Neon Inferno

• Genre: Run and Gun
• Spoiler Free Review: Not much to spoil.
• Time Played: ~5 hours
• Partner: Alice
• Too Short/Long: If we were better at the game, it would have been a good bit shorter, we both would have liked to have seen more. But it's way better than the ~1 hour length of the studio's previous game.
• Soundtrack: Soundtrack is pretty great, hype and surprisingly diverse.
• Why I played: I loved Steel Assault for the maybe 1 hour I played it. I had mentioned it seemed more like a proof of concept, and while this is an entirely different game, I can at least see where they learned this or that.
• Did I cry: Nah.
• Jank: I would say the only jank really is just that some of this hitboxes seem bigger than the affect. It's definitely not pixel perfect hit detection and I feel like if it isn't you should generally be conservative in a game that requires precision dodging of attacks.
• Difficulty: Played on the standard difficulty as per usual, though this game really asks you to play on hard/arcade, so I wonder if there is additional content there, if so, I just may. Anyway, it was still very tough on the standard difficulty.
• Recommend to others: I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes run and gun games like Contra. The action is intense and pretty well varied, it has new an interesting mechanics, and the art and soundtrack are awesome. I definitely think it has the co-op in mind though, so more recommended for co-op than single.

The second I saw the trailer for Neon Inferno I knew it was an instant buy from me. It was definitely a very cool game. I had a lot of fun, but I do wish I could have some more fun with it. There are only a handful of stages, but they're pretty big and often have several different gimmicks or design elements. It never feels like it's just filling space with another encounter. The bosses are each pretty different and each have a couple unique phases.

The main element to the game which is pretty cool is the fact that it has the standard action-platforming-esque run and shoot aspects, but it also has a "shoot the background" gallery shooting mechanic that you have to alternate back and forth between. Making it at times a cover-shooter, often sans cover. Pretty unique for a 2d side-scrolling game. In addition to your main gun, you also have a knife attack that can also parry certain types of shots. I think it really has two-player in mind, because there is stuff shooting at you from every direction at times but you need to stop and shoot the background. Juggling this with two people makes it feel actually possible. 

There are also some upgrades you can purchase in-game but I feel like these are actually pretty poorly implemented. They are expensive based off what you can earn in a level, and they're one-time use, and you can only carry one. I feel like the upgrades should have just been slottable equipment and maybe while you have limited ammo, you could turn it on/off during the stage. As it is, once you use it in a stage, you have like 30 special shots and then it's gone until you buy a new. An additional frustration to this is that some levels have (pretty severe) penalties to your income, which can basically mean you earn nothing (and maybe subtract from what you had? We had nothing at start of that mission). As it is we each used a singular equipment upgrade once each in our entire playthrough.

Minor complaint overall though. I just wish there were a bit more of it, but I guess it's like 5x the length of the last game the devs made.