Berzerk Studio earned itself a pretty good reputation among some Switch eShop aficionados with Just Shapes & Beats, a rather cool title with great music and gameplay reminiscent of Super Hexagon. The development team is back soon with another intriguing slice of retro-inspired goodness in the form of Infernax, which is due out Q1 2022.
Published by The Arcade Crew - the indie publishing label of Dotemu - this one draws inspiration from the 8-bit era, with the original Castlevania trilogy springing to mind, but it's not just a straight homage. It's blending in mechanics and ideas from far more modern times, all combined with some rather tasty visuals. You can check out the trailer directly on YouTube (it's age-gated so can't be embedded).
Below is some of the PR blurb.
Alcedor gains experience and gold vital for obtaining powerups as he slaughters foes, leveling up stats and earning new skills and weapons to help paint the screen red with blocky splatters of blood. Morality-testing decisions made during his quest prompt consequences later in the adventure and influence which of the game’s multiple endings players witness. Infernax’s open world-style design is packed with secrets awaiting discovery by its most kickass players, offering a satisfying reward for those skilled enough to endure a brutal challenge.
It's definitely on our radar for next year, let us know what you think in the comments.
Comments 27
Great dev, JS&B is excellent, top to bottom. Intrigued about this upcoming title from them.
Hm. Well, okay. I'll keep an eye on it.
The trailer has A LOT of white flashing screens, FYI. Now I need my ninja sunglasses...
I love anything of this style, and the arcade crew put out good material, however the sprite work is pretty underwhelming and characters look very small. I'm keen to see it in operation.
This sounds pretty cool.
From what I can infer, this game is indeed quite, nax.
In all seriousness, while there is no shortage of 8-bit style games on Switch, this one has me intrigued.
I feel like it reminds me of Faxanadu more than original Castlevania but I’ve also never really clicked with the old style Castlevania games (pre Symphony of the Night)
If it's half as good as the Curse of the Moon games, that's good enough for me.
Oh, I love Detemu
Sorry for tormenting you poor guys
@Grahamthecracker Same, immediately thought of Faxanadu.
@BloodNinja so it's not ninja approved for this very reason?
@Cicero I only recently found out that series was older than the NES and that the fa part of Faxanadu stood for Famicom
Oh look, another 2D pixelated game to run on your modern gaming hardware. How exciting.
@Crono1973 You're absolutely right! It IS exciting that all styles of games are available to play on my modern gaming hardware.
Very nice! I’ll try to keep this one in mind.
from flash games to successful indie dev. gotta hand it to berserk
Will pick it up if it's under $10. I don't like paying more than that for an 8-Bit inspired title.
The question remains how many of these 500 games will actually be good though. Quality over quantity, after all.
@SuperCharlie78 Not the trailer, no. The game looks decent enough, though it does look like something else we have probably all played.
I watched the trailer and the game seems over the top and kind of like a student project. The main focus of the game appears to be on blood splatter, gore, and overall disgusting stuff. Yo dude, look at all the blood!
Castlevania is above that. The Castlevania and Bloodstained games don't need to show you blood splattering all over the place - they scare you the hard way, i.e. with atmosphere, sound design, level design and music. Let's not compare this game to the legends until it proves that it deserves it. I doubt it does.
@YANDMAN This 8bit sprite work NOT 16bit sprite work. Only so much you can do within the confines.
@BloodNinja I appreciate the heads up!
Wow that looks pretty awesome!
@ERIC_MACK You bet. I learned the hard way unfortunately. Photosensitivity sucks sometimes!
Oooohh. A game based on the classic Castlevania games? Great! Every indie that comes is always inspired by SOTN. I'll keep my eye on this
@YANDMAN I know it’s common for the title screen art to be way more detailed than the actual game, but I wish the sprites had more colors and detail.
@shanatenay yeah, they are very basic, and not very well defined.
@thinkhector I'm aware of that, and as a sprite artist I can tell you that this can be much better.
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