Does blasting an army of bad guys to smithereens Metal Slug-style sound like your idea of a good time? How about doing it with your own custom-made weapon using whatever mishmash of parts you can think of? If any of that appeals to you, then this is absolutely worth a shot.

Paul Robertson's handmade sprites and backdrops do a lot to give the experience that retro/fake-retro charm without coming across as just pixelated for the sake of it. The soundtrack's combination of metal and chiptune-like tones calls to mind things like Virt's compositions for Contra 4 and DuckTales Remastered.

Once you get some momentum going, it's lots of fun crafting gun parts, bionic mods and even substitutes for your trusty knife, to put together your own personal loadout and see how it performs.

There's a couple hitches though. To me at least, the system of equipment weighing you down seems out of place, and the Monster Hunter-type layout of missions giving you different objectives in the same areas means it can get kind of repetitive, especially if there's a gun part or something you REALLY want to get the materials for.

Trifles aside, it's a fine example of mashing together run-and-gun violence and strategic weapon crafting.

Does blasting an army of bad guys to smithereens Metal Slug-style sound like your idea of a good time? How about doing it with your own custom-made weapon using whatever mishmash of parts you can think of? If any of that appeals to you, then this is absolutely worth a shot. Paul Robertson's handmade sprites and backdrops do a lot to give the experience that retro/fake-retro charm without coming across as just pixelated for the sake of it. The soundtrack's combination of metal and chiptune-like tones calls to mind things like Virt's compositions for Contra 4 and DuckTales Remastered. Once you get some momentum going, it's lots of fun crafting gun parts, bionic mods and even substitutes for your trusty knife, to put together your own personal loadout and see how it performs. There's a couple hitches though. To me at least, the system of equipment weighing you down seems out of place, and the Monster Hunter-type layout of missions giving you different objectives in the same areas means it can get kind of repetitive, especially if there's a gun part or something you REALLY want to get the materials for. Trifles aside, it's a fine example of mashing together run-and-gun violence and strategic weapon crafting.