Platformers are a dime a dozen in the realm of indie games. It’s a time tested formula and relatively easier to produce than many other genres for small teams with tight budgets. Because there are so many platformers out there it takes something truly special to get my attention in that genre these days. Today’s subject, Gravity Circuit, broke through the crowd after coming highly recommended from a friend and being free to own for a limited time following the announcement of a sequel. Let’s jump into the review and see if Gravity Circuit lives up to the hype.

Gravity Circuit takes place on an unnamed world inhabited by autonomous robots with colorful personalities. The city these robots live in is under siege by evil robots known as the Virus Army and to make matters worse 8 of the Guardian Corps’ elite warriors, known as the Circuits, have defected to the enemy’s side. The player controls the titular Gravity Circuit, also known as Kai, who suffers from amnesia, but is still loyal to the Guardian Corps. Gravity Circuit doesn’t have much of a story to speak of beyond the initial premise and simple characters, but they do save some interesting revelations for the final stretch which makes the world and characters more intriguing than they are at first glance. That being said, Gravity Circuit’s gameplay is still the main draw of the experience so narrative hungry players should probably look elsewhere.

Visually Gravity Circuit seeks to emulate the pixel art of games from the late 1980s and early 1990s. Such art direction is not atypical of indie platformers, but Gravity Circuit goes the extra mile by rendering most sprites in various shades of single colors as if it’s working within similar hardware limitations. It also helps that the game’s characters, enemies, and world have unpretentious, easy-to-read designs that pair well with their monochrome color pallets. While Gravity Circuit may not boast the latest and greatest in graphics, its polished art direction carries more charm than many contemporary games trying to push technological boundaries.

The strongest element of Gravity Circuit’s presentation however, is without a doubt its soundtrack. It’s no secret that Gravity Circuit takes a lot of cues from Mega Man and composer Dominic Ninmark absolutely understood the assignment. The music is catchy, melodic, and exciting from title screen to end credits without a single track getting repetitive. I would even dare to say Gravity Circuit’s soundtrack is on par with the very best music from the Mega Man games that inspired it. Even if you’re not inspired to play Gravity Circuit from this review, you should absolutely listen to the soundtrack, it’s that good.

That being said, Gravity Circuit’s core gameplay is the glue that holds everything else together and should not be overlooked. As I alluded to earlier, the game takes many cues from Mega Man, and more specifically Mega Man X, with 8 main stages filled with thematically unique traps and enemies that are mixed and matched to create increasingly difficult obstacles till the player reaches the boss fight waiting for them at the end. That being said, Kai is more ninja-like than the blue bomber so his moveset primarily revolves around melee attacks and using his chain hook to swing past obstacles, grapple enemies, or snatch projectiles mid-flight and throw them back. It’s an incredibly robust moveset with a decent learning curve, but once the player finds their groove it’s super fun experimenting with all the fun trickshots they can pull off.

As the player defeats enemies, rescues civilians, and opens containers they collect resources they can spend at the Guardian Corps headquarters to upgrade their abilities. From simple boosts to their damage output and survivability to new movement tricks and powerful super attacks there’s plenty of ways to tailor the experience to the player’s preferences. Overall I’m struggling to identify any serious issues I found playing through Gravity Circuit. It’s a well constructed experience where every defeat came down to my competence as a player rather than the consequences of poor design choices.

Analyzing Gravity Circuit from a Catholic perspective is a little difficult due the ambiguous elements surrounding the late game story revelations, so any insight I provide could be proven completely false if the upcoming sequel provides hard answers to the questions posed. That being said, I’d hate to cheat readers out of one of Catholic Game Review’s most unique features so there will be a post-review spoiler section discussing the most interesting implications of the game’s final act. Plus, I think going into the story blind does make it more enjoyable so I encourage you to play the game for yourself before diving into the weeds with me.

What I don’t need to hide under a spoiler section is the fact that Gravity Circuit is a fantastic game. It has fast paced action platforming worthy of the classics that inspired it and one of the best soundtracks I’ve heard in recent memory. This game is a no-brainer for fans of platforming games, especially if they love Mega Man which was clearly the developer’s biggest inspiration. Special shout out to my friend The_Punchening on Twitch for bringing Gravity Circuit to my attention while it was free on Steam. If you’re reading this article near the 4th of July he hosts an annual charity stream alongside his wife IIMDProds and GCR contributor KAMaximilianK to raise money to train service dogs for military veterans. For this year’s stream, you can tune in between 10:00 AM and 10:00 PM Friday, July 3rd, and Saturday, July 4th. I am also planning on making a guest appearance so I hope to see you all there. Thank you all so much for your support.

Bonus: Deist Ex Machina

As for my spiritual analysis of Gravity Circuit, let’s start with a quick recap. Near the end of the game it is revealed that Kai and the other Circuits are the creations of beings referred to only as The Masters. The purpose of the Circuits is to travel the universe terraforming planets and establishing settlements equipped with all the necessary infrastructure, amenities, and robot servants for The Masters to occupy in the future. The catch to all this is the Circuits have never actually met The Masters and have no way of confirming if they’re reaching the cities they build, or if they still exist for that matter. Further complicating matters is the fact that with each planet colonized the servant bots developed more sophisticated personal traits, only to be deactivated upon the Circuits’ departure. The Circuits’ growing sense of futility combined with the potential cruelty in leaving intelligent bots behind to rot leads to the Circuits abandoning their mission and staying with the city where the game takes place.

Personally I do not believe artificial intelligence in the real world is capable of achieving intelligent decision making equivalent to a rational animal, which could be a whole discussion in itself, but I’m willing to accept that as part of the fiction in the case of Gravity Circuit because there’s a far more interesting conversation underneath that layer. To that end I would like to propose a positive and negative interpretation of these events. From a positive perspective it is good that the Circuits recognize the inherent dignity of a rational being in their bid to save the lesser bots. I imagine this is what is going to be emphasized in the sequel so it’s easier to root for Power Circuit, who is already confirmed to be a playable character.

From a negative perspective, the Circuits abandoning their created purpose could be akin to a deistic rejection of God’s will. The Circuits don’t deny the existence of The Masters, so I don’t think it’s entirely fair to compare them to atheists, but the fact they are willing to reject the mission set for them by The Masters due to their physical absence strikes me as very deist. Deism is the philosophical position that acknowledges that there is a God that created the universe, but also asserts that God does not interfere with the world he created, thus making religious revelation impossible. As a Catholic I obviously reject Deism because I believe God has intervened many times throughout history and especially during the period of His incarnation as Jesus Christ, therefore his revelations are worth taking seriously even if he never decides to physically come down to look me in the eye and shake my hand during my lifetime. To that end it is important that we do not abandon our life’s mission simply because we lack hard empirical evidence of its value, lest we insult the One who bestows it upon us.

About Gaius Requiem