If like me, you have fond memories of spending all your pocket money in a dingy seaside arcade trying to get to the end of Metal Slug and Contra – you should check out Mechstermination Force.
The latest shooter from Hörberg Productions, the minds behind the brilliant Gunman Clive series, Mechstermination Force sees players take on a series of boss fights against abso-fucking-lutely huge robots. Each more bastardly than the last.
Once you know what you are doing they can be taken out in a couple of minutes, once you know their weaknesses, but until that glorious moment, the mechanical monstrosities will knock you square on your arse again and again.
Each of the dozen or so bots is meticulously designed from brightly coloured hunter killers to giant mechanical millipedes and plenty more besides, in motion it’s like watching a Saturday morning cartoon from the 80s come to life, although to be fair the animation in Mechstermination Force is a lot better.
Every thrilling multi-stage fight require a different approach, and no two fights are the same, but every last one is a treat, combining elements of platforming, shooting and pure run and gun. Each may be a boss, but they feel more like unfolding levels at times.
Sure they’re tricky, but the game gives you the tools needed to win, and every defeat helps get you one step closer to victory, whether that’s finding a new weakness or scraping together a little extra cash for your next health upgrade or interesting new weapon from the store, repleat with all manner of flamethrowers, rocket launchers and machine guns to best fit your playstyle.
If you get really stuck you can also return earlier bosses to grind for more coins, though this can get a little wearisome after a while.
Like Cuphead and Contra before it, the game is a lot easier with a friend.
So if you can find someone to toss that second Joy Con to I would.
It’s hard not to overestimate the sense of scale present in the game at times, with your plucky Rambo clone a mere ant compared to the rampaging automata.
though this looks awesome, sometimes it does make figuring out where you are to fight the buggers a little tricky at times.
This, however, is a minor quibble about what is, in every other respect a fantastic and challenging slice of 2D run and gun action which fans of Contra, Cuphead and Gunstar Heroes will love. (That covers about 90 per cent of the gaming world, right?)