What is Genokids?

When I originally covered Genokids for LOGNET, I walked away from that experience hyped. And now that the game has been released in Early Access on PC, how does the game’s first act build on its strong Kickstarter Demo?

After finishing the Early Access release, I’m eager to see the other Acts (as the Early Access contains only Act I). This sample set list inspires a lot of confidence in the full adventure.

Publisher/Developer: Nukefist
Platforms: PC, Switch (TBD)
Release Date: October 2nd, 2025 (Early Access – PC)
Price: $19.99

Rocking Out! – Premise of Genokids

• Genokids kicks off with a high-energy concert from the titular band, only to be interrupted by a sudden alien invasion. The chaos forces the band to tap into their Ego-powered instruments, unlocking powerful new forms to fight back.
• With Acts II and III on the horizon, Genokids promises a compelling blend of music-fueled action and character-driven storytelling.

The story begins with the band Genokids playing a killer track for their fans. Everyone is loving the show, but it’s soon interrupted by rude alien invaders. Furious at the invaders not only running their show, but attacking their fans, the band of four unlocks new forms for their Ego-powered instruments.

They use these newfound abilities to fight the aliens, but are quickly overwhelmed and are split up. Act I focuses on Red and Blue, giving them the spotlight. Both are enjoyable characters, with Red’s brash but earnest nature and Blue’s being the natural leader of the band standing out.

One particular highlight was the conclusion of Act I. Red and Blue defeat Candy, the final boss of the Act. She wants to end it all, but Red tells her to ‘get over herself’ and gives genuine words of encouragement. Even Blue is taken aback by Red’s brief moment of wisdom before the duo continues looking for their other bandmates.

Considering how I was feeling lukewarm on Red during the Kickstarter demo, I love seeing the cast get additional depth, making me excited for the full story in Acts II and III.

Diving into the Heart – Gameplay of Genokids

• Genokids is a fast-paced action/adventure game where players control one of four bandmates, each sharing identical movement mechanics.
• This unified control scheme ensures smooth platforming across the cast, allowing players to focus on the game’s dynamic traversal and combat systems without worrying about character-specific quirks.

Controlling one of the four bandmates, Genokids is an action/adventure game, with each character controlling the same movement-wise. This means basic actions are mirrored across the main cast, making platforming easy regardless of your character of choice.

Platforming focuses on chaining jumps and wall runs together, and while every level is linear, there are some hidden areas to discover for Ego (your experience orbs that can unlock additional moves and Flow attacks) and health drops. In addition, every level has a Secret Door (inspired by Devil May Cry‘s hidden challenges), which can be a fun challenge to overcome. But while the platforming is fun, the focus is squarely on Genokids’ robust combat system.

Brawling in Unfair Grounds – Combat System in Genokids

• Genokids delivers a fast-paced, combo-driven combat system that blends light and heavy attacks with unique character styles. Each bandmate brings something different to the battlefield.
• Combat is elevated by Flow abilities, triggered by holding the Left Trigger and pressing a face button.
• When everything clicks, the game evokes the best moments of Kingdom Hearts II and III — stylish, fluid, and deeply engaging.

Using a mixture of light and heavy attacks, every bandmate offers a different style to proceedings. Blue uses fast sword slashes and is the well-rounded one, while Red uses heavy charged punches for duking it out. While Yellow and Green are playable in Chapter 1, their abilities aren’t used for the rest of Act 1.

Alongside Red and Blue’s basic light/heavy attacks, they can also use Flow abilities. These are pulled off by holding the Left Trigger and pressing one of the face buttons. You can earn flow by attacking enemies and blocking their attacks.

And when dealing with airborne threats, you can ‘dash’ to them by pressing one of the shoulder buttons, keeping your combo going. Keeping your combo going is what earns you high letter ranks, similar to Devil May Cry. When you get hit once, you lose that combo outright, encouraging careful blocks/dodges.

The game does a great job telling you when to dodge or block, based on whether an enemy is flashing red or blue. When everything comes together, it reminds me of the best combat encounters in Kingdom Hearts II and Kingdom Hearts III. I was always on the move, executing stylish attacks, and felt engaged in every battle.

Brutal Rock Candy – Boss Encounters in Genokids

• The combat system in Genokids truly shines during its two standout boss encounters in Act I.
• The first boss, Valhollow, is a celestial, angelic-looking alien that challenges players to balance offense and defense. Meanwhile, the main event is the Candy boss fight, which demands mastery of Genokids’ full combat mechanics.
• These fights highlight the game’s stylish combat design and leave players eager to see what developer Nukefist has in store for Acts II and III.

