Neon Inferno Review - Contra Meets Metal Slug Meets Wild Guns!?

It's smokin' hot!

Retroware is quickly becoming one of my favorite indie game publishers. 2024’s Iron Meat was an awesome little run-and-gun action game, managing to gain more reviews than Contra: Operation Galuga on Steam, which was released the very same year. That’s pretty damn impressive when you consider Contra’s lineage, with many people viewing it as the granddaddy of the genre. Retroware’s focus on classic gameplay, sound, and visuals remains apparent in this year’s Angry Video Game Nerd 8-Bit, a well-made throwback to 8-bit platforming that pays homage to the original Mega Man franchise. Soon they’ll be paying tribute to old-school Castlevania games with the hilariously named Transylvania Adventure of Simon Quest, and arcade brawlers with the upcoming Toxic Crusaders game.

But today, we’re here to talk about their latest release: Neon Inferno—a mix of Wild Guns with a dash of Metal Slug and a hint of Contra. Throw in a futuristic, neon-soaked cyberpunk aesthetic and, on paper, it sounds like we’re in for a wild ride. But is Neon Inferno flaming hot? Or does it burn out all too soon? Let’s find out in our full review.

Neon Inferno absolutely oozes with style. Its pixel-art visuals are jaw-dropping—some of the best you’ll see in any indie release—with grimy, neon-soaked landscapes that take you everywhere from an opera house to futuristic parks and cities. I personally loved the CRT filter too, which can be tweaked to your liking or even turned off entirely. The character and enemy designs are gorgeous, no surprise coming from industry veteran and artist Tsukasa Jun. Throw in contributions from Koji Ogata, best known for his work on the Double Dragon and Guilty Gear series, alongside André Bertanha, Tim Jonsson, and Erik Quiroz additionally pitching in on background art and animations, and you’ve got yourself a dream team of artists. The amazing visual presentation of Neon Inferno should come as no surprise to anyone who played Zenovia Interactive's 2021 release Steel Assault, a critically underrated 16-bit platformer that nailed down the aesthetic of that era.

It doesn’t hurt that Neon Inferno sounds just as good as it looks, with crunchy explosions that rip through my 5.1 sound system, an amazing set of varied compositions oozing with retro synths, melodies, and, often, brutal chugging guitar riffs, and even vocally driven tracks that wouldn’t feel out of place in WayForward’s River City Girls series. All of this is to say, Neon Inferno features my favorite visual and audio presentation of the year so far, and it isn’t even close.

Neon Inferno follows two lead characters: Angelo Morano and Mariana Vitti. Angelo is an assassin who works for The Family, a group of Americans formed from what remains of the Italian mafia and a few other, smaller mobs. Raised as an orphan, Angelo is driven by his love for “The Family” and not much else. Mariana, on the other hand, had a much more grounded upbringing before turning to a life of petty crimes, culminating in the theft of Morano’s gun. Long story short, this leads to a date between the two characters, with Mariana eventually pledging her loyalty to The Family alongside Angelo. Criminals fear this unlikely duo—and with good reason. The game takes place in New York City during the year 2055. The city has become a complete warzone, with the Yakuza and NYPD battling for control. Angelo and Mariana now fight to take control of the city themselves, gunning down one syndicate after another.

Much of Neon Inferno’s story is told through quick, stylish cutscenes, which vary ever so slightly depending on the character you’ve selected. You’ll get a bit of background on each new target via your tablet, and a few scenes in between levels, but as you would expect, the storyline is not the main focus of the experience—even though what’s here does a wonderful job of drawing you into this universe.

As I previously mentioned, Neon Inferno falls somewhere between Metal Slug, Contra, and, most notably, Wild Guns. Your goal is simple: to blast through six different stages alongside an ending area. You’ll typically be heading toward the right side of your screen, relying on your platforming skills and holding down the action button to fire off unlimited bullets from your pistols. But what may throw some players for a loop is the ability to shoot into the background, where enemies can often pop up. Players can also deflect any bullets that are green back toward enemies using a melee attack and even enter slow motion by holding down the melee button. Doing so allows you to control the trajectory of a bullet so that you can send it off to potentially hit another on-screen enemy. Do note that there is an adrenaline gauge which ensures you won’t be able to slow down time forever. I should also mention a dodge button which I rarely used that probably would have made me score better in retrospect.

