First sighted at Magfest, currently in public alpha and available to try now, RetroBlazer is a game that presses all the right buttons for me. Early 2.5d FPS gameplay (Wolfenstein, Rise of The Triad, etc) with an aesthetic very heavily inspired by the MegaMan X series, and running on the Darkplaces engine, a very powerful modern variant of the software behind Quake. It looks like a high-tech version of Locomalito’s 8-Bit Killer if it were made by Capcom, and I must have the full game ASAP. Gameplay footage and some impressions after the break.

Robot animals with guns? Check. High-energy pseudo-chiptune soundtrack? Check. Chunky weapons that fire glowing energy blobs that cause enemies to flash until they explode into a pile of kid-friendly robot debris? Check. This is how a family-friendly shooter should be. It also moves at a solid 60fps on most systems, the sprite-work is excellent and while there’s no looking up or down (the similarities to 8-bit Killer are quite significant), it updates things to use the Y-axis a bit more in terms of looks.

Most of the sound-effects seem to be lifted directly from recent MegaMan games, which goes a long way to completing the atmosphere, but also ensures that the game is unlikely to be anything other than a freeware project, although it looks like that was the plan from the start. I hope to get in touch with the creators and find out where this project is going very soon, but until then, there is an exceptionally polished alpha demo ready to play and enjoy now. Hop to it.

Update: I got in contact with the developer, and there’s apparently plans to make this into a commercial project – the only real barrier between the game and retail viability is the audio at the moment, and it shouldn’t be too hard to synthesize some almost-Megaman-but-not-quite sounds to complete the picture. I wish him the best of luck, and can’t wait to play the final product.

[RetroBlazer]