The combat system sings during the two boss encounters in Genokids Act I. The first of these was Valhollow, an angelic-looking alien that forced me to balance staying on the defensive and offensive. It wasn’t overly challenging, as I remembered their patterns from the Kickstarter demo, but it still was a good warm-up for the main event.

The main event is the Candy boss fight, demanding you use all of Genokids’ combat mechanics. Blocking a chain of attacks, then dodging at the right moment, felt awesome. In addition, seeing the game’s ‘recovery’ mechanic being leveraged so heavily (where being attacked puts you in a lock state that you can undo by switching to another character) kept me switching between Blue and Red often.

And it also showed me how useful each character’s Flow abilities really are. Reds are focused on linking together powerful combos, while Blues are keeping your enemy on your toes while staying on the move. Balancing both while avoiding unnecessary hits felt exhilarating.

Finishing the demo, I eagerly await seeing what other boss encounters Nukefist has in store for the full experience.

Arrival in Style – Presentation of Genokids

• The hand-drawn stills are bold, emotive, and full of personality, giving each bandmate a distinct visual identity.
• The bandmates appear in 3D only occasionally, which may reflect the game’s early access status but also reinforces the stylized aesthetic.
• Dynamic transitions between 2D and 3D visuals that enhance storytelling and immersion.

The game starts with a bang. It has a stylish opening, featuring the entire band riding on a tour bus in cool poses. This continues when starting a new save file, with the band performing an actual song, showing the game’s mixture of hand-drawn character stills and full 3D environments for its cinematics.

What makes this design choice stand out is how stylized and expressive the character stills are, with only the rare occasions the bandmates are 3D character models (though that could be a reflection of the game’s early access state).

Could Use Some Color – Environment Variety in Genokids

Regarding the game’s environments, the game’s cell-shaded art style does a lot of the heavy lifting. There are some standouts, like an Alice in Wonderland-inspired maze section or an underground bumper-car track. However, most of the game’s seven chapters take place in the same ‘ruined city’ location, limiting visual variety.

Stylish Rockers – Character Designs of Genokids

The biggest standout is the character design: visually distinct alien enemies, unique boss designs like Candy, and cool-looking main characters. The visual style of Genokids is strong.

I particularly love the animation work for Red and Blue. The duo stands out thanks to their charming idle animations and strong animation work in combat.

A Jaming Set List – Audio/Music

• Supporting the score is polished sound design, with clever touches like cymbal crashes triggered by successful blocks — reinforcing the game’s musical identity and rhythm-based combat feedback.
• Whether you’re a fan of dynamic soundtracks or nuanced audio design, Genokids delivers a memorable sonic experience that complements its gameplay and visual style.

Matching the stylish visuals is an equally awesome soundtrack. The seven chapters of Genokids feature varied battle themes that make chaining combos and keeping the flow a treat.

I loved the high-energy of tracks like ‘Unfair Grounds – Rock It!’ and the aggressive beats of Red’s theme. Alongside the high-energy battle themes, there are some more atmospheric tracks, and two boss encounters feature music that wouldn’t be out of place in a Kingdom Hearts title.

I overall loved the musical score, and supporting it is solid audio work with the game’s sound effects. In particular, small touches, such as how each block attack emits a cymbal sound effect, add to the game’s musical personality.

Stable Drum Kit – Performance of Genokids

Played on my Lenovo Legion gaming laptop, containing an AMD Ryzen 9 6000 Series CPU, AMD Radeon 6850M XT GPU, and 32 GB of RAM, the game ran at max settings at a near-locked 165 FPS throughout the entire experience.

Hand in Hand – Closing Thoughts on Genokids

After loving my time with the Kickstarter demo, I was eager to see how a more complete experience of Genokids would fare. It has so much going for it, between its enjoyable combat system and fantastic art direction, so I was hopeful the full game would match my positive impressions.

Not only does it exceed those expectations, but it makes me eager to see what the team at Nukefist has in store for the full release. This Act 1 experience features strong combat mechanics, enjoyable exploration, charming characters, and a soundtrack to keep you tapping to the beat. I cannot recommend Genokids enough, and Act I is this solid, I can’t wait to see what Act II and III have in store.

This game was purchased by the reviewer. The game is an Early Access release, only containing Act I.

Score – 8.5 out of 10

Pros:

• Strong combat system
• Enjoyable boss encounters
• Striking cell-shaded art style
• Rocking Soundtrack
• Both playable characters have varied move sets to play around with
• Act 1 length offers a sizable amount of content (2-3 hours)

Cons:

• Level Design can be a tad basic
• Mastering combat mechanics can take a little time
• Environments can look samey