Folie Ă Deux
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/76600/gunvolt-chronicles-luminous-avenger-ix-12-dual-collection-switch-2-review
Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger iX 1 & 2 Dual Collection from Inti Creates should be familiar to anyone who’s heard of the Azure Striker Gunvolt series. Our titular Luminous Avenger, Copen, makes his first appearance within the mainline series and soon after spawned these spin-off titles, which feature their own disconnected stories taking place in the same universe.
With these two titles being my first foray into the Copen spin-offs, but also being somewhat familiar with Gunvolt, I was thrilled to see what Luminous Avenger iX 1 & 2 held for me on the Nintendo Switch 2. For one, I appreciated the option to now choose between a 4K/60fps resolution or a buttery-smooth 1080p/120fps mode. It's a marked upgrade from the original Switch versions and my first experience with 120fps on my Switch 2. If you’re interested in these enhancements and already own the previous titles, there is unfortunately no upgrade path to the individual titles. However, there is one for the Switch to Switch 2 version of this bundle, but still, lacking a comprehensive upgrade path and nickel-and-diming your original fanbase is one of my least favorite tropes of 2026. That being said, these upgrades are great. Experiencing 120fps on handheld felt very, very good to behold. Just note that you have to manually adjust your display settings from the main menu, meaning you have to back all the way out of either game if you want to make changes.
Should that sound like enough for you, pick up and enjoy this double pack. But if, like me, you’ve not experienced these titles before, let me dig into them. Structurally, both games in Luminous Avenger iX 1+2 will feel immediately familiar if you’ve ever picked up a Mega Man game. You travel through distinct stages, culminating in boss battles that reward you with new abilities upon victory. However, traversing those stages is where the first game finds its own rocket-fueled identity. Copen is a blisteringly quick character focused on auto-locking and maneuverability. You have "Bullits" that act as charges for your aerial dashes, as well as a shield system called Prevasion. In most cases, if you have enough Bullit charges in reserve, you’ll automatically dodge and take no damage. Reloading your Bullits can be done manually and freely by double-tapping the down button, so I always felt like the onus was on me to manage my own near-invincibility in a way that felt incredibly satisfying. Should you happen to die, there’s a percentage chance your AI idol companion, Lola, will revive you to help you finish the fight. It’s a welcome addition that keeps the pace of the game moving forward when I was faced with more challenging content. The narrative focuses on the last vestiges of humanity fighting for their place among a new breed of super-powered people looking to eradicate the human remnants. It’s a serviceable story with an ending that left me itching to jump straight into the next game.
Luminous Avenger iX 2, however, is a very confusing title with some baffling design choices that I believe get highlighted all the more when playing these titles back to back. First off, you have severely limited boosting this time around. You’ll perform your dash lock-on and need to touch the ground to regain a charge. In fact, Copen’s whole character feels heavier and meant to be planted on the floor, donning some discernibly beefier armor for his second mainline foray. When flying around like a mosquito on Red Bull was my core experience with the first game, this sequel felt like I had my wings clipped, and I loathed it. Not only that, but the freedom of the Bullit system is functionally gone. Instead, we have character upgrades that further boost our invulnerability in bizarre ways. One upgrade you can acquire early, for example, is if Copen stands perfectly still and gets hit, he will only ever take 1 point of damage. This feels like the total antithesis of the first game's high-speed design.
To further baffle the player, you have unlimited healing. In the first game, you at least had to hunt down a health pick-up. In the sequel, you can cast a heal on yourself infinitely with no cooldown. There are moments in the game where you’ll be faced with a moving floor of lava (oh no!), but these hazards are entirely trivialized because you can simply heal through them. You could walk through these sections at a leisurely pace and heal all the way to the other side. Not only is the second game mechanically unsatisfying, it doesn’t even continue the story in a meaningful way. You get teleported to a brand new, alternate-dimension and focus on climbing a tower guarded by robots, just trying to find a way back home. It’s a side-quest at best and feels entirely heartless in comparison to the real stakes of the first game.
If I were to score these Luminous Avenger iX 1 & 2 Dual Collection individually, I would give the first game an 8 and the second a 6. It truly feels like a new development team was handed the design document from the first installment, but half the pages were missing and they just "made do." While both are interesting Gunvolt spin-offs, Luminous Avenger iX 1 is the much more satisfying experience, which makes the package as a whole difficult to fully recommend, even if the Switch 2 upgrades are noteworthy.
Topic: Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger IX 1+2 Dual Collection (Switch 2) Review (Read 23 times)
