Neon Inferno

Background Violence.

Over the past few years, the retro Beat’em Up, or in some cases, Shoot’em Up, has really taken off. From TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge, Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragon, to Might Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind, all have delivered the goods, resulting in amazing throwbacks to some classic games. Zenovia Interactive and Retroware; however, have entered the chat with Neon Inferno, a throwback to the likes of Wild Guns, Contra, and Metal Slug, resulting in a truly engaging and visually pleasing Shoot’em Up that is downright impressive. 

First off, it’s hard to talk about Neon Inferno without talking about its visuals. Sure, there is more under the hood of this experience, but its visuals are something that I want to address first. This game has designs by some of the industry’s best and recognizable names. From industry veteran and artist Tsukasa Jun, to Koji Ogata, famed for Double Dragon and Guilty Gear, alongside others such as Tim Jonsson, Andre Bertanha, and Erik Quiroz, who have worked on Katana Zero, Wanderlost, and Steel Assault, respectively, you really see the talent shine through here in the game’s amazing backgrounds and sprite work. 

Every background and character, especially the two leads, are wonderfully animated and sell off this futuristic cyberpunk world. There is even a stage where you are fighting in a club, with dozens of dancing patrons who get caught up in the warfare. From hanging on to the railing of an airship, tearing through the streets on a bike, to carving waves on the back of a jetski, or just racing across rooftops, Neon Inferno is a visual masterpiece in the genre and is gorgeous, regardless of the platform you play it on.

Neon Inferno allows you to choose between Angelo Morano and Mariana Vitti. Angelo is more rooted in the Family he works for, a mob-like force that is at war with different factions. If anything, this story feels more suited as Angelo as the lead, as Mariana joins the “Family” after falling in love with Angelo, in which the two met when Mariana stole a precious gun that belonged to Angelo. While she was the more visually pleasing character of the two, her allegiance to the “Family” is situational at best. 

The game takes place in a futuristic New York City, taking place in 2055. Each mission moves ahead a few months as you take on a small assortment of assassination contracts as either of the two leads, or both if you play the game in co-op. The city itself is caught in a war between various factions, each of which are your main targets. You have the Yakuza and NYPD at war with one another, as well as another faction, the Pangaea, that is built upon by cybernetic implants and is more of a technological threat than just raw power. 

You get to pick where you go out of the first three missions. Two are assassination targets, and one is helping a fellow member of the “Family”. After which, you’ll have a few missions that wrap up the rest of the story, with a predictable finale that I wish were better bread-crumbed to make us think the story would go somewhere else than it does. Still, it’s a great story that sets up a compelling sequel, should the team invest in one.

Neon Inferno plays to its inspirations rather well, culminating in a wildly addictive series of shootouts. You have your foreground elements to worry about, but, in Wild Gun’s fashion, you have background threats to shoot as well. This is done by pressing a button and moving your analog stick around to shoot enemies in the background, while also shooting and dodging elements in the foreground. The game does a wonderful job at making both lanes active and full of baddies. And, you can also deflect green bullets to either lane, making your arsenal grow when you often just have the same pistol throughout the entire game. 

The deflecting is also enhanced by holding down the button and using your adrenaline gauge to slow down time, redirecting the bullets wherever you want, including the background or foreground, all depending on where the bullets originate from. While this mechanic is used heavily throughout the game, one important encounter doesn’t feature this mechanic at all, not even once. Still, the use of it is greatly appreciated as it breaks up the regular shooting to give you something else to focus on. 

Each mission will have a rating, and that rating then dishes out money based on your performance. It is very hard to get enough money to have a new gun for each mission, with some costing a fortune to acquire. Given the game is about an hour or so long, you really have to replay a lot or really give it your all to get a rating that gives you enough cash to buy other weapons. I really could only afford the laser-seeking gun maybe twice throughout the story, often having me strictly use the starting pistol, which is fine, and has infinite rounds, but the laser-seeking pistol was a riot, and its ammo ran out far too quickly. 

What is unique about Neon Inferno is that there are no ammo drops or health pickups, meaning you are stuck with what you have. There is an Arcade mode that wants you to tackle it all in one life, but a generous checkpoint system in the story mode is fine enough to die and try again. It is rather bizarre that defeating some mid-bosses or checkpoint battles doesn’t provide some of these pickups, and that can often be frustrating when you get to the final boss of the chapter and have one HP left, resulting in dying and restarting the encounter. That said, the boss encounters are well-designed, with often more than one phase, all put together with clever mechanics and foreground and background elements to shoot. 

Neon Inferno ran flawlessly on the Switch, albeit being played on a Switch 2. Despite how hectic some of the encounters can be, especially the club featured above, which had dozens of sprites on the screen, the game looked and ran great. Character designs, the backgrounds, and the general look of the game are top-tier, with some fantastic use of color and wonderfully drawn sprite artwork for the game’s story cutscenes. 

Neon Inferno, despite its throwaway title, is a throwback to some of the best games of all time. It simply feels great to control, and while two-player can get a bit hectic, given the size of the sprites, it still is a fantastic hour and change to experience, even if the rating economy can hold back some of the additional weaponry you can bring into combat. Regardless, when it comes to the Shoot’em Up genre, Neon Inferno is a solid addition and was simply a blast to play. 

Developer - Zenovia Interactive.
Publisher - Retroware. Released - November 20th, 2025. Available On - Xbox Series X/S, PS5, Nintendo Switch, PC. Rated - (T) - Blood, Drug Reference, Use of Tobacco, Violence. Platform Reviewed - Nintendo Switch. (Played on a Nintendo Switch 2)
Review Access - Review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.