's a no brainer

Very fun game really love it and like what they did specially if you pause you can buy items and a vehicle hopefully with get a sequel to this diamond of a game definitely recommend to friends and fellow rog ally and steam deck fellows