A pixel art, retro-inspired run-and-gun with some great twists thrown into the mix.
What Is It? Neon Inferno places you in the role of one of two assassins seemingly indebted to a NYC crime syndicate. You mercilessly tear through hundreds of enemies standing in your way as you take out your targets.
At first glance, Neon Inferno appears to be a typical retro-inspired run-and-gun, side-scrolling shooter. The major gameplay twist the game throws your way is the addition of a gallery shooter mechanic that you will have to seamlessly fire off as enemies will appear in the background as well as the foreground for those my traditional shooter mechanics. Being able to recognize and prioritize the two different areas enemies can appear from is the crux of Neon Inferno. At first it was a bit overwhelming for me, but after catching on I was hooked.
The traditional shooting controls as you would expect. A dedicated fire button sits alongside jump, deflect, and dodge buttons. You can deflect certain types of bullets and equip special weapons between levels to boost up your arsenal. The gallery shooting is handled exclusively by holding down a trigger button on consoles. This will pop up a reticle in the background and you will start a steady stream of firing as long as you’re holding the button.
To be extra clear; you will have enemies attacking you from both the foreground and background at the same time. Many of them spray massive waves of bullets in your direction which gives Neon Inferno the feel of a schmup at times.
Enemies range from standard one-shot baddies to some massive machines which take forever to bring down. The boss fights are mostly quite difficult, but offer a fun try-and-die style of learning and improving. A fairly generous checkpoint system on Medium difficulty makes the game manageable on that level. Hard mode is less forgiving in a number of ways, including four hit points instead of the five Medium provides, and will be a stiff challenge for those who seek it out.
The game also offers an Arcade mode which is Hard mode but your health doesn’t refill between stages. This is the ultimate, brutal challenge. I spent over 45 minutes on the second level on Hard mode, which says a lot about both my shooter skills and how tough the game is. Finally, the game offers couch co-op which is always a welcome addition in games of this style.
The game features an absolutely wonderful pixel art style. It is truly among the most appealing games in this retro style I’ve ever played. The color pallet absolutely pops off the screen and is backed up by every screen being packed full of wonderful sights to see.
The Best Part: The absolute madness the moment-to-moment gameplay offers. I was expecting a fairly straightforward run-and-gun shooter, but the game layers multiple mechanics on top of that. The gallery shooting is the most notable, but dodging and deflecting are also major components of the game. By the end of your first playthrough you will be deftly shooting enemies in both areas, deflecting bullets into other enemies to kill them, and dodging like it was second nature. It’s a fun learning curve that paid off quite well for me.
The Worst Part: The length. The game took me just over two hours to beat the first time on Medium difficulty. I had enough fun that I spent a significantly larger amount of time trying to fight through Hard mode, so I feel like the entire game was a very nice experience. However, I feel it is worth noting that the experience is quite short for those who would like to see the game once and put it down.
The Verdict: Neon Inferno is a gem of a run-and-gun shooter. That it also seamlessly integrates gallery shooting on the same screen at the same time is what makes the game stand out among the enormous volume of retro-inspired, pixel art, run-and-gun titles that get released.
The potential downsides here are that the game is fairly short if you don’t want to engage in the tougher difficulty modes. Also, I can definitely see the mix of styles being overwhelming for some people. I certainly died enough times early on as I got used to needing to pay attention to background and foreground enemies and the buttons required to shoot each. It is a weird bit of muscle/brain memory that I’ve not seen many games exercise and sometimes that won’t land well for everyone.
If the core mechanics sound appealing, I wholeheartedly recommend Neon Inferno. There is a demo available across all platforms, so a quick download will allow you to see for yourself.
How to Play: PlayStation 4/5*, Xbox Series, Switch, PC
*console played on for this review
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