‘Blade Assault’ is a 2D rouge-like platformer that is beautifully designed with some stunning pixel-style art in a sci-fi, cyberpunk-looking world. The game was developed by TeamSunEat and published by the team over at NEOWIZ. The game was originally released on Steam back in January 2022 and has finally made its way over to the consoles and it’s not one that is going to disappoint.

It is based after the events of the ‘Red Stone War’ where the world has been divided into three factions; The mutant infested outside grounds, the undercity where people fled to avoid confrontation with the mutants, and then you have the skycity, Esperanza, where like all good stories the rich and famous live here looking down and ruling the rest of the world. You are fighting against the corrupt military from Esperanza as you are engaged with a resistance group.

The controls were basic enough to get used to with a tutorial that throws you in straight away. You have one area where it has prompts so you know what you are doing anywhere from jumping from platform to platform to dropping down below you with an attack on the enemy.

The control scheme is basic to pick up on being able to use the Left Analog Stick or utilize the D-Pad for that more arcade feeling. The attack buttons utilize the left and right triggers and both the right and left buttons to use your primary and secondary weapons.

The audio relied on nostalgia and was playing games with my head as the first weapon you get sounds a lot like a lightsaber straight from ‘Star Wars’. I loved this weapon until it was upgraded then you lose that iconic sound and go to a more basic zapping and cracking sound. Each mission had awesome sci-fi-themed background music that was not over the top but enough to make you want to kick some ass.

The audio cues your weapons made while slaying the enemies were something that made you want to kill more enemies over and over again. I would have loved to see some voice acting to run with the dialogue in this title though as it would have added that extra level of immersion to my experience.

I loved the retro sci-fi pixel theme that was built into the graphics. Everything looked so bright and vibrant whilst still keeping that retro pixel feel to the game. The animations the characters would perform whilst moving or standing there were so well done it felt like I was playing something back on the arcade machines but from the comfort of my own home.

The number of different character styles and level designs kept me very intrigued. I love when games look simple but play so well and the developers nailed this with this title.

This game is great for anyone that loves a retro-feeling side-scroller game with a modern sci-fi theme based on it. There is plenty of fun to be had with this game and I’m interested to see what the developers can bring in the future with updates.

Written by: Hayden Nelson