The cheese and 80's action movies brings you into a violent side scroller

Huntdown manages to be something of a love letter to old cheesy action flicks and cyberpunk that really brings a lot of humor and violence to the table and manages to be a chaotic and surprisingly difficult good time.

The overall pixel art is amazing here and provides a surprisingly amount of interactivity with the environment from moving parts in the background to the signs in game spinning when you shoot at them and producing a detail based on your own interactions. Well there isn't much of a story here, the premise and backdrop for going on these "bounty hunts" are good enough with some campy voice acting during boss encounters that really bring the cheese action movie vibes this game is going for. The gameplay is pretty good but definitely has a curve to fully utilize the cover system since especially in a co-op experience where so much can happen that it can be hard to keep track of everything at once. Weapon variety is excellent here with new weapons in almost every level that never made the gameplay itself feel stale. Bosses were surprisingly difficult on normal difficulty but it never took an egregious long time to beat but that might be account to the negatives I have with the game itself. Music and sound design is pretty great here with weapons sounding great, the soundtrack matching the atmosphere of the experience and the sound of enemies dying in gratuitous ways at times.

Huntdown does a lot right but I feel like it actually hampers the co-op experience a bit which is honestly a huge shame. As of the writing of this review, there is no official online co-op experience here which required me and my friend to use the Remote Play Together feature on Steam to be able to play the game together which sadly does provide some input lag and the inability for someone to get achievements if they beat the game with said friend. Another thing I wish that wasn't here is friendly fire during co-op considering all the carnage that happens on screen that it actually is hard to keep track of it all. Sadly all of these negatives stem from trying to have a co-op experience with a friend far away and I can imagine this still being the preferred way to go during these times.

Huntdown is honestly a really cool game on paper and in motion but I really wish it did some things that didn't hamper the co-op experience a fair bit here. It was a great experience just playing through a comedic cyberpunk action film together and that's what you really get here nonetheless.

Huge shoutout to ExSoldier on backloggd for being my co-op partner for this and the general idea for playing this game. Not to mention putting up with the bad input lag I was getting that got us killed a few times.

Excellent gameplay, but suffers from this stupid craze of making the game "hardcore" by making it's bosses frustratingly hard by inflating their health to dummy levels. And it's on top of throwing adds at the player, difficult to avoid boss attacks, and giving us little ammo.
The difference in difficulty between regular levels and boss fights was honestly baffling. And you can't even change the difficulty mid-playthrough ffs. Why?
I suffered through until the final boss, died like 20 times without even getting to the second stage, gave up, and watched the ending on YT.
I guess I kinda am proud of making it to the final boss, but I'd be proud of not dying of colon cancer too. Doesn't mean I'd enjoy having it.

When it's fun? It's insanely fun man. Just mowing down row after row after row of enemies. And the art direction is some of the most impressive I've seen in a game. But my god it has this problem where the game gets so hard it moved past "challenging" and just went into bullshit territory. Not helped by the fact that a lot of the game's bosses have 2 (or even 3) stages and if you die you have to restart the whole thing.

Again the game is legit fun when it wants to be but at the same time I really would only recommend it to someone if they got in on sale (like me) or played it on easy difficulty.

Huntdown is a throwback action game in the vain of Contra and Mega Man, set to a backdrop of gorgeous sci-fi cyberpunk visuals. It's goofy and campy, but it manages to be one of the most solid examples of a modern action game in its style.

In Huntdown, you play as one of three bounty hunters taking on contracts to eliminate targets and anyone else who gets in your way. This means mowing down thousands of goons armed with a war room's worth of guns, swords, explosives, and artillery. The gunplay itself is the game's strongest element, and no weapon felt useless or unable to get the job done. Ripping through crowds of violent aggressors with an automatic shotgun, or throwing a perfectly placed grenade gives the game a wide range, and you are constantly encouraged to pick up something new, as you can only hold one additional gun at a time. You are always equipped with a boomerang and a gun with infinite ammo, ensuring you won't run out of options if ammo gets tight, but you also have a kick move which is invaluable when taking on the more hostile enemies.

There are 20 main levels in Huntdown, broken up into 4 areas controlled by the different gangs in the city. The criminals have their own distinct set of weaponry and attacks, from one that uses a lot of vehicles for combat, to one that employs samurai. The enemy variety on top of the foundation of guns ensures that no moment feels repetitive. The lead up to each boss fight is snappy, and checkpoints allow for quick drop-ins back to the shooting. The level design is top notch, with a perfect amount of light platforming and some hidden secrets and passageways to get better items and hidden "stash" collectibles. Each level is capped off with a boss, which each have a lot of personality and have a suprising amount of depth amongst themselves. The game's best ideas come from these fights, and they don't budge easily. This game is moderately difficult otherwise, but the boss fights demand pattern recognition, smart use of ammo, and good timing. There are a few more than frustrating fights, but the game's presentation and core gameplay never held me in that frustration for too long, and I came away with a rush of dopamine everytime you take down one of the baddies.

The game adopts a retro pixel-art style, but Easy Trigger Games really knocked this direction out of the park. Every detail in this game is perfectly crafted, there are so many tiny things you can pick up on, and the backgrounds and set design are drop-dead gorgeous. If nothing else, the game is worth playing to see the massive amount of effort put into the visuals here; it's just that good. The music also is especially fitting, and becomes an excellent backbeat to the thump of the shotguns. Overall, even if you aren't a fan of sidescrolling action games, any fan of retro style games will love what's here.

Other than some needlessly difficult encounters, the game could probably do for some more objective variation. Every level challenges you to collect the 3 collectible stashes, kill every enemy, and complete it without dying. While the first two are relatively achievable most times, the latter is only for the masochists and the dedicated, so I wish there was some other more unique objective for each stage that gave a reason to go back other than the scorechasing nature. I don't have a huge pull to return to this game unless I find myself in the mood.

By its conclusion, Huntdown is a satisfying adventure. Depending on your experience with the genre, this may be a shorter or longer game for you. For me, it clocked in around 9 hours just completing every level and that seems like a perfect length for my enjoyment of this product. Easy Trigger Games made a really impressive package that is challenging, eye-catching, and all types of 80s camp. Give this one a try if any of that sounds like it works for you.

Really gorgeous shooter with incredible details, pixel art, voice acting, the whole presentation package. Fun to play around with and challenging to a good degree for the most part.
My main gripe with it though is that the later bosses didn't really feel cool to play against, they were just boss designs similar to the earlier ones. but more bullet sponge-like. This lead me to not really want to fight them and therefore not finish the game.

Overall, it's worth playing with you like arcade shooters and explosive action. Just keep in mind that it's challenging, so while casual players like me can enjoy the game, there's not much reason to dedicate to finishing the game or doing side objectives.

Usually with these kind of retro throwback games something is always off aesthetically but not in Huntdown.
The developers recreated both the old-school cyberpunk atmosphere and the retro-arcade style presentation beautifully. And made the game a fun to play as well.
I really liked the idea of bounty-hunting, and the gangs. Man, I love when games do that - the gangs that have unique styles, names and logos and bosses. It was one of the highlights of Manhunt for me as well.
I would love a sequel to Huntdown with more gangs, more psycho bastards to hunt and maybe more gameplay variety between the bounties.

Huntdown is quite a fun love letter to those 80s movie street punks and the vigilantes that bring them down. The art stands out, particularly the loading screens which reminds me of those big, bold Amiga title and loading screens. Some of the weapons, quips and various references to its influences can be quite fun. Lots of RoboCop and Warriors vibes.

The gameplay requires a bit of strategy, using cover and various weapon pick ups to your advantage. Each level gets gradually tougher, with a different boss fight at the end of each one. They all have their own patterns and styles, all quite unique. But unique doesn't quite mean good. Some were fun, some were frustrating and took a lot of perseverance.

The level design was ok overall. It does get very rinse repeat as you start making your way to the final few stages. That's where I ended my play through. I've only got a few levels to go, but I've hit a wall with one of the bosses in the final gang area which just seems to throw the kitchen sink at you. I've put up with some shite bosses in this, but the guy I gave up on was something else.

I might come back and try it on a lower difficulty, but you cannot change it once you've started, so it would require playing through almost the entire game again, which might be fun, but that's a job for future me.

Прекрасная игра в стиле ран-энд-ган. Очень визуально и по геймплею (почти) напоминает Contra: Hard Corps. Почему почти, потому, что здесь темп игры чуть ниже, и противники не умирают с одного выстрела. Здесь есть даже система укрытий, за стенками или за бочками. Немного здесь и от игр в жанре бит-эм-ап, ближний бой, хп у противников. Стильно выглядит, играется очень приятно. Звучит игра очень круто. Местами битвы с боссами очень непростые. Если вы выросли во времена Sega и крутых боевиков тех времен - эта игра определенно Вам понравится. Плюс как положено в игре есть кооп на двоих.

Sights & Sounds
- If you've ever wondered what the 16-bit bastard offspring of Robocop and Escape from New York would look like, it's probably Huntdown. Every screen of this game is home to some snazzy pixel art full of neon signs, urban decay, and lots of explosions
- The music follows the theming perfectly. Be prepared to hear what could easily be an 80s action movie soundtrack. Driving synth beats and percussion will ebb and flow in tempo until you reach the final credits. I was not expecting to hear a licensed song as the credits started to roll, especially not my favorite Twisted Sister track. Out on the Streets is awesome and you should probably go listen to it right now
- There's also voice acting, and it's very well performed. Sure, some of the bosses have that phoned-in "tough guy" voice, but at least the protagonists are voiced well. It was fun to mow down enemies with a minigun while my trenchcoated robot quipped action movie one-liners
- The presentation isn't perfect, however. Some of the animation is pretty awful. I thought it was a framerate issue, but even capping the framerate didn't resolve anything. There just aren't enough animation sprites in the game to make characters in motion look good. It was distracting enough that it did affect my enjoyment: it looked like I was playing a flipbook at times

Story & Vibes
- I'll explain the setup, but don't go skipping the intro movie (a mock movie trailer complete with the expected overly serious voiceover). In any case, this is a post-apocalyptic cyberpunk game. As is often the case in such dystopian settings, the world governments have collapsed, and the power vacuum has been filled by private corporations like a libertarian wet dream. Meanwhile, street gangs have taken over the cities and war openly in the streets
- That's where you (or, rather, one of 3 playable characters) come in. Instead of seeking corporate citizenship or gang membership, you're a bounty hunter who's been hired to clean up the streets--and make a pretty penny while doing it
- Keep an eye and ear out to 80s movies references. They're everywhere
- There's a lot of words you could use to describe the vibe of this game, but the most appropriate is "rad"

Playability & Replayability
- Looking back at my SNES days as a kid, I don't recall playing many 16 bit platform shooters outside of Mega Man, but Huntdown doesn't feel much like those games. Contra III and Judge Dredd are more similar. Metal Slug a little less so
- That is to say, you're going to be jumping through, between, and on top of a lot of crumbling buildings while swapping weapons to dodge and precipitate opposing hails of gunfire
- The platforming feels pretty tight, but there's nothing too difficult in that respect. Just keep an eye out for secret areas and destructible parts of the environment if you want to find powerful weapons and collectibles
- All the difficulty in Huntdown comes from the combat, and it is notably difficult in the same vein as the Contra games it draws influence from. Fortunately, your movement options include the ability to slide (handy for dodging bullets coming from offscreen as you charge ahead) and duck into cover (either in doorways or behind boxes). You'll need to keep tabs on your available cover options if you want to avoid damage
- Weapon variety was way better than I expected. Each of the three selectable characters had a unique sidearm and projectile to start, but you'll have way more fun with the melange of melee weapons, assault rifles, machine guns, shotguns, rocket launchers, lasers, remote mines, etc. that litter each stage. If you find yourself still wanting variety here, you're too hard to please
- Each of the five levels in each of the city's four gang-controlled areas is capped off by a boss fight. These felt varied enough mechanically and visually that no two felt overly similar in spite of there being 20 of them in total
- I can see myself playing this again down the road, partially because I didn't even touch arcade mode and partially because I'm disappointed in myself for having to lower the difficulty to Easy in the third area (The Overseer stage). Huntdown doesn't mess around

Overall Impressions & Performance
- With robust challenges, eye-catching pixel art, and genuinely fun run-and-gun gameplay, this is an easy game to recommend to anyone who has a soft spot for titles like Contra or Metal Slug. I just wish the animation hadn't been so distractingly choppy. Seriously, compare a clip of Huntdown to Metal Slug 3; the difference is substantial
- It ran without bugs or other technical issues just fine on the Steam Deck

Final Verdict
- 8/10. Buying a game simply because it looks cool turns out to be a great idea sometimes, apparently. Maybe wait for a sale if you're not going to delve into the arcade mode as the story is only 5-7 hours long depending on difficulty

An underrated, 80s action inspired, side scroller, shoot 'em up.

-The visuals are beautiful. The heroes, the bosses, the enemies, all are beautifully designed; and have smooth animations. The backgrounds and the environments are very vibrant, and there is always something happening in the background (if you pay attention to it). Visually, my only problem is the in-game UI. The heroes icon and his life bar, etc, are so far at the corner of the monitor. It would be much better if it was a bit closer to the center.

-The story is a simple, corny, 80s action movie. You are a bounty hunter in a dystopian future and you have to help the cops and the government (obviously corrupt) to get rid of some gangs. And of course it has an unnecessarily negative ending. Nothing special to it; but I personally like these 80s action parodies, hopefully you're into it as well.

-The game is a side scrolling shoot 'em up, so the gameplay is the most important thing in it. You have your heroes main weapon and their melee weapon. But as you are playing you can pick up other stuff as your secondary gun or melee weapon. The gameplay is very good for the first half of the game, but it just gets progressively boring as you progress in the game.

-The level structure is very simple. You are to face 4 different gang, each stronger and armed with better weapons as the previous one. Each gang has a leader, and that leader has 4 right hands (this is the best way I can explain it, believe me). You will have to kill those 4, one by one and eventually finish the leader of that gang. For each of these bosses; there are some stages to clear first and then you reach the boss of that level. As I said the gangs and the bosses will get stronger and stronger; so don't be fooled by the first ones.


If you are into this genre, you should really give this game a shot. It might not be the best you will ever see; but it can give you a couple of hours of pure fun.

The title "Huntdown" is pretty boring and led me to believe that this was probably a low-budget, minimum effort game that would probably be an okay experience but worthwhile because of its co-op feature. I was very wrong! In reality it is a very fun and extremely challenging arcade style side scrolling shooter. The pixel art is highly detailed, the writing and art style are evocative of 80s tongue in cheek action flicks, and the design of the game mechanics are solid with responsive controls. With a wide variety of limited-ammo weapons to pick up in addition to your standard infinite ammo gun and cooldown-limited subweapon, there are lots a ways to approach the levels. Each of the three characters even has a different main weapon and subweapon to give the player a bit of a freedom to choose their playstyle.

Even on Normal mode, the game ramps up the difficulty very quickly and by the end of the game it's going to take a lot of trial and error. Luckily the game is fairly generous with checkpoints and each level isn't that long either, so there is no frustration around having to play big chunks of levels over and over again. Some of the boss fights were really interesting, and overall my wife and I really enjoyed the game. A short experience, but highly recommended.

Side scrolling shooter with a cyberpunk theme and visuals on par with the Metal Slug series. A corporation hires a bounty hunter (or two if you play co-op) to go after four gangs that have been increasing their territory lately. Each gang has five stages where you fight one of the gang's captains at the end of the level. Each character has a different main weapon and throwing weapon and can pick up a variety of secondary main or throwing weapons and dash which gives you a brief dodge window, take cover behind crates/cars or background objects, and kick nearby enemies. It controls well, fun gameplay, some great animation and backgrounds. Some good moments where bosses interact with you before their fight either in amusing ways or by attacking you with helicopters or robots through windows and walls that have you seeking cover in the stage while fighting through regular enemies. Each gang introduces some different enemies and weapons so there is always something new as you are playing through the stages.

Never really that funny with its mostly reference filled humor and with no real unlockables or extra characters or weapons to start with, doesn't give you as much replayability as some similar games that have released recently and this gives you no reason to try to complete the stage challenges which are always to kill a certain number of enemies, not die, and to find three hidden briefcases (which don't seem to do anything). Each character will have different dialogue before you start each gangs missions, and their own dialogue in stages and quips.

Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1264477991901356033

This is the best run n' gun that I've played in years, with detailed artwork, variety and number of boss fights, a pulsing, synth-driven soundtrack, and a large and enjoyable arsenal. The VA is good, but lines can get a little repetitive with the length of some of the more challenging fights. There could be more to the level design, too. It might overly nostalgic in some ways, but I love the incorporation of everything from The Warriors to The Last Dragon. All it was missing, really, is a "kiss my converse" line.

This game is incredible!
Gameplay is perfection in run'n'gun form. Each character plays differently from one another, the weapons are very different from one another, the stages and enemy varieties are amazing, the bosses are superb!
The voice acting is PERFECTION! So cheesy and fun, immersing you in the Hunt down!

Absolute masterpiece! Highly recommended to everyone that enjoys platforming and run'n'gun!

Oh, arcade mode is incredible as well!

The first game of a small Swedish dev and what an incredible gem of a game this is. The presentation is just unbelievably good with beautiful aesthetics, there's a fantastic sense of detail and tight controls. Most importantly it's truly fun to play. A fantastic synthwave soundtrack and energetic voice acting are the icing on the cake. I played the whole game as Anna Conda, but I will absolutely return to this game with the other characters and try the unlocked hardest difficulty. Hope they release some added content in the future! It took me about 6 hours to reach the credits.