Gariax (version 1.32) - Arcade Mode (Makiko Mari)
8Download the game here: https://deuronius.itch.io/gariax
Developed by Kenyan indie creator Anton Petrovich (otherwise known as Deuronius online) under his publishing brand Comkai, Gariax is a simple fighting game featuring an all-girl cast of characters.
The game's story takes place in the far future (after the "War of 4351"). A treaty was created between the Darkoids - robotic beings, judging from their design and Nimo Prime's description - and the humans, stopping the act of replication and effectively handing the reins to the Global Earth Union. However, after the humans discovers the "Omega Engine", a mysterious object that could give compatible humans extraterrestrial powers, several rogue Darkoids began to invade Earth, planning to seize the object to wage war. It's up to these heroines to hopefully thwart these rogue Darkoids and save the universe... at least in the game's Story Mode, which isn't the main focus of this video.
Gameplay in Gariax is pretty unique. Here, there are no normal attacks - previously, the game had two normal attack buttons, with two additional buttons for special move shortcuts. Instead, the game's four attack buttons are solely dedicated to performing special moves, which could also be done by performing motion inputs. These aforementioned special moves include an automatic combo (Button 1/Btn1, or R in keyboards), an anti-air reversal attack ("DP", press Btn2/T), a projectile (Btn3/F), and an advancing attack ("Range Attack", Btn4/G).
These four buttons allow you to pull off these special moves easily, but doing any of them would use up a bar of white meter, which fills up rather quickly. Otherwise, if you want to bypass this cooldown, you could also do the original inputs of three of these special moves - DPs could be done by pressing down and then up (28), projectiles could be inputted using a quarter circle forward motion + Btn1 (236R), and Range Attacks with quarter circle back + Btn2 (214T).
There are two (universal) super attacks in this game. Super 1 (down x3/222 or Btn1 when the green bar is full) has the user approach the opponent while surrounded in energy, hitting the opponent multiple times, whereas Super 2 (up x3/666 or Btn2 when the red bar is full) is a fullscreen attack. Super 1 is slightly different in appearance, number of hits, and even direction between each character - Makiko Mari's Super 1 takes the form of a purple sphere that hits up to 30-ish times, whereas Una May's Super 1 is brown and goes back and forth.
While Gariax's presentation overall is pretty admirable (the game's OST has house music playing in battles, which is a pretty interesting choice tbh), the game is also pretty jank. The game overall feels a bit weird to play, with blocking being done by pressing down instead of backwards or a dedicated block button, throws are done by pressing down twice (overlapping with the block input), and the different meters for special moves and super attacks are not shown clearly, with the white bar (for special moves) being overlapped by the green bar (for Super 1), which in turn is overlapped by the red bar (Super 2).
There are also more weird quirks outside of the game's design. The hitboxes in some attacks, such as Mari's DP, are disjointed enough that you could get away with spamming these moves in combos (using the original input). Furthermore, there exists a corner infinite prevention system that pushes the opponent away from the corner upon five hits, but this system could be bypassed by simply using Super 1 before the fifth hit. It's overall a fun game to play because of these quirks, but I wouldn't be lying if I said that I was a bit frustrated on figuring how to play the game due to the aggressive A.I. in this game's Arcade Mode.
Speaking of which, Arcade Mode has you face off against all playable characters (minus your own chosen character). There are boxes and explosive barrels in-stage that also deals damage if you knock your opponent down next to them, which does make combos easier at times.