Neon Inferno

Neon Inferno is a pixel-art run-and-gun that employs multiple planes and weapons to provide a classic arcade shooter with a cyberpunk style and palette. It's part Metal Slug, part Contra and part Wild Guns, taking the best parts of each to come up with something that feels both classic and brand-new.

The game offers twon characters to choose from, family assassin Angelo Morano and his girlfriend Mariana Vitti, who met Angelo when she stole his gun. With both pledging their loyalty to "the family" they take out various syndicates while battling Yakuza and the NYPD. Their story is told through cut-scenes between each level, using gorgeous pixel-portraits. 

So let's talk about those graphics, which are undoubtedly the draw on this game. In terms of the palette, it's absolutely perfect. Neon colours abounds as the name suggests, but the quality of the art is easily some of the best I've ever seen. Artist Tsukasa Jun provides the character designs, with contributions from Double Dragon's Koji Ogata - the expressions and movement are wonderfully expressed here, giving the game a feeling of life beyond just spraying bullets and death animation. Watching the citizens flee in panic as events unfold is quite distracting just by virtue of how entertaining they are.

Add in the grimy-future-noir backgrounds, digital HUD and even classic CRT lines and you get a game that's visually arresting. The crunchy sound effects and excellent music (I particularly like the Lounge tune, all sensuous slow crooning) add to the atmosphere tremendously, making it sound as good as it looks. It certainly draws the eye. So that's the hook, but how does it play?

Combat is nicely varied with vehicles playing a part - I love the foreground details, like the chap running terrified!

Neo Inferno takes place across two horizontal planes which you can navigate at will, which is especially important for vehicle sections where you'll need to weave between traffic while shooting down those who stand in your way. You can also fire into the background, Wild Guns style, with the crosshairs determining the trajectory of your infinite arsenal of bullets.  This gives you plenty of attack vectors to cover, but the controls provide a smooth way to transition between each of them fairly effortlessly, allowing you to focus on what to shoot as opposed to remembering how. One little tip is that if you need to shoot into the background with the cursor, pressing down on the right stick will speed up its movement. Takes some getting used to but once you have some practice it'll become second nature. Another useful Matrix like technique is deflecting incoming fire - if the bullet is green, you can deflect and aim the projectile, the action slowing somewhat to allow you to select where you want to send the enemy fire to. 

There are 6 stages in all, with you having some element of control over the order in which they're tackled by giving you the ability to select the next target from a selection at the end of the level. Each of these is a pleasure to experience visually, but in terms of gameplay you'll switch between walking, driving and platforming action. 

Bosses are fun, each taking on different attack patterns, utilising underlings, automated turrets and packing a considerable amount of firepower which you'll need to dodge continuously. They have a habit of moving between planes and making certain areas inaccessible, which requires you to be aware of your surroundings and switching your attention to where the boss is attacking from next. 

One thing I liked was that felled bodies didn't always flash and fade away like usual, leaving some bodies around the screen to sell the carnage. Oddly that's never true for the female baddies you'll have to gun down to make your way to the boss. 

The game isn't without a few flaws. Firstly, when you're ranked at the end of each level, the grading is quite strict. This is a problem because your earnings are affected by your performance. Couple this with a shop that has very high prices for new weapons and you'll find yourself restricted to your default pistol for much of the game. If you are lucky enough to pick up a new blaster within a level, you'll lose it entirely once the ammo is depleted. This is a little frustrating as new weapons also equal new tactics and approaches to levels; by making them so hard to attain you feel like you're locked out of some of the pleasures the game could be offering. Of course if you're a hardcore pixel perfectionist, this could be the challenge you're looking for. We average Joes will just have to take the loss.

While the game has two protagonists, the differences are purely aesthetic. If either has a skill the other doesn't, I've yet to find it. Making Mariana faster and Angelo more powerful but easier to hit would have been the classic way to do it, but I'd have welcomed any variation honestly. When you bring a friend into the game, it actually makes things a bit harder as the bullet-time deflections and multiple planes make things harder to track with two people bouncing around the screen. It's still a lot of fun, but you're as likely to hinder as help your partner. 

Those niggles aside, the game lives up to the sumptuous graphical fidelity with an intense, adrenaline-pumping joyride through neon soaked landscapes. The character of the game really shines through, and my God does it look amazing on an OLED screen. There's a physical release slated from Limited Run Games, but if you're happy with the digital release, that's available now.