METAGAL is a Mega Man-like Platform Game by Retro Revolution.
Meta is a Robot Girl who was created by Dr. Ray, along with her eight sisters. One day, her father Dr. Ray, along with her sisters, have been kidnapped by the evil General Creeper, who had them reprogrammed into battle robots to assist him in world domination.
From there, Meta embarks on a mission to face her sisters, free them and Dr. Ray, and stop General Ripper from taking over the world.
The game was released on Steam on May 23rd, 2016. It was then ported to PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PS Vita in 2019.
Not to be confused with a girl expressing the Meta Guy trope or the videogame Gal Metal.
METAGAL contains examples of:
- Arm Cannon: Buster always has one on her right arm but typically uses that to throw bouncing bombs, while Meta can summon one onto her left arm if she chooses to attack with it. (Meta's artwork portrays her with the cannon on the right arm instead.) Shield has two that are used to summon her shields or attack. Chaos has one that resembles a revolver.
- Hand Blast: General Creeper does not turn his hands into guns, but that does not stop him from being able to fire bullets from his arms during his fight.
- Barrier Warrior: Hence her name, Shield can use barriers. Warp is also surrounded with a pair of orbiters during her fight.
- Battle Theme Music: General Creeper and Chaos have their own theme that plays during their and the fortress bosses' fights.
- Beehive Barrier: If an attack doesn't hurt an enemy, this will flash in front of the foe for a brief moment.
- Big Bad: General Creeper, who kidnapped Dr. Ray and Meta's eight sisters and reprogrammed them into battle robots, plans on bringing the world under his control.
- Blue Is Heroic: Meta's armour has a lot of blue parts to it, and she is the hero of the game.
- Cute and Psycho: She may look cute, but Chaos can dish out major damage. Buster, Dash, Shield, and Warp are this as well in their brainwashed state.
- Defeat Equals Explosion: A defeated boss will burst. Meta's sisters downplay this as they survive their explosion upon defeat allowing them to commit a Heel–Face Turn, although they appear exhausted and/or comically disfigured after the "explosion". Dash in particular looks the most surprised following her defeat. General Creeper averts this, however, since he is a human.
- Demilitarized Zone: Buster is fought in this environment. Quite fitting, since she uses a tank.
- Distressed Dude: Dr. Ray, who's been kidnapped by General Creeper.
- Evil Knockoff: Buster, Dash, Shield, and Warp have doppelgangers that are fought in the Fortress Boss Rush. While Buster, Dash, Shield, and Warp commit Heel Face Turns following their battles, these knockoffs are actually destroyed as their defeat explosion leaves no remains behind.
- Fiery Redhead: Dash has red hair and a fiery personality. Many of her attacks use fire.
- Gender-Blender Name: Buster is a masculine name, but the character Buster is not a boy in the slightest.
- General Ripper: General Creeper, of course, is the Big Bad. He kidnapped Dr. Ray and had eight of Meta's sisters to Take Over the World.
- Guns Akimbo: Shield is the only GAL unit boss to be handless. Instead of hands, she has two Arm Cannons that allow her to summon shields as well as attack.
- Having a Blast: Buster uses many explosion-based attacks when she is fought.
- Heel–Face Turn: Buster, Dash, Shield, and Warp do this following their defeat.
- Hover Bot: When she is fought, Warp can turn into this. Get ready for her to Throw Down the Bomblet when this happens.
- In a Single Bound:
- Buster has an attack where she jumps out of the tank she's piloting and fires a bomb ahead of herself. This does not actually have her move horizontally, though. She'll land back in the tank following the attack.
- Chaos is able to leap from one end of the area she's fought in to the other.
- Instant Bandages: Drain her life bar and Buster has her head warped into a normal head, with a white X in her hair, implying she got this there.
- Lethal Lava Land: Dash hosts a stage with damaging lava and fiery hazards.
- Meaningful Name:
- Buster has a cannon on her right arm, akin to the "Mega Buster", which is an Arm Cannon. Downplayed in that she uses it rarely, with most attacks having her use a tank or the bomb launcher she has for a head.
- Dash is able to run at high speed with a rocket engine.
- Shield can use shields when she fights.
- Warp can warp space to create danger zones during her fight.
- Mecha-Mooks: Much like its inspiration, this game has its share of robotic enemies.
- Non-Human Head: Buster has an upwards-facing cannon that has a girl's face on the "front" for a head. This trope is averted in her death animation.
- Orbiting Particle Shield: When she is fought, Warp will have two pink drones that act similar to the drones that Astro Man has surrounding his vehicle. These surround Warp for the most part, defending her and absorbing any projectile that gets in their way without damage. She can also throw them out to attack.
- Pink Means Feminine: Warp has a top and shorts that are pink or magenta.
- Playing with Fire: Dash can do this along with Throw Down the Bomblet, but she wasn't named after it.
- Power Copying: This is a Mega Man clone through and through, so of course Meta gains her sisters' weapons for each one she beats.
- Power Floats: Warp can do this during her fight, and drops bombs in this forme.
- Robot Girl: Nine of them. Meta and her sisters.
- Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains: Meta, Dash, Chaos, and General Creeper turn this trope on its head.
- Shared Life-Meter: Buster and the tank she is driving share their health bar.
- Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: GAL units 5 through 8 invert this trope, failing to show up in the game itself, but Chaos plays it straight.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: Dr. Ray is a bespectacled genius who made nine robots.
- Space Master: Warp can use her powers to rend space as an attack during her fight.
- Spiky Hair: Meta's got a pretty pointy top. Dash as well.
- Super-Speed: Dash.
- Tank Goodness: When she and Meta square off, Buster will have a tank. Defeating Buster destroys it, though she survives and escapes the wreckage.
- Throw Down the Bomblet: Buster can litter her arena with mines, and Dash can drop small bombs when she dashes overhead. Warp is able to throw down small pink bombs in her Hover Bot phase. Chaos can also throw down some pink bombs that explode into smaller bullets when she jumps from one end of the room to the other.
- Take Over the World: General Creeper plans on bringing the world under his tyrannical rule, and plans to do so by reprogramming Meta's sisters into helping him.
- Transforming Mecha: Apparently, Buster can turn her hair into a bomb-launcher, since when she is defeated she has a perfectly human-like head, aside from green hair.
- Under the Sea: Part of Chaos' stage is underwater.
- Use Your Head: Buster can fire some bombs from her bomb-launcher head when she and Meta fight.
- Vehicular Assault: Unlike her sisters, Buster uses a tank during her fight.
- Victor Gains Loser's Powers: See Power Copying above.
- Weaponised Headgear: More like "weaponised head" than "weaponised headgear", but Buster has cannon that has a girl's face on the "front" side for a head. She can fire bombs from it, too. (Buster's defeat sprite gives her a standard head, though, complete with an instant bandage, implying that she is a Transforming Mecha of sorts.)
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Where are GAL units 5 through 8 anyway?
