Game #1314: Huntdown

 It's open season again, the game this time are punks.

 I won't lie, I didn't much care about Huntdown, it seemed like a less interesting Blazing Chrome, but boy was I wrong. This is a side-scrolling 2-D action shooter in which you play as any of three punks as you set out to hunt down targets in a very 80's themed cyber-punk world. And it's glorious.

 The aesthetics is easily one of the highpoints of the game, the pixel-work in this game is fantastic, it's not very detailed, but the streets and cityscapes you feel dark and dank, and it captures the 80's aesthetics perfectly. The character designs are top-notch too, you are out to hunt punks from four different 'tribes', and they look ripped straight out of Mad Max or Hokuto no Ken. As for the art itself, it felt very nostalgic, as if it was an older pixel-based PC game. Add to this a very fitting soundtrack, and the game is completely voice acted too!

 The game can be played in two different ways: Arcade and Story. Arcade is a much tougher take on the game, more linear and with no cutscenes. I gave Arcade a try first and I got wrecked, so I played Story Mode on Easy. And even on easy it had its challenging moments. Afterwards, I gave Normal a try... and it was definitely easier than Arcade mode, for instance, Arcade Mode only grants you three hit points, as opposed to Easy and Normal's five. My advice? Try the Story on Normal and attempt Arcade mode later.

 The game lets you play as three different characters that can run, jump, slide and take cover. Each character has armed with their own basic gun and alternate weapon. Mow Man has a very weak, but rapid firing gun, Anna Conda has a gun that fires in three-bullet bursts and Jack gets the slowest gun... but the strongest. Their alternate weapon runs on cooldown, and they each get their own unique twist on it. Anna gets a tomahawk that travels in an arc, John gets a boomerang that can hit twice while Mowman gets some incredibly strong Kunai. Needless to say, there's some definite replay value thanks to how different each character is. That said, everyone can pick up every weapon they come across, such as shotguns, uzis and what not, and those behave the same for everyone.

 There are about 20 different stages, and they are very brief and end on a boss. Boss are amazing, for the most part, all of them feel very unique, some have different phases, some have an armor you have to get through first, some have a single health bar, etc. No two bosses are alike, and I think there was a single boss fight I didn't enjoy. The stages blur a bit together a bit more, but the world of Huntdown is quite pretty, so I didn't mind it too much. All in all, it should last about 3-4 hours, less if you are good at these games.

 Huntdown was a surprising treat I honestly wasn't expecting. It's a load of fun, both in how satisfying the run and gun gameplay is as well as how well it managed to capture the 80's cyberpunk aesthetics.

 8.0