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PS5
Xbox Series X
PC
PS4
Xbox One
Switch
If you remember the arcades of the 90s, Neon Inferno, coming tomorrow to all consoles, including PS4 and Xbox One, should bring back some painful (but fond) memories. The game has a demo available on Steam, so you can even try it out if you dare, but be warned that it's a tough one, especially once the first mission has been completed.
Verdict after a few hours
We should tell you from the get-go, Neon Inferno isn't just a visual homage of a genre, it's out to get your credits, just like in the good old days of arcades where you could find titles as varied as Street Fighter II, Cabal, NBA Jam, and Mad Dog McCree in one place. Although Story mode offers three difficulty levels, expect a tough challenge once you've completed the first level. Zenovia Interactive's title is a run-and-gun game at heart, with the ability to shoot into the background, but what will first strike you should be the quality of its pixel art and the multitude of settings options to fine-tune the display on your TV, with various filters and other goodies. Of course, given that it's 2025, the game is capable of handling much more elaborate effects and mechanics than its predecessors could thirty years ago or so, but you'll agree that it would have been a shame not to do so. The gameplay is really fast-paced, with enemies coming at you from all sides, projectiles that you can sometimes parry (and send back wherever you want thanks to a handy bullet time feature), others that you have to carefully avoid with a single (or double) jump, not to mention the ability of the two heroes to dodge attacks with a roll. Two heroes means, of course, the welcome option to share the adventure with a friend locally, but be careful, because the chaos on screen makes the experience even more difficult, especially since you can easily bounce enemy projectiles back at your partner in the general confusion. Even playing solo, the challenge remains very high, and in medium mode, since there are no checkpoints within a single mission sequence (each mission has several sequences, including the boss battle) and you can't find any healing items along the way, you'll need to be prepared to replay sections until you've mastered the necessary combos. At the end of the first mission, you have a choice between three new destinations, and if one offers too much resistance, you can always return to the selection menu to choose another one instead. However, none of them are really easy to access, so no matter what happens, you're going to die. A lot. And if that's not enough, the game also includes an Arcade mode where you have to try to complete it with a single credit...
- On the upside
- Gorgeous
- Highly dynamic and fast-paced
- Solid gameplay mechanics
- Local co-op is possible
- On the downside
- Very difficult
- Sometimes unfair
- Lack of checkpoints
- A few readability issues
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