Admittedly, the gameplay might take you a bit to wrap your head around. Having a dedicated button for shooting into the background isn’t exactly the norm, and because the screen can often become swarmed with enemies, differentiating which enemies are in the foreground as opposed to the background can lead to some confusion—especially in two-player mode. Learning curve aside, I was able to settle into a flow state eventually and came to love how the game felt to play. It is especially helpful that you can speed up your cursor when shooting into the background with a click of the right stick, though I’d argue that its faster speed should have been the default.

At certain points, players may need to take cover behind vehicles by ducking, or even ride vehicles through scrolling sections. In areas such as these, you can switch between planes, avoiding traps and obstacles which are pointed out through giant flashing warning signs that are pretty hard to miss. These sections of the game were action-packed, though some of the auto-scrolling felt a bit wonky at times, leading to cheap hits of damage. This was mostly an issue in areas where you had to jump between platforms to survive while the screen tried to eat you.

Boss encounters fare much better, offering explosive action that will have you blasting into both the foreground and background while weaving around bullets. Most bosses have distinct patterns that can be learned and, of course, multiple phases—meaning they usually aren’t dead when you think they are. Adding an extra layer of strategy, players are scored after each level and given a set amount of cash depending on their performance. This cash can then be used to purchase upgrades, such as new guns which come with limited bullets. The problem is, getting anything above a 2-star ranking proved very difficult, at least for me. This meant that I often didn’t have enough money for new weapons; thus, the majority of my gameplay was spent with the default pistol. While I can appreciate the game having a shop, I do think it would have been nice for levels to have more guns scattered throughout them to freshen up the gameplay a bit, especially when considering that once your newly acquired weapon runs out of ammo, you can’t use it further. It was also a bit awkward to switch between different weapons, requiring a two-button combination. I’d also note that Angelo and Mariana felt all too similar to one another, and I feel like they could have played more differently.

Despite these flaws, few games feel as action-packed as Neon Inferno. My heart raced through each new level, and mastering the art of shooting into the background is very satisfying. The game rarely takes its foot off the gas, with massive explosions abound and sheer carnage and chaos aplenty. It’s tough as nails too, even on the normal setting—though thankfully, players will have options. An easy mode tones things down drastically and gives characters more health and bullet-time, while a hard mode brings sheer insanity. Want to really up the ante? Try the arcade mode, where you have one credit to make it through. Good luck! The nice thing is, there are plenty of options available—and checkpoints too—which help alleviate some of the frustrations of repeating the same areas over and over again. There’s also a replay mode available to help with mastering specific levels.

As far as performance goes, Neon Inferno ran mostly without issue on both PC and Steam Deck, and I didn’t encounter any game-breaking bugs. One small bug worth noting on the Steam Deck version was some slight stick drift that was present when trying to aim into the background. Options include the ability to choose between a few different languages and the ability to turn off enemy health bars if you prefer such an aesthetic. Controls can also be modified if you so wish, and there’s a decent assortment of visual options like the aforementioned CRT filter, scaling, blur, and volumetric lighting. Outside of a few basic audio selections, that’s about it.

Much like other games that have been published by Retroware, Neon Inferno delivers intense arcade action. Its visuals and audio are fantastic, backed by chaotic, fun gameplay that will have you shooting enemies in both the foreground and background with ease once you’ve wrapped your head around the controls. That said, the game has its flaws, and 2-player can get a bit messy in spots. But in the end, this is a great throwback experience from a talented developer—and while it’s a short run-through, there are plenty of reasons to go back in for more as you attempt to master its mechanics and maybe even live to score 5 stars on a level, something I failed miserably at achieving.

SILVER - GREAT