About The Game

Geppy-X is less of a traditional game and more of an interactive 70s super-robot anime broadcast. Originally spanning four discs on the PlayStation in 1999, the game meticulously mirrors the structure of a classic TV series, complete with opening themes, mid-episode commercial breaks, eyecatches, and "next episode" previews. You pilot the transforming Geppy-X mecha alongside three young heroes to defend Earth from the Space Demon Empire. The gameplay is a fast-paced 2D side-scrolling shooter where you must master three distinct combat forms—Balanced (X1), Speed (X2), and Power (X3)—switching in real-time to overcome screen-filling bosses and intense enemy waves.  

History and Inspiration

The original Geppy-X was a monumental technical achievement for the late-90s, pushing the limits of the PlayStation with over 8,000 hand-drawn animation frames. Despite its ambition, it remained a Japan-exclusive cult classic, never reaching Western shores—until now. Developed by Implicit Conversions, this Hi-Res Remastered Edition is a labor of love that goes far beyond a simple upscale. The team went back to the original Betacam master tapes, re-digitizing and restoring the animation to its native 24fps (a significant jump from the original’s 15fps). It serves as a love letter to the golden age of mecha anime, featuring original 1999 voice performances from industry icons and legendary theme song vocalists.  

Critical Discourse and Player Feedback

The Geppy-X demo has sparked a wave of enthusiasm among enthusiasts of classic mecha and shoot-'em-ups, who are viewing this long-awaited Western debut as a triumphant preservation effort. Reddit communities, particularly on r/shmups and r/TwoBestFriendsPlay, have been quick to praise Implicit Conversions for their technical diligence, specifically highlighting the restoration of original Betacam source material to a smooth 24fps, a significant leap from the 15fps found on the original 1999 PlayStation hardware. Players are finding the game’s unique "fictional 70s anime" structure, complete with fake commercial breaks and an episodic narrative, to be just as charming today as it was in the import scene decades ago. Furthermore, the inclusion of modern quality-of-life staples like rewind functionality and rapid-fire toggles has been widely welcomed, as these additions effectively soften the punishing difficulty typical of 90s-era arcade shooters, making the title much more accessible to a contemporary audience.

My Hands-On Impressions

The name of this game is so ridiculous I thought it would end up being a throw away shovel-ware title. Boy was I wrong. Although, I had no idea what was going on when I first booted it up. I didn't know Geppy-X was a classic PlayStation game released in Japan that never made it to North America, and I also didn't know it wasn't an actual anime from back in the day, and that's the real surprise here. Geppy-X is presented like a tie-in game to a 70s anime, like Voltron, but there was no Geppy-X anime. The game does such a great job emulating those types of shows that you would be completely forgiven thinking it was a licensed tie-in game. (In fact it makes me long for a licensed Voltron game done in a similar style.)

The game is presented as episodes of an anime, with an intro clip, the setup for "the episode", then a gameplay segment where you play a side scrolling shmup, then there is a boss battle, and then there is an epic anime-style finishing move on the boss and an ending video clip to finish the episode, complete with credits. Then it moves onto the next episode, with yet another showing of the "show" intro clip. It might sound repetitive, and it is, but it oozes such great nostalgia that I found myself looking forward to hearing the intro song yet again. It really is that good for fans of 70s anime.

Now, the gameplay itself isn't that special. It literally looks and plays like a mid-level licensed shmup from the orginal PlayStation era (and it is). The stages are short though, and the real hook to each level is the boss battle, which comes pretty quickly, although most of them in the demo were really easy.

The entire presentation of this game is where it shines though. It didn't matter to me that the gameplay was mid when the entire thing feels like a Saturday morning back in the 80s. I'm sure your mileage will vary with this game depending on how much the theme hits you in the nostaliga, but for me, I couldn't help but keep smiling.

You can watch my gameplay from the Woodo demo on PS5 in the video below: