This is a sharp game. It transfers the mechanics and satisfying full-screen dynamics of the original but lends them an atmospheric early 90's anime aesthetic and really ramps up the mayhem. Leaping shrapnel, bouncing shell casings, barrels that roll and even board elevators before exploding. It fills the screen with movement, and it feels joyous because the animation is great and the levels don't drag on.

And the movement, like the original, is of a kind of reptilian, start-and-stop rhythm. It breeds an impatience in the player, especially when you miss a cycle on an elevator, and enemies continue to pour out of doorways, and alarms sound to get you into the next red door. You leap over shafts---take risks you shouldn't. It's an action game in conversation with both deliberate and hectic pacing, and it does this very naturally.

It isn't perfect though. For a game that exhibits a confident control of screen space, its few boss encounters are shockingly simplistic (here's a bunch of enemies spawning on a flat surface). As good as the game is, and it is very good, there's a nagging sense that its encounters could be pushed further, maybe through more rigorous or challenging enemy designs. Nonetheless, its a game of distinct pleasures, and maybe that abrupt ending is trying to tell me something: just enjoy it while it lasts.

Reviewed on May 12, 2023


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