Galaxy Keiji Gayvan is a Beat 'em Up developed by Fill-in-Cafe (creators of Asuka 120%) and published by Intec for the PC Engine CD in October 29, 1993. The characters were designed by Toshinobu Kondo, who (much later) will direct the character designs for Code of Princess and Blade Strangers.
For the story...A criminal mastermind known as Ballas (no, not those ones), have just taken a large city and now are trying to conquer the whole universe. To counter this menace, the Galaxy Police has dispatched its two best agents: the Hot-Blooded Hiro Aoyama and the tomboyish policewoman Michiki Akasaka, better known as Gayvan and Mittchi, respectively.
Gayvan is a standard Beat'em up in a 2D plane, with many of the conventions of the genre, including simultaneous two-player cooperative play. But what sets it apart from other games is that the two characters can transform into a Powered Armor with the energy collected from items dropped by enemies, who grants them additional strength and access to new techniques, just like your average Sentai show. Additionally, the game includes a special two player fighting mode, with the ability to play as a few enemies in a best-of-three match.
Sales for the game were not very good due to being released on the same day as the Killer App for the system that was Castlevania: Rondo of Blood. Fill-in-Cafe would try their luck again in the genre with Panzer Bandit for the first PlayStation four years later.
Galaxy Keiji Gayvan provides examples of:
- Cast from Hit Points: Averted! There're no Mega Crash-like moves that can save you if you get surrounded. Even if the enemies are few compared to other games of the genre and you can block some attacks, but still!
- Henshin Hero: Gayvan can become Galaxy Detective Gayvan and Mittchi can become Galaxy Police Mittchi by filling their COR bar. The player can cancel the transformation at any time by pressing Select again.
- Mana Meter: The COR bar that allows the player to transform, it reloads by collecting canisters and gradually over time.
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Nintendo Hard: Movement is in a 2D plane (like the first Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers SNES game), the COR bar charges slowly unless you find the required item, there's no crowd control move, and even common mooks are Incredibly Durable Enemies on later stages. - Powered Armor: What separates this game from other Beat'em ups. By defeating enemies, the characters can pick up canisters with energy (named Coreda energy, abbreviated to COR), when the COR bar it's full (or not), the player can press Select to transform. The armor increases the damage dealt and allows access to two special attacks. It's not permanent, however, as the armor will vanish if the COR bar drains completely